Do Buzzards Hover?

[Kevin Milkins]

I would have said not,however while waiting in the departure lounge at Inverness airport I got this clip.
http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/m...t=SMOV0001.flv
I think it might work.lol

[teenybash]

Excellent. We have a buzzard who comes over the field and the burn......sometimes he swoops from the top of the electrcity pole when he sees something, othertimes he hovers before diving on his prey. Beautiful birds. Well done in capturing this.

[Kevin Milkins]

Excellent. We have a buzzard who comes over the field and the burn......sometimes he swoops from the top of the electrcity pole when he sees something, othertimes he hovers before diving on his prey. Beautiful birds. Well done in capturing this.

Thank you TB.

They are indeed a splendid bird and when I was a nipper it was a rare sight to see a Buzzard.

When I first spotted it I thought it was a Kestral because we were a fair distance away.(the zoom on the camera gave us a good view)

I am just downloading some holiday shots now and that one supprised me.

[Kenn]

I think what you have there Kevin is a Rough-legged Buzzard which is a winter visitor from the continent and has the ability to hover which the Buzzard does not.
Having watched the video and stopped several frames, the upper white flash just before the wing flight feathers would also indicate that it is a Rough-legged. The underwing markings are very similar but our resident Buzzards tend to have lighter coloured ones.
Well done, would be great if you could get it authenticated.

[nirofo]

Buzzards are very good at hovering, I see them regularly hovering just like Kestrels; they're not as good at it as Kestrels, but they are very good at finding just the right amount of wind uplift to hold them in one spot, sometimes for minutes on end. Red Kites hover and are equally as good at it as Buzzards. Sparrowhawks and Goshawks can also hover when it suits them and the conditions are right. Peregrines do very occasionally hover, but the wind uplift has to be just right for them. Golden Eagles appear to hover but are actually just holding one position on a thermal. In fact most birds of prey can hover to some extent, it's a usefull addition to hunting skills which can be used when conditions are right.

nirofo.

[Kenn]

Very interesting nirofo but even having been brought up in buzzard country, I have never seen a buzzard hover, hold it's flight on a thermal definitely
I will be watching them much more closely in future.

[Welcomefamily]

We use to have lots of pairs of common buzzards in the woods and forests around us when we lived on Exmoor, it was great to watch them thermal up drafting in pairs, sometimes 6 or 8 at a time along a rock ridge. On lots of occasions I have also seen them Hovering. You get a few up here as well, I often see when I am going fishing.

I think it looks like a common buzzard as they always appear to look uncomfortable with the hoovering and it is very quick to glide. It is hard to tell if its got a white tail with a dark tail band which is common with the rough legged buzzard.

[Kevin Milkins]

I have always thought of the buzzard as a very economical bird when it comes to flying and although I have seen them make good use of thearmals and uplifts I have never seen one hover as well as this guy.

We watched him for about half an hour and at first we thought it was a Kestral because it was a fair distance away and then a Kestral flew in and mobbed him then flew off so it gave us a good prospective of it's size.

Before I got my camera out he made a few swoops to the ground then rose again after a couple of mins.

[smithp]

I see buzzards everyday - they can hover but don't tend too. There hunting style is'nt suited to it, they ain't fast enough. Carrion is plentiful, they don't need to burn calories hovering.

[porshiepoo]

The vibration from the aeroplanes also bring the worms and bugs to the surface of the ground (that's why you often see Kestrels hovering by roadsides) so it could have been looking for a meal. Buzzards are quite happy to get on the ground and start tapping to bring the critters up, maybe it's finally figured out that the aeroplanes wil do the hard work for it. lol.

[porshiepoo]

Just had a closer look at the video and I can't really tell whether it is a Common Buzzard or a Rough legged buzzard, it certainly has a fair bit of white underwing but I can't get a clear view of the tail which would be a dead give away.
Both can and do hover but the Rough legged will do it far more often. We have Buzzards here (albeit tame lol) but I've never actually seen one hover so that's a cool video.

[dafi]

That was really interesting,i enjoyed that. I didn’t realise that Buzzards will hover and hunt like that…good stuff!!

[Dog-eared]

Hey Kevin, did you catch any seagulls and did they taste good ??

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/m...nt=09_03_0.jpg

[Kevin Milkins]

Hey Kevin, did you catch any seagulls and did they taste good ??

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/m...nt=09_03_0.jpg

No, Dog-eared.

I never did manage to catch that seagull with the string around his legs, but I hope that he got it untangled himself.

It did make me realise one thing though, unless you got a 12 bore shotgun birds are very hard to catch, but it kind of defeats the object a bit.