13. Augur Buzzard This is one of a number of buzzards distinguished by a rufous (reddish- brown) tail. With its black back and forehead, and its white breast and underwings, it is a good-looking middle-seized raptor. They are fairly common residents in open country and rocky outcrops, but they can also be seen, evidently, in suburban gardens – especially if the owners are kind enough to keep chickens! (Which, I am glad to say, they are at Africama.) The one I saw here was in a tree overlooking the chicken run: it perched alone and silently contemplating, like stout Cortez on a peak in Darien, the witless fowls. There is a dark morph which can have confusing amounts of black on the breast: the one I saw was mostly black but had irregular white patches on the breast: an immature bird, I think. This is one it is nice to see from below: their broad and pure white underwings are edged with black, and the red tail fans out prettily over their tucked-in yellow feet. Many birds also have a black parenthesis mark or bracket towards the end of each wing, making them seem a bit like a quotation from the bible (Isaiah 40:31, perhaps). Birds of AFRICAMA House 30 Birds of AFRICAMA House 31