''Butastur'' is a genus of

birds of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...

in the family

Accipitridae The Accipitridae is one of the three families within the order Accipitriformes, and is a family of small to large birds with strongly hooked bills and variable morphology based on diet. They feed on a range of prey items from insects to medium-s ...

Taxonomy and species

The genus ''Butastur'' was introduced in 1843 by the English naturalist

Brian Houghton Hodgson Brian Houghton Hodgson (1 February 1800 or more likely 1801 – 23 May 1894) was a pioneer naturalist and ethnologist working in India and Nepal where he was a British Resident. He described numerous species of birds and mammals from the Hima ...

with the white-eyed buzzard as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

. The genus name is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsButeo ''Buteo'' is a genus of medium to fairly large, wide-ranging raptors with a robust body and broad wings. In the Old World, members of this genus are called "buzzards", but " hawk" is used in the New World (Etymology: ''Buteo'' is the Latin na ...

'' introduced by Bernard Germain de Lacépède for the buzzards and ''Astur'' introduced by Lacépède for the goshawks. The genus now contains four species.

References

Bird genera Taxa named by Brian Houghton Hodgson Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Accipitriformes-stub