Aviceda jerdoni

Jerdon's baza (Aviceda jerdoni) is a moderate sized brown hawk with a thin white-tipped black crest usually held erect.^[2] It is found in South-east Asia. It inhabits foothills in the terai and is rarer in evergreen forests and tea estates.^[2]

The common name and Latin binomial commemorate the surgeon-naturalist Thomas C. Jerdon.^[3]

Description

It is about 46 cm long. It is confusable with crested goshawk or the changeable hawk-eagle in flight, but can be distinguished by the longer upright crest, very broad and rounded paddle-shaped wings^[2] and mostly plain and pale underparts. It has a white chin and a bold black mesial stripe.^[4]

Several subspecies are recognized within its large distribution range. These include:^[5]

• A. j. jerdoni (Blyth, 1842) - Sikkim to Assam, Burma, Sumatra
• A. j. ceylonensis (Legge, 1876) - South India and Sri Lanka
• A. j. borneensis (Sharpe, 1893) - Borneo
• A. j. magnirostris (Kaup, 1847) - Luzon, Mindanao
• A. j. leucopias (Sharpe, 1888) - Romblon, Samar, Palawan
• A. j. celebensis (Schlegel, 1873)

Distribution

It is a resident of the terai of North India and foothills of the Eastern Himalayas from Eastern Nepal and Bengal duars to the Assam valley, Western Ghats in Southern India, southern Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,^[6][1] Burma, Thailand,^[4] Sumatra,^[7] Singapore^[8] and Philippines^[9]

Habits

The bird is typically seen in pairs making aerial sallies; crest held erect. Occasionally, the birds may be seen in small family parties of 3 to 5 seen in flight near edge of forests.^[4] The birds indulge in 'soaring and undulating' display flights near the nest.^[2] Breeding season varies locally but the bird is known to breed almost the entire year with the exception of a few months around April and May.^[4] Food includes lizards, grasshoppers and other large insects. The stomach contents of a specimen collected in present-day Kurseong included agamid lizard, Japalura variegata, several longicorn beetles and mantises.^[10]

Gallery

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  A. j. celebensis

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  A. j. ceylonensis

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  A. j. leucopias

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References

BirdLife International (2020). "Aviceda jerdoni". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22694956A181759887. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22694956A181759887.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.

Rasmussen, PC & Anderton JC 2005. Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Vols. 1 and 2. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions, Washington, D.C. and Barcelona

Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 180–181.

Ali, S & Ripley, SD 1983. Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan.Compact edition. Oxford University Press. Delhi

Peters, James Lee (1931). Check-list of birds of the world. Volume 1. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 195–196.

Bird Checklist of Bangladesh from the Website of Bangladesh Biodiversity Research Group Link Archived 3 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine

Buij, R. 2003 Breeding behaviour of Jerdon’s Baza Aviceda jerdoni at Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia: the first nesting record for Sumatra. Forktail Vol. 19 Oriental Bird Club.

Chan, YM, Wang, LK & We, YC (2007) Jerdon's Baza Aviceda jerdoni in Singapore. BirdingASIA 8: 45-48

del Hoyo, J., Elliot, A. and Sargatal, J. (1994) Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 2: NewWorldVultures to Guineafowl. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.

D'abreu ?? Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 20:518