Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this web-site were taken by Paul Smith, Hemme Batjes, Regis Nossent,
Alberto Esquivel, Arne Lesterhuis, José Luis Cartes, Rebecca Zarza and Hugo del Castillo and are used with their permission.
LONG-WINGED HARRIER Circus buffoni
The one thing that will strike you when you see this graceful raptor in flight is, you guessed it, the long wings! Typical of harriers it courses low in a tilting flight over its open grassy habitat, pitching down onto prey items as it encounters them. Two colour phases occur, the commoner pale morph (Fig 1-2) and the less often encountered dark phase which has wholly blackish underparts.
FIGURE 1 - Adult male pale phase ventral view, location unknown (Arne Lesterhuis undated).
FIGURE 2 - Adult female (?) pale phase ventral view, location unknown (Rebecca Zarza undated).
FIGURE 3 - Adult female in flight, location unknown (Frank Fragano undated).
FIGURE 4 - Adult male dark phase in flight, PROCOSARA, PN San Rafael (David Gill March 2008 - ECOSARA Biodiversity Database).
FIGURE 1

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2

FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3

FIGURE 3
FIGURE 4

FIGURE 4