Butastur indicus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The grey-faced buzzard (Butastur indicus) is an Asian bird of prey. It is typically 41–46 cm (16–18 in) in length, making it a small-sized raptor. It breeds in Manchuria, Korea and Japan; it winters in South-east Asia. It is a bird of open land. It eats lizards, small mammals and large insects.
The adult has a grey head, breast and neck, white throat, black moustaches and mesial stripes, brown back and upperwings, and brown bars on white underparts and underwings. The juvenile is brown and mottled above, pale below with brown streaks, and has a broad white supercilium and brown face.
The gray-faced buzzard was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the eagles, hawks and relatives in the genus Falco and coined the binomial name Falco indicus. Gmelin based his account on the "Javan hawk" that had been described in 1781 by John Latham from a specimen in the Leverian collection that had been obtained in February 1780 at Princes Island off the westernmost cape of Java during Captain Cook's last voyage. The gray-faced buzzard is now one of four species... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 2 | Khao Luang National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 3 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 4 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 5 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 6 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 7 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 8 | Taroko National Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR China |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-faced Buzzard sighting in Kaeng Krachan National Park on a given day, based on 130 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 218th most-seen of the 360 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-faced Buzzard in Kaeng Krachan National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April–September and November–February, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Gray-faced Buzzard sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Gray-faced Buzzard sightings, Kaeng Krachan National Park has the highest daily chance: under 5%. Next come Khao Luang National Park (Thailand, under 5%) and Cuc Phuong National Park (Vietnam, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gray-faced Buzzard is recorded against all the birds logged in Kaeng Krachan National Park (130 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
