Common Buzzard

Updated: August 2, 2026

One of the fun things about iNaturalist, as opposed to eBird, is that your work is reviewed by others. I identified the bird below as a common buzzard on iNaturalist and it was followed up by two identifiers who agreed. Then p_alves, one of the top identifiers of black kites on iNaturalist disagreed and identified it as a black kite. One of the other prior identifiers changed his mind and switched to a black kite, and after looking at it again, more closely, I also changed my mind and switched to a black kite. So this post is inaccurate. However, I have subsequently seen a common buzzard in Germany and in Crete and I am doing a new post on the common buzzard which goes up on August 4, 2026.  

I've always considered the word "buzzard" to be synonymous with vulture.  Even the Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives the second definition as "any of various large birds of prey (such as the turkey vulture"). The vulture of my youth was the turkey vulture. I'm sure I've used the phrase "ugly little buzzard" with a turkey vulture in mind. The first time I learned any different was our first trip to Africa where we saw an augur buzzard, which looked like a hawk, in northern Kenya. 

In Portugal recently our guide pointed out a common buzzard and I was expecting some kind of vulture. Not another hawk-like bird. 

The common buzzard is found throughout most of Europe, in much of southern Africa and fairly large sections of western and central Asia. 

Like our red-tailed hawk, it is highly variable. It is generally dark above, but has both light and dark versions. I'm not going to get into much detail because I didn't get a great look at it. Even my cropped photos don't give great detail.