Bussarde Vienna

Buzzards across the DACH region inhabit varied open and semi-open landscapes. The common buzzard, Mäusebussard, uses small woodlands bordered by meadows, fields and heathland, places its eyrie preferably at the forest edge in mature trees, and hunts from there into the surrounding grassland. The rough-legged buzzard, Raufußbussard, is a high-northern breeder from tundra and taiga that winters across large parts of Central Europe from October into April, when it is mainly seen over wide, open ground such as marshes, meadows and moorland.

Buzzards are unspecialised hunters. Small mammals, above all field voles, make up the bulk of their diet, supplemented by birds, reptiles, amphibians, earthworms, insects and carrion. They hunt both from perches on fence posts, raised hides or solitary trees and on the wing, circling over open country, with the rough-legged buzzard often using its characteristic hovering flight. During the breeding season buzzards defend their territory around the nest tree and perform striking courtship flights with paired soaring and circling.

For hunters, buzzards are not quarry but permanent inhabitants of the ground. Correct identification matters, because buzzards are often confused in flight with the goshawk, the sparrowhawk or young eagles. The common buzzard, at roughly 51 to 57 centimetres in length and a wingspan of about 113 to 128 centimetres, is markedly stockier and more broad-winged than the slim, long-tailed goshawk or the small sparrowhawk, whose typical flap-and-glide flight is clearly different from the buzzard's soaring. The stewardship duty in the Federal Hunting Act, the Bundesjagdgesetz, places special responsibility on hunters for the protection of birds of prey: nests should be left undisturbed, breeding sites kept quiet, and any form of illegal persecution reported without hesitation.