This large hawk often hovers above its prey like a kestrel. Lemmings, other rodents, and birds are its main sources of food during the breeding season. The number of eggs laid by the Rough-leg, like the Snowy Owl, depends on the food supply, with larger clutches occurring in years when lemmings are abundant. At a distance this hawk can be identified by its habit of hovering and by the way it perches: balancing precariously on the most slender twigs at the top of a tree. On the wintering grounds, where it takes larger rodents and upland birds, it can be strikingly tame, probably because it encounters few humans in the Far North.