'' Pernis '' is a genus of birds in the raptor subfamily Perninae. Its members are commonly known as honey buzzards. The genus name is derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''pernes'' περνης, a term used by

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

for a bird of prey. They breed in temperate and warmer climates of the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

, and are specialist feeders on

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

and bee larvae. The two temperate species, the European and crested honey buzzards, are migratory. They breed in woodland, and are often inconspicuous except when displaying. The members of this genus have plumage which mimics that of juvenile common buzzards or of '' Nisaetus'' hawk-eagles. It has been suggested that the similarity has arisen as a partial protection against predation by larger raptors such as goshawks, which may be wary about attacking what appears to be a better-protected species with stronger bill and talons than the honey buzzards actually possess.

Species

It consists of four medium-sized, broad-winged

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. Comparing sequences from a short subsection of the mitochondrial ''cytb'' gene, Gamulf and Haring found five

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

s: ''apivorus'', ''steerei–winkleri'', ''celebensis'', ''philippensis–orientalis–ruficollis'', and ''torquatus–ptilorhynchus–palawanensis''. They proposed splitting the ''steerei–winkleri'' group from ''P. celebensis'' into a new species ''Pernis steerei'', but felt that splitting ''Pernis ptilorhynchus'' would be "premature" given the lack of morphological differences.PDF
/ref> Despite the name "crested honey buzzard", the subspecies ''P. p. orientalis'', ''P. p. philippensis'', and ''P. p. palawanensis'' all lack crests.

References

*''British Birds'', volume 99, March 2006 *Ferguson-Lees, Christie, Franklin, Mead and Burton Raptors of the World *Gensbøl, Benny (1989). ''Collins guide to the Birds of Prey of Britain and Europe North Africa and the Middle East'', William Collins Sons and Co Ltd.

Notes

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6377551 Bird genera Birds of prey of Eurasia Taxa named by Georges Cuvier