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Garden Route Project Asks Public to Report Colour-ringed Buzzards

Forest buzzard perched at Hangklip Forest, Limpopo, South Africa
Conservation · Management

A new public reporting campaign is asking people in South Africa’s Garden Route to look for colour rings on forest buzzards (Buteo trizonatus), jackal buzzards (Buteo rufofuscus) and common buzzards (Buteo buteo). The Garden Route Buzzard Project launched a new information poster on 15 July 2026 and said it would be distributed across the region.

Ringed birds carry a white colour ring with black lettering on one leg. The project asks observers to report sightings and any lettering they can read, allowing later observations to be linked to individual birds already marked by the project.

According to the project announcement, each sighting can add scientific information about the birds’ movements, survival, habitat use and population health.

The announcement does not present a new population estimate or trend. Its new 2026 element is the public reporting campaign within the long-term monitoring project.

Sources and image credit

  1. Mark Brown / Garden Route Buzzard Project (2026) — New information poster for colour-ringed buzzardsPrimary project announcement published 15 July 2026. The Garden Route Buzzard Project launched a new information poster for distribution across the Garden Route and asked the public to report jackal, forest and common buzzards carrying a white colour ring with black lettering on one leg. The announcement states that sightings provide scientific information about movements, survival, habitat use and population health and contribute to the project’s long-term conservation work. It presents a reporting campaign, not new population estimates or trend results.

Image: Derek Keats / Wikimedia Commons / Flickr — forest buzzard (Buteo trizonatus) at Hangklip Forest, Makhado, Limpopo Province, South Africa, 9 August 2015. Representative species image; not a colour-ringed bird from the Garden Route Buzzard Project. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Forest Buzzard Buteo trizonatus Explore species Jackal Buzzard Buteo rufofuscus Explore species Common Buzzard Buteo buteo Explore species

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