Fun facts about Common Buzzards!

Famous for their iconic broad wings soaring above, these stunning birds can soar thousands of feet above ground on a warm day.

Buzzards are our most populous bird of prey in the UK, and are famous faces in a variety of different habitats.

Wild adults can live an excess of thirty years! They’ve been known to mostly predate on smaller mammals such as rodents – including field voles and rats, alongside plenty of invertebrates such as earthworms. Although they will on occasion be tempted by something a little larger such as a rabbit!

They are often confused with the Red Kite when out and about – both birds are some of the larger species you’ll spot in this part of the UK. But a good way of identifying a Buzzard is looking at the tail – kites have a forked shaped tail compared to the Buzzards fan shaped tail.

But here are our top ten fun facts about common buzzards!

1. Adult Buzzards are monogamous, meaning they usually choose to mate for life!
2. They can be up to one and a half kilos in weight – which may not be as much as you think, they are mostly feather!
3. Males are significantly smaller than females – this is an example of reverse sexual dimorphism and is probably because males evolved to be smaller and faster than females, making hunting and delivering prey to the nest site alot easier.
4. There are around 70,000 estimated pairs in the UK!
5. They don’t actually have an assessed UK conservation status, but we think they are doing pretty well!
6. Buzzards will happily eat carrion if they can find some available!
7. They have a highly variable plumage – ranging from black, to brown to white!
8. They have one of the longest digestive tracts relative to their size of the raptor world – meaning they are very effective at digesting food so can go quite a long time in-between meals
9. Despite their large wingspan, they actually have pretty small feet. Again indicating they don’t often hunt large mammals.
10. With exceptional vision, they can see at about 3-5 times more distance than we can!

Book a visit to The Bird of Prey Project to learn more about our native species of raptor in the UK, and what is being done to secure their future.

Book a visit

Click Here