Alice Springs Desert Park

ASDP BirdsAustralian Boobook Owl Australian Bustard Australian Hobby Banded Lapwing Barn Owl Black Kite Black-breasted Buzzard Black-faced Woodswallow Black-fronted Dotterel Bourke’s Parrot Brown Falcon Emu Inland Dotterel Orange Chat Pied Honeyeater Princess Parrot Rainbow Bee-eater Red-capped Robin Spinifex Pigeon Splendid Fairy-wren Tawny Frogmouth Wedge-tailed Eagle Western Bowerbird Whistling Kite White-faced Heron White-winged Fairywren

Alice Springs Desert ParkFauna Flora Nature Theatre Nocturnal House

A large dark coloured raptor, the Black-breasted Buzzard (Hamirostra melanosternon) is endemic to mainland Australia.

Black-breasted Buzzard (Hamirostra melanosternon) - Birds of Prey Show, Alice Springs Desert Park
Black-breasted Buzzard (Hamirostra melanosternon), Alice Springs Desert Park

The Black-breasted Buzzard is one of the popular attractions at the Free-flying Birds Show in the Alice Springs Desert Park Nature Theatre.

Common throughout most of its range, it is known for its special skill in cracking eggs. Whilst the Black-breasted Buzzard can break smaller eggs easily with its bill before retrieving the content of the egg, it uses its ingenuity to break open larger eggs, that may be tougher to open. Holding a small rock in its bill, the buzzard is seen to hurl the rock at the egg to break repeatedly until it breaks the egg open, before eating the contents.

The Black-breasted Buzzards can be seen soaring up high and then gliding low, as they look for prey including ground birds, rabbits, lizards and carrion. They can glide at speed, snatching their prey not only from the ground, but also from trees and in the air.

More information under our Birds > Raptors > Black-breasted Buzzard.


  • Scientific classification
  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Chordata
  • Class: Aves
  • Order: Accipitriformes
  • Family: Accipitridae
  • Genus: Hamirostra
  • Species: Hamirostra melanosternon

Footnote & References

  1. Black-breasted Buzzard, Birdlife Australia, https://www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/black-breasted-buzzard
  2. Black-breasted Buzzard, Australian Museum, https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/black-breasted-buzzard/

ASDP BirdsAustralian Boobook Owl Australian Bustard Australian Hobby Banded Lapwing Barn Owl Black Kite Black-breasted Buzzard Black-faced Woodswallow Black-fronted Dotterel Bourke’s Parrot Brown Falcon Emu Inland Dotterel Orange Chat Pied Honeyeater Princess Parrot Rainbow Bee-eater Red-capped Robin Spinifex Pigeon Splendid Fairy-wren Tawny Frogmouth Wedge-tailed Eagle Western Bowerbird Whistling Kite White-faced Heron White-winged Fairywren

ASDP FaunaASDP Arachnida ASDP Birds ASDP Insects ASDP Reptiles Dingo Ghost Bat Greater Bilby Numbat Red Kangaroo Short-beaked Echidna Spinifex Hopping Mouse Thorny Devil Western Quoll

Alice Springs Desert ParkFauna Flora Nature Theatre Nocturnal House