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Black-breasted Buzzards are medium-sized raptors with a dark-brown overall appearance. Only the nape of the neck, the vent, and the edges of the upperwing feathers are light-brown. When seen from underneath, the most conspicuous feature are the translucent wing panels at the base of the primaries, whose tips are black. Bill, legs and feet are grey. Juvenile Black-breasted Buzzards are rufous-brown, rather than dark-brown, with light-grey secondary flight feathers.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Black-breasted Buzzard is available HERE .

NB: Reports on ebird of birds submitted by birdwatchers from the Australian Outback tend to be clustered along roads and public areas such as camp grounds; in such cases their distribution is not a good representation of the overall distribution of the species.

Black-breasted Buzzards are endemic to Australia. They can be found mainly in the tropical North of Australia and in the semi-arid interior to the North of about Lake Eyre, with a boundary north-westward towards Uluru, continuing to somewhere to the South of Broome, WA, and north-eastward towards St. George in southern QLD. Other than that, there are only a few patches where they have been found in South-East Australia and along the WA West coast, from about Geraldton to Exmouth and a few hundred km inland from that coastal stretch.

In the interior of the continent Black-breasted Buzzards have a preference for scrubland. In the North they are found primarily in riparian and tropical woodland.

A Black-breasted Buzzard was first spotted by us in the wetlands of Capricorn Resort, Yeppoon, in July 2009. Special access to the wetlands kindly granted by the owners of Capricorn Resort is most gratefully acknowledged.

A single Black-breasted Buzzard was spotted on the Paroo River, about 50 km North of Wanaaring, NSW, in September 2012.

B. Hensen reports spotting Black-breasted Buzzards at Bowra, QLD, in October 2012.

H. Mouritsen reports spotting a Black-breasted Buzzard between Pine Creek and Darwin, NT, in October 2015.

M. Mearns spotted a Black-breasted Buzzard at Innamincka NP, SA, in July 2006.

B. Hensen reports spotting Black-breasted Buzzards in several locations in the Top End of the NT, where they are more common inland than near the coastline.

M. Eaton reports finding a Black-breasted Buzzard at the Musgrave Roadhouse, Cape York peninsula, QLD, in August 2019. Another was found at Thargomindah, QLD, in June 2020. M. Eaton also found a Black-breasted Buzzard at Timber Creek, NT, in July 2020. Next, a Black-breasted Buzzard was found along the Windorah-Quilpie road near Windorah, QLD, in July 2026.

P. Brown found a Black-breasted Buzzard at the Oolloo Road crossing of the Daly River, NT, in August 2021.