The Atlas Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus cirtensis is little known in terms of its identification and distribution. Not only is it similar is size and structure to the Common Buzzard but there are suggestions that the two forms hybridise. With photos of the quality of the first three here an identification is not safe but I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that this adult bird that I photographed a couple of weeks ago at El Rocio in the Coto Donana is an Atlas Long-legged Buzzard. This ID is tentative but based on the apparent leg length in the perched shots, the tail pattern in the flight shot below and some of the plumage features of the underwing...
Since writing this post earlier today I have become aware that there is considered to be a possible Long-legged x Steppe (?) Buzzard hybrid swarm of buzzards known as the Gibraltar Buzzard that has recently been identified in southern Spain. Presumably this bird is one of these...
Whether this nearby juvenile has any Atlas Long-legged Buzzard genes in it I'm even less sure about...
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