sub-family: Buteoninae
fam. Accipitridae eagles, hawks and kites
order Falconiformes
class Aves (birds)
Buzzards are Britain's most common large birds of prey.
Buzzards are most often seen soaring or flying slowly in wide circles over woodland or moors insearch of prey although the birds usually hunt from low perches such as branches and man-made posts.
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| | | The buzzards' eyes are up to eight times sharper than human eyes allowing it to spot its prey from a great height. |
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The birds are sometimes mobbed by gulls or various members of the crow family.
Buzzards build their nests of sticks in trees or sometimes on cliffs ledges.
Both male and female incubate the eggs for about thirty days. The chicks fledge after about six weeks.
Three species of buzzard are found in the British Isles. They are easily distinguished by their seasonal distribution. Only the Common Buzzard, the most numerous, breeds in the British Isles. The roughed-legged buzzard is a winter visitor and the honey is the rarest of the three.
Buteo buteo
This is the only species of buzzard to breed in the British Isles.
It is found mainly in the hilly districts of the north and wet of England, Wales and Scotland although some birds have been sighted in the south-east. In Irelands the birds weredriven out in favour of game interests but have bred again on the north coast since the 1950's.
In common with many birds of prey, the female is slightly larger than the male. The birds have dark brown plumage above, the paler underside bearing bars and streaks. The stought body varies between twenty and twenty-four inches in length. The wings are broad with splayed tips and the tail is rounded. When soaring, the wings are held slightly forward in a shallow "V".
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| | | The number of buzzards in the British Isles were gradually increasing and the birds' range spreading eastwards until 1953 when their food supply was drastically decreased by the devastation of the rabbit population by myxomatosis.
The population of both rabbits and common buzzards is gradually recovering. |
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The birds prey on rabbits, rodents and other small mammals, birds (sometimes game birds), worms and insects. They also feed on carrion.
Pernis apivorus
The "honey" buzard is the rarest of the three buzards found in the British Isles and derives its name fro its habit of raiding the nests of wasps and bees, not for honey, but for the grubs which they contain.
A summer visitor to the British Isles, it breeds regularly in a few locations in the south of England, particularly in the New Forest.
The carnivores feed on insects and are equiped with small heads on long and thin necks. The bill is narrow and designed for taking insect prey rather than tearing flesh and the heads bear densely packed short feathers to protect the birds from insect stings.
The long wings and the long tail of this species bear two prominent bars. The wings droop slightly in flight.
Buteo lagopus
The "rough-legged" buzzard derives its name from the fact that, unlike the Common or Honey buzzards, its legs are feathered.
This species is a winter visitor to from Scandinavia which is found in northern Scotland and eastern England as far south as Kent. There are no records of its having bred in the British Isles.
These birds are generally rare in the British isles but their numbers increase in those years when there is an abundance of their small mammal prey in their Arctic and Sub-Arctic breeding grounds, particularly the explosion of the lemming population which occurs every five or six years. The abundance of lemmings coincides with the appearance of about ten times the usual numbers of rough-legged buzzards in Britain.
This species frequently hovers in similar fashion to the kestrel and, in soaring flight, the wings are held at a shallower angle than those of the common buzzard. The white tail has a broad black band at the tip.
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