Common buzzards are the UK's most numerous raptor but face ongoing illegal persecution including poisoning, shooting, and trapping, particularly in upland areas managed for driven grouse shooting.
Poisoned buzzards — whether from carbofuran, alphachloralose, or other banned substances — experience acute neurological or respiratory failure, often with prolonged convulsions before death. Birds caught in illegally set pole traps suffer limb restraint injury and prolonged suffering before dying or being found by the trapper. Shooting victims that escape initial injury carry pellets or shot fragments causing chronic pain, infection, and impaired flight. RSPB investigations document ongoing persecution despite legal protection, suggesting enforcement is inadequate to deter killers.