NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Rufous-winged Buzzard
Butastur liventer (Temminck, 1827)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The rufous-winged buzzard (Butastur liventer) is an Asian bird of prey. It is a resident breeder of Indochina, Java and Sulawesi. It is a species of deciduous forest and second growth up to 800 m.
The adult rufous-winged buzzard is 38–43 cm long. It has a grey head and underparts, with some streaking on the crown, neck and breast. The rest of the upperparts are rufous grey, and the uppertail is bright rufous. In flight, from above it shows rufous-chestnut flight feathers and the rufous uppertail, and from below it has a grey body, white underwing coverts, and greyish flight feathers and undertail. It is monomorphic. The juvenile is duller and browner, with a brown-grey head and white supercilium.
This species is similar in size and shape to the migratory grey-faced buzzard, but that species has browner upperparts and tail, a white throat, and brown-barred white belly.
The rufous-winged buzzard eats lizards, small mammals and large insects. Its call is a shrill pit-piu.
Wikipedia contributors, Rufous-winged buzzard; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:50:19.180958+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Butastur liventer (Temminck, 1827)
- Name authority
- (Temminck, 1827)
- Common name
- Rufous-winged Buzzard
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Genus
- Butastur
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderAccipitriformes
- familyAccipitridae Vigors, 1824
- genusButastur Hodgson, 1843
- speciesButastur liventer (Temminck, 1827)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Butastur. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Grasshopper BuzzardButastur rufipennis (Sundevall, 1850) | AccipitridaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Falco liventer Temminck, 1827 Temminck, 1827 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=175530 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:NYTH. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.