Common Buzzard

Common buzzards form lifelong partnerships with their mating partner. The aerie, the name given to the nests of birds of prey, is generally built up high in trees. An aerie is made from twigs, branches, bark, leaves, moss and grass. The pair visits it annually and they constantly improve and expand it. On average an aerie measures around 80 cm. The pair mates once during a breeding season, laying a clutch of 2 to 4 eggs with nidiculous chicks hatching after 36 days. First they are covered in a thin white down, which moults to a grey woolly down ruffle after roughly 12 days before they develop their proper plumage, which begins with the bird’s primary feathers. After 42 to 49 days, the juveniles fly the nest, nevertheless remaining close by in the nesting territory. They continue to beg the parent birds for food for up to 10 weeks until they have grown strong enough to be independent. Only after this do they leave the nest. The first moult from juvenile down to the final adult plumage takes place after a year. Not all flight feathers moult at once and the outermost primaries often remain. Thus, one can aptly distinguish between juvenile/ one-year-olds from immature buzzards (after their first moult into juvenile plumage) and adult buzzards in their definitive plumage.