Bazas, Honey-buzzards and Kites

This is the group left over when the eagles, harriers, buzzards and true kites are given pages of their own — six birds that sit at odd corners of the raptor family tree. An Osprey that is its own family. Two bazas with absurd crests. Two honey-buzzards that eat wasp grubs and have dense scaled feathering on the face to survive doing it. And the Black-winged Kite, which is not really a kite at all.

The Black-winged Kite is the one you will meet. It hunts by hanging in the air over open ground, wings beating, tail spread, holding one spot for many seconds at a time — the most photographable behaviour of any Indian raptor, because the bird stays put and the background does not. Everything else in this group is scarcer and harder.

Honey-buzzards are a different problem entirely. They are famously variable, they mimic other raptors in plumage, and a perched bird at distance offers little more than a small head on a long neck. It is the one Indian raptor where the safest identification is often no identification at all.