Honey Buzzard soaring: 'The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray are of advantage...'
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Sunday
January 29, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023
Honey Buzzard soaring: 'The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray are of advantage...'

Panorama

Enam Ul Haque
26 November, 2022, 04:05 pm
Last modified: 26 November, 2022, 04:09 pm

Related News

  • Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'
  • Siberian Rubythroat: ‘The morning bird; Beauty through my senses stole; I yielded’
  • Black-winged Stilts: 'I only want to caress them'
  • Blue-bearded Bee-eater: Hunting bees with 'stings big as drawing pins!'
  • Green Magpies: 'Their greed is brief; their joy is long'

Honey Buzzard soaring: 'The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray are of advantage...'

Honey Buzzard is the only migratory raptor we can still see circling leisurely up in the sky over the forests, tea-estates and villages of Bangladesh

Enam Ul Haque
26 November, 2022, 04:05 pm
Last modified: 26 November, 2022, 04:09 pm
Honey buzzard soaring. Photo: Enam Ul Haque
Honey buzzard soaring. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

We were thrilled to spot a Honey Buzzard soaring above the sweltering hills when an animated companion screamed with delight: "Raptor, raptor; check in the sky over that hill." That was how we spotted the first visiting bird of prey on our long trudge through tea-estates in Srimangal. Since morning we were scanning the sky to find a rare raptor such as an eagle, a baza, a buzzard or a harrier in vain.   

In the tea-estates we always explored the blue firmament of autumn to spot the migratory raptors joining with the soaring locals such as Crested Serpent Eagle, Indian Spotted Eagle and Changeable Hawk-eagle etc. Nowadays, we continue to look up to the November sky over the shade-trees of tea-gardens; but rarely see a raptor soar in the air except for the two resident kites: Brahmini Kite and Black Kite.   

In the past decades the population of raptors has been going down all over South and Southeast Asia; but in our country it has crashed precipitously. While only the two species of kites have been doing fine, the other 44 species of raptors of Bangladesh are going down the tube. We have destroyed nearly all insects, reptiles, rodents and most other creatures those birds of prey used to feed on. 

Honey Buzzard is the only migratory raptor we can still see circling leisurely up in the sky over the forests, tea-estates and villages of Bangladesh. By spreading its large wings it can stay aloft effortlessly on the warm air perpetually pushing upwards. And while up in the sky enjoying the warming sunshine it keeps an eye over the movement of its favourite insects such as honeybees, hornets, wasps and cicadas.

Honey buzzard descending. Photo: Enam Ul Haque
Honey buzzard descending. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

The Honey Buzzard soaring high up in the sky reminded us of an amazing poem written from the perspective of a rather haughty hawk looking down upon the world below. The poem was created by the treasured twentieth century English poet Ted Hughes who visited Bangladesh in 1989 and, probably, watched hawks, harriers, bazas or buzzards in the sky on his Sundarban tour. Here are three powerful lines of his poem titled Hawk Roosting:

The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth's face upward for my inspection.

Honey Buzzards inspects the earth mostly to check the traffic of aerial insects such as honeybees and hornets etc. As the very name suggests the Honey Buzzard loves to feed on honey, honeycomb and the larvae of bees, wasps and hornets. While buzzing across the sky the honest honeybees disclose their home-addresses unwittingly; and the wicked wasps and the haughty hornets do that quite arrogantly. 

While most mortals including humans avoid the bees, wasps and hornets for their poisonous stings, the Honey Buzzards pursue them and attack their nests with impunity and steal the honey and the larvae. The dense feathers, thick skin around the eyes and the armoured toes protect them against the most formidable stings in the world. Besieged bees, wasps and hornets swarm a Honey Buzzard for nought. 

Honey buzzard pursuing bees. Photo: Enam Ul Haque
Honey buzzard pursuing bees. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Feathers of the Honey Buzzard are also covered with some white filaments that are believed to deter the stinging insects from settling on those. This makes the other birds such as honeyguides and the mammals such as bears envious of the Honey buzzards for evolving that additional chemical defence and gaining an edge over them in the business of raiding with impunity the colony of insects with stings. 

We once saw a Honey Buzzard descend on a honeycomb hanging from a windowsill of a building in the Jahangirnagar University campus. The bird took a large part of the comb where the honey was stored and gluttonously guzzled on the honey as well as the comb. The ferocious beers, of course, attacked the bird and crawled all over its body in their vain attempts to find a place to jab in their stings. 

The bees continued to swarm the Honey Buzzard even after it finished its banquet of beeswax dunked in honey. The bird sat calmly on a Mahogany Tree; and we continued to squat in the nearby bush wishing the bees to return to their nest and letting us come out in the open to photograph the bird. We knew that the angry bees would attack us if we stirred too early; and no part of our body is protected against bee stings.

Recently a bird-photographer was hospitalised at Badalgachi UP in Naogaon after being attacked by a throng of irate bees pursuing a Honey Buzzard carrying away a chunk of beehive. The gentleman suffered for a few days; but recovered soon enough. But innocent people, especially the young ones, do die of similar attacks by the irritated bees, wasps and hornets chasing after their eternal enemy – the Honey Buzzard.  

Understandably, the stinger insects more often attack the honey-harvesters than the bird-photographers. In Indonesia the honey-hunters blamed the recurrent attacks by the giant honeybees on the roguish buzzards. The honey-hunters believed that after attacking the honeycomb, a wicked Honey Buzzard deliberately flies over the people in the forest to let the bees pursue them rather than the bird.

A vulnerable beehive. Photo: Enam Ul Haque
A vulnerable beehive. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

The increasing allegations of the honey-hunters of Indonesia were not left uninvestigated. Scientists studied those and found no proof of any attempt of a Honey Buzzard being pursued by the bees to fly more often towards the people in the forest. They concluded that the people in the forest were attacked more often by the giant bees because more people were entering the forests more often than before.

We, however, would not blame a Honey Buzzard even if it quite intentionally brought a horde of furious bees to a group of honey-hunters. The bees have survived the attacks of Honey Buzzards for crores of years; but are on the verge of complete collapse from human attacks, in only a few centuries. 

Features / Top News

Raptor / Honey Buzzard / Haque’s eye view

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Getting gas to India will be even more costly than laying this pipe to China.Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
    Russia can't replace the energy market Putin broke
  • Photo: UNB
    AL won't run away, rather will continue developing Bangladesh: PM in Rajshahi
  • Reconditioned vehicles running out of stock as traders fail to open LCs
    Reconditioned vehicles running out of stock as traders fail to open LCs

MOST VIEWED

  • Illustration: TBS
    'The silver lining is that the worst is sort of behind us': Hamid Rashid, UN economist
  • Photo: Bloomberg
    BuzzFeed and AI are a match made in fad city
  • Now is the time to focus on FDI composition
    Now is the time to focus on FDI composition
  • Snipe in flight. Photo: Enam Ul Haque
    Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'
  • Island hopping in Bangladesh?
    Island hopping in Bangladesh?
  • Illustration: TBS
    HC verdict moves the needle on recognising single motherhood

Related News

  • Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'
  • Siberian Rubythroat: ‘The morning bird; Beauty through my senses stole; I yielded’
  • Black-winged Stilts: 'I only want to caress them'
  • Blue-bearded Bee-eater: Hunting bees with 'stings big as drawing pins!'
  • Green Magpies: 'Their greed is brief; their joy is long'

Features

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

5h | Mode
Illustration: TBS

'The silver lining is that the worst is sort of behind us': Hamid Rashid, UN economist

9h | Panorama
Photo: Bloomberg

BuzzFeed and AI are a match made in fad city

8h | Panorama
Snipe in flight. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

21m | TBS SPORTS
“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

2h | TBS Round Table
What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

22h | TBS Entertainment
15 Reasons Your Entrepreneurial Career Can Fail

15 Reasons Your Entrepreneurial Career Can Fail

21h | TBS Career

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

3
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

4
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

5
Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!
Bangladesh

Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net