Common buzzards have recovered strongly across the UK but continue to face illegal persecution on game estates, with secondary poisoning and trapping remaining welfare threats.
Buzzards illegally killed by poisoning experience acute toxic deaths from alpha-chloralose or carbofuran, or prolonged internal haemorrhage from anticoagulant rodenticides. Trapped buzzards suffer fear and injury from capture before death. Despite legal protection, persecution on game estates continues to cause preventable welfare harms. Road casualties while feeding on roadkill are an unavoidable welfare toll from the birds' successful adaptation to human-modified landscapes.