Black-breasted Buzzards - a pair and now a chick can be seen

It has been a couple of weeks since I first found the nest thanks to a tip from a friend. During that time I have learnt a lot more about the behaviour of the Buzzards during "nesting". I've watched amazed as particular birds fly past or sit near the nest without either of the adults giving even a side-ways glance, and then watch the teamwork in protecting their nesting "space" against birds they do consider a threat. The best example of this was late last week when a Wedge-tailed Eagle dared to come within 400 metres of the nest. At the time, the female was on the nest and the male was presumably hunting not far away. The male was the most vocal have heard him, and dive-bombed the Wedgie. The female was quickly off the nest to join in the attack. They succeeded in keeping the Wedgie well away from their nest. It was an interesting move by the female. The danger presented by the Wedgie out-weighed the potential danger to her chick from the nesting neighbours, the Brown Goshawks. I had only just become aware there was a chick in the nest that same day as I could hear its cries for food when the male returned to the nest. The three other threats that need to be seen off by only one of the adults while the nest stays attended are a pair of Little Eagles who seem to visit once a day, a pair of Whistling Kites who have a nest about 300 metres away from the Buzzard nest, and a pair of Black Kites, who's nest is only 150 metres south down the riverbed. The three listed seem to be in order of urgency, Little Eagles the biggest threat of the three, Black Kites the least threatening. Mainly it seems to be the female who heads these other three birds of prey out of her "range". She circles to a radius of about 300 metres from the nest for the Little Eagles, about 200m for the Whistling Kites and only 100 or so metres for the Black Kites.

Of the two, the female is by far the most vocal. The male sounds more like a falcons "peeping" whereas the female is more like a Galah's squawk.

The chick has only just started to poke its head above the nest rim. It is a grey white headed colour at the moment.

I have seen rodents, reptiles and birds all being brought back to the nest as food. The bird prey is interesting as I wouldn't have expected the Buzzards to be quick enough to capture them, but maybe they are raiding other nests. It would be great to try to track the adults to see how far they go to hunt, but that isn't possible.

The majority of the time the adult Buzzards are extremely tolerant of my presence. I have had one occasion where the female seemed to be glaring at me and squawking. I had been sitting well away from the nest and she landed in a nearby tree. I don't know if she knew I was there, or just got a shock when she saw me after she had landed. She had just returned from a hunt and stopped briefly at the nest before landing on her nearby perch. In any case, I returned to the car about 100 metres away. They have been such a delight to be around, the last thing I want to do is upset them.

I'll continue to watch, photograph, video and sound record them for as long as either I'm able to with work commitments, or they move off once the chick(s) have fledged.

Here are some more recent photos.

Black-breasted Buzzards

Female "squawk"

Female "pose"

Female leaving nest

Female wing stretch

Female take-off

 
Male leaving nest

Male returning to nest with prey

Pair on the nest

from left - Dad, Chick, Mum