Buteo rufinus

The Rufous-tailed Hawk is a medium-to-large raptor of the genus Buteo in the family Accipitridae, with a body length of 50-65 cm and a weight of 1,280 grams. The head and neck of an adult bird are brown, and the upper body is brown; the outer vanes of the second to fifth primary flight feathers have horizontal stripes; the lower body is brown-white; the tail is brown-brown, which is different from other types of buzzards. When flying, the wings are raised in a "V" shape, and the wingtips are black.

Like the buzzard, they like to hunt in open areas. They will squat on protrusions for a long time, and they will also spend a long time soaring in the sky. They often act alone. They often stand on rocks and mounds waiting to find prey on the ground. The breeding season is from April to July. They are not good at singing. They sing during the courtship period. The call is like "pece-oo", which is short and sharp.

The brown-tailed hawk mainly feeds on hares, rodents, frogs, lizards, snakes, pheasants and other birds and bird eggs, and sometimes eats dead fish and other animal carcasses. Interestingly, it can also walk around on the ground like a chicken, looking for beetles to fill its stomach. It usually stands in a place waiting and observing animal activities, or stares at the ground closely when flying, and immediately rushes down to catch prey when it finds it.

The brown-tailed hawks that breed in Xinjiang, China are large, with body length and wingspan close to those of the great buzzard, but are obviously slimmer than the great buzzard, with longer necks and legs, narrower wingspan, and a tail that accounts for a larger proportion of the body length than the great buzzard and the common buzzard.

It breeds in the Tianshan Mountains, Junggar Basin, and Turpan Basin in western Xinjiang, China, and is a resident bird. However, some populations can wander to southern Tibet and Yunnan in winter. It breeds abroad in southeastern Europe, Central Asia, western Mongolia, and northern and central Africa. It is found in Africa and northwestern India in winter.
The brown-tailed hawk is a desert raptor that prefers dry environments. It often inhabits deserts and semi-deserts, Gobi, and arid plains, and hibernates in open fields with few trees. Some individuals also choose to live in nearby forests with sufficient food and water. Observation records in the Balkans show that their criteria for choosing habitats are "cliffs for nesting and open areas for hunting." They often move independently or in pairs, standing on wires, rocks, and the ground, and sometimes hovering in the air against the wind.

Medium-sized raptor, both male and female, with 5 wing digits. Similar to other buzzards, there are two types: dark color, intermediate color and light color. The light-colored and intermediate-colored types are distinguished from other similar types by their brown-yellow unstriped tail feathers. The dark type is black all over, with white tail feathers and significant black end spots. Compared with the common buzzard and the giant buzzard, the body shape and wing shape are longer. In addition, the legs are slender and not hairy.