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Oriental Honey-buzzard Documented in North America for the First Time

Oriental honey-buzzard perched on a branch in Kaziranga National Park
Conservation · Population & status

An adult female Oriental honey-buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) seen on Shemya Island in Alaska, USA’s western Aleutians has been documented as the first record of the species in North America. The observation was made on 27 May 2024 and formally published in Western Birds on 2 February 2026.

The bird was first flushed from a boulder-strewn grassland near Eareckson Air Station. It gained height and moved west along the island before landing on a coastal bluff 1.3 kilometres away. About three and a half hours later, the observers relocated it several kilometres from the first sighting and saw it again before it disappeared.

Plumage and wing structure separated it from European honey-buzzard

The researchers identified the bird from a combination of structural and plumage characters. It showed six prominent outer primary feathers, a cinnamon-coloured underside, evenly barred flight feathers and no dark carpal patches. These features distinguish Oriental honey-buzzard from the similar European honey-buzzard (Pernis apivorus), which has five prominent outer primaries and typically shows dark carpal markings.

The grey cere, yellow eye and wing pattern indicated that the Shemya bird was an adult female.

Winds may have carried the bird towards the Aleutians

Of the six recognized subspecies of Oriental honey-buzzard, P. p. orientalis is the only migratory one. It breeds from Siberia through north-eastern Asia to Japan and normally winters in southern and south-eastern Asia. The authors argue that frequent westerly and south-westerly winds in May 2024 probably displaced the Shemya bird north and east during its northbound migration towards breeding areas in Japan.

Although raptors often avoid long sea crossings, Oriental honey-buzzards are capable of substantial overwater flights and regularly cross roughly 650 kilometres of the East China Sea during autumn migration. Shemya is also a well-known stopping point for Asian migrants displaced into the western Aleutians.

Sources and image credit

  1. Pohlen, Z. M., Johnson, J. A., Benter, R. B., & Helm, J. (2026). First North American record of the Oriental Honey-buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus). Western Birds, 57(1), 64–67. https://doi.org/10.21199/WB57.1.7Primary peer-reviewed paper published 2 February 2026. It documents an adult female Oriental honey-buzzard observed on Shemya Island, Alaska, on 27 May 2024 as the first North American record and discusses diagnostic plumage, wing structure and likely drift migration.

Image: Tisha Mukherjee / Wikimedia Commons — Oriental honey-buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) in Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India, photographed 19 March 2025. Illustrative photograph, not the Shemya bird. · CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Source

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