A buzzard is a broad-winged bird of prey that belongs to the hawk family, so every buzzard is a kind of hawk, but not every hawk is a buzzard. Hawk is also the wider, everyday word people reach for when they see any bird of prey circling overhead.
The core difference
Buzzard names one broad-winged bird of prey within the hawk family, while hawk is the broader term covering that whole group.
- buzzard — a broad-winged bird of prey in the hawk family: A buzzard circled slowly above the field.
- hawk — a medium-sized bird of prey that hunts other animals from the air: A hawk circled slowly above the field, watching for movement.
How to tell them apart
Think of hawk as the family name and buzzard as one member of that family: a buzzard is always a hawk, but a hawk is not always a buzzard. Since both are broad-winged birds of prey that soar over open fields in the same way, spotting one in flight rarely settles which word is technically correct.
The words also stray outside birdwatching. Buzzard can be American slang for a grumpy old man, while hawk can describe someone with an aggressive stance in politics or economics, or even mean to sell goods in public as a verb.
