Common Buzzard: Diet

  • Voles and mice (60–70% of the diet) — the main food, located visually from the air.
  • Frogs, lizards and snakes — hence the Swedish name (ormvråk, “snake buzzard”).
  • Bird chicks and rabbits — taken opportunistically.
  • Earthworms — sought on wet fields, unusual for a bird of prey.
  • Carrion — important during cold winters.

The Buzzard locates prey visually by watching from a perch or in soaring flight. UV vision for tracking vole urine is documented in the Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), not in the Buzzard.

More about the Common Buzzard

  • Song & calls
  • Breeding
  • Nest & eggs
  • In winter
Back to Common Buzzard · Read in Swedish