Eastern Buzzard

Eastern Buzzard (Buteo japonicus) is a medium-to-large East Asian raptor with broad wings, a rounded tail and highly variable brown plumage. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It occupies woodland edges and open country, soaring or watching from perches for small mammals, birds and reptiles; some northern birds winter farther south in Asia. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).