Judy Glattstein wrote "What we have here are not vultures, though they are usually so named by folks. They're buzzards. And in my part of New Jersey there are two species, the typical red-headed turkey buzzard and the (usually described as a more Southern species) the black-headed buzzard." Judy used the term "buzzard", and writing as she was in American English, she used it in a conventional if folksy way. The more usual names for the birds in question are turkey vulture and black vulture. The word "buzzard" in American usage usually has a negative connotation, and it is rarely used with ornithological precision in mind. This word "buzzard" is well established in American vernacular usage, but serious birders avoid using it to describe hawks or vultures except for humorous effect. It's worth noting that the term "buzzard" in British English refers not to a vulture but rather to hawks of the genera Buteo and Pernis (the latter are actually kites). Members of the genus Buteo are also found in North America where they are the common, easily observed large hawks. To add to the confusion, the term "hawk" in British usage is used for members of the genus Accipiter, which in American English are sometimes called "bird hawks" (because they eat other birds) or more often simply hawks or named specifically (e.g. Cooper's hawk, northern goshawk). The sparrow hawk is something else again. The British sparrowhawk (spelled as one word apparently) is Accipiter nisus; the American sparrow hawk (a name now frowned upon) is a small falcon, Falco sparvarius, now generally called American kestrel (not to be confused with the British kestrel, Falco tinnunculus or the British lesser kestrel F. naumanni. Note that zoologists terminate possessive nouns with one i, not the two used in botanical names ending in consonants.) Those coining English-language names for species not indigenous to areas where English is the dominant language have used the term buzzard for other species as well. Britain evidently has no resident vultures, so Americans who confuse buteos with vultures will likely give the impression that they know more than they do when they call a British Buteo a buzzard. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where here in the greater Washington, D.C. area we have plenty of buzzards and vultures, many of which make their living in government and as lobbyists. My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/