This is the third bird in my memory that has a duplicated name, as in, the same name for the genus and species. The other ones I can remember are troglodytes troglodytes (wren) and the one I just posted, milvus milvus (red kite). Now I've started wondering what other ones there are. In any case, the buzzard is a really cool bird. I actually don't know if I ever thought it was still alive, as in, I thought it was maybe an extinct bird and didn't realise that it's not even an endangered one! Now that I know they exist, I really enjoy seeing them. They're beautiful birds that resemble eagles, and are indeed classified in the same group as eagles along with kites, in terms of related bird families. Like the red kite, I wasn't able to get the best photo of this one in flight. It's a real fluke when I can get a good one, but the photos are good enough that you can at least get an idea of what they look like.
I spotted this one soaring over Thaxted with a bunch of buzzard buddies. Now say that 10 times fast! In the photos below, they are 2 different birds, as you can see. I actually thought maybe the one on the right was (or perhaps for those of you on phones, the bottom one) a different bird because the markings look a bit different, almost like the bird has circles at the front of its wings, but a bird community here in the UK that I'm connected to on Facebook confirmed that it's a buzzard, too. I'm also not sure why it's missing tail feathers, but it could just be moulting. It didn't seem to affect the bird's ability to fly or soar or anything, so that was interesting to me.
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