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Montagu's Harrier

Montagu's Harrier

Circus pygargus

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Montagu's Harrier is a slim, long-winged harrier of open country that breeds across the Palearctic and winters in Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Males are grey with black wingtips and dark bars across the wings, while females and juveniles are brown and easily confused with other harriers. It hunts with smooth, buoyant flight low over fields and heaths. The name commemorates the naturalist George Montagu.

Did you know?

  • During the breeding season the male drops prey for the female to catch in mid-air.
  • A dark, melanistic morph occurs regularly in this species.

About the species

Identification

A slim harrier with long, narrow wings and a fairly long tail. The male is grey with clearly black wingtips and a black bar across the upperwing; the female and young are brown with streaked underparts. Told from Hen Harrier by its slimmer build and narrower, sharply defined black wingtip, and from Pallid Harrier by a weaker pale collar and stronger streaking below.

Family

Accipitridae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

grey, white, black, brown

About the habitat

Extensive open landscapes with low vegetation – farmland with cereal crops, heaths, dunes, steppe-like grassland, fens and marsh edges.

Diet

Small mammals, especially voles, small birds and their eggs and young, reptiles and large insects such as grasshoppers.

Behaviour

Hunts by quartering low over open ground with elastic, tilting wingbeats, following field edges to surprise prey. In spring males display with sky-dancing dives and pass food to females in mid-air. It nests on the ground among crops or dense herbs, often in loose colonies, and may roost communally outside the breeding season. A dark morph occurs regularly.

Sources

Photo: Cks3976, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Montagu's Harrier, juvenile, Bangalore, India.jpg

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montagu%27s_harrier

See also