Scientific name: Buteo lagopus (Pontoppidan, 1763)
Bird group: Birds-of-prey
Field characters. Length 50-60 cm; wingspan 120-150 cm. Resembles pale Common Buzzard but can be distinguished by slightly larger size, longer wings, and longer white tail with broad, dark terminal band; usually with more white on underwings and underparts and with black carpal patches and black wing-tips; dark brown belly and thighs, variable streaking on throat, head pale, tarsi feathered white. Juvenile as pale adult with tail appearing uniform dark at a distance. Hovers habitually with flapping wings.
Voice. Call resembles that of Buzzard but louder and lower pitched.
Distribution. A rare breeding bird of northern Europe which winters in more temperate areas of Europe.
Habitat. Breeds in treeless tundra areas or fjells. Outside the breeding season it prefers also open terrain such as marshes, moors, heaths, etc.
Food. Feeds generally on ground-living small mammals, captured after quartering or hovering or after short stoop from perch. Also may take songbirds and young of geese, and Capercaillie.
Eggs. Rarely uniform, usually with variable markings, sometimes plentiful. Ground colour dull white/tinged green, colour of markings red-brown/pale brown/dark brown/grey. Texture fine granular, not glossy. Shape subelliptical/short subelliptical. Size 55 x 44 mm (50-60 x 40-47), weight 59 g (58-60). Eggs much like those of Common Buzzard.