Steppe Buzzard

Notes:

Movements and migrations Palearctic breeding migrant, leaving its breeding grounds in September and early October then heading south to southern Africa, arriving in the period from late October-November. It eventually departs from the region in late February and March. Food Its diet in southern Africa is not well-known, but it is thought to consist mainly of insects and small mammals. It does most of its foraging from a prominent perch, such as a tree or telephone pole, dropping onto the ground once it spots prey. The following food items have been recorded in its diet in southern Africa: Vertebrates mammals Rhabdomys pumilio (Four-striped grass mouse) other small mammals reptiles Agama hispida (Spiny agama) Nucras intertexta (Spotted sandveld lizard) Trachylepis (skinks) birds Anthus cinnamomeus (African pipit, Grassveld pipit) weavers (Ploceidae) Coturnix coturnix (Common quail) Coturnix delegorguei (Harlequin quail) chicks Streptopelia capicola (Cape Turtle Dove) Hirundo spilodera (South African cliff-swallow) Quelea quelea (Red-billed quelea) Invertebrates Coleoptera (beetles) grasshoppers (Orthoptera) termites caterpillars (larval stage of Lepidoptera)