When the thermal lift and the wind is good enough you can find Buteos flying over a field or other open spaces where they hunt their prey. They are pretty social birds of prey and you can even find them in groups. All Buteo species are to some extent opportunistic when it comes to hunting, and prey on almost any type of small animal as it becomes available to them. They are often looking for mice and smaller birds that they can hunt in a swoop. As all of the birds of prey Buteos are pretty seldom and it is difficult to see some of them, but at least they are more common than eagles and if you have a perfect weather with the right thermal lift than you might find one of them over open fields where they hunt for prey.
A group of buteos using the thermal winds to lift them up in the sky.
Because they use the thermal lift you mostly can see them way up in the sky and it is pretty difficult to get a closeup picture even if you use a 600mm tele lens on a crop Camera like mine. Still then they are pretty far in the sky and the pictures are not the ones that i made up in my mind. :-(
Unlike Eagles Buteos often fly in a group and also huntin a group of several birds that circulate in the sky for searching prey on the ground. I am always amazed how good they must be able to see, seeing a small prey like a mouse from a kilometer in the sky.
