Skip to content
The UK Bird Atlas

Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus)Where and when to see it in the UK

Winter visitor · reporting peaks January · Kites, Old World Vultures, Eagles, and Hawks · BOU category AEF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus)
Marton Berntsen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Rough-legged Buzzard: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Rough-legged Buzzard has been recorded in 171 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (6%) in records to 2026. Winter visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in January.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
4% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 4%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 100%<1%Low
February 83%<1%Very high
March 31%<1%Very high
April 6%<1%Very high
May 8%<1%Very high
June 2%<1%Moderate
July 0%<1%Very high
August 0%<1%Very high
September 0%<1%Very high
October 97%<1%Very high
November 81%<1%Very high
December 46%<1%Moderate

Squares with the highest reporting rate in January

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NZ21Darlington, England100%Very high
NZ37North Tyneside, England100%Very high
SE60Doncaster, England100%Very high
SE70North Lincolnshire, England100%Very high
SJ43Shropshire, England100%Very high
TF30Cambridgeshire, England100%Very high
TF33Lincolnshire, England100%Very high
TL47Cambridgeshire, England100%Very high
TL56Cambridgeshire, England100%Very high
TL77Suffolk, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.