Friday, February 03, 2012

Strange Tri- Hybrids

From reader Roberto Buonfante comes this "natural" domestic pair and their young, in Italy: a Buteo X Buteo (Redtail jamaicensis x Ferruginous regalis) mated to a Harris (Parabuteo--!-- unicinctus) and their first of several successful clutches.

Seems they might make great hare hawks! Roberto writes:

"... the Harris [and] the red/ ferr. were placed in the same aviary to moult because they were tolerant of each other. When the female started to carry material he obviously understood and gave them the chance. The day he candled the eggs he was in shock. We are talking about natural captive breeding of Buteo mix crossed with Parabuteo. I know the breeding was repeated 2 times in the same season, another oddity considering they were raising their young.

"He had a hard time to sell them and like always once gone everybody wanted them.
.. Do not remember if he had both sexes, I would assume yes considering there were several chicks.

"It seems that this specimens have taken all the best features from their relatives, tame as harris, aggressive and big footed like red tail, large size from ferruginous."



4 comments:

Retrieverman said...

Intergeneric hybrids are always interesting. Three-way hybrids that are intergeneric are even more so!

Clint said...

I've flown all three species, just not wrapped into one package.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Bodio:
So Can we say that Harris is a kind of buzzard like red-tailed?
e.g. "Harris buzzard"
This is so important for translation the name of Harris hawk, because in some languages bringing the exact equivalent for haw as a suffix is not so acceptable or even could be meaningless.
Thanks
Ali

Anonymous said...

All are Buzzards in European terminology, though Americans tend to reserve "Buzzard" for New World Vutures ("Turkey Buzzard"), and call most diurnal raptors "Hawks".