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Western Marsh Harrier
Circus aeruginosus
Identify the Western Marsh Harrier by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.
The Western Marsh Harrier is a large, broad-winged harrier of reedbeds and marshes found across much of Europe, north-west Africa and into Central Asia and the Middle East. Males look tricoloured in flight – brown, grey and black – while females and juveniles are chocolate-brown with a creamy head. Most populations migrate to Africa for the winter. After historic declines from persecution, wetland loss and pesticides, it has recovered in much of its range.
Did you know?
- Males often pair with two or even three females in a season.
- It often roosts communally outside the breeding season, sometimes on floating vegetation.
Voice
About the species
Identification
A large, broad-winged harrier with a slow, low flight over vegetation. Females and juveniles are dark brown with a clearly pale head and throat, like a pale hood. The male has a brown body, pale head and grey tail, and its wings show a clear contrast between grey areas and black wingtips. Its broad wings, fairly long tail and reedbed habits separate it from slimmer, greyer harriers.
Family
Accipitridae
Size
Large (crow)
Colours
brown, orange, grey
About the habitat
Large wetlands with extensive reedbeds, marshy lake edges, river deltas and wet meadows, sometimes adjacent farmland.
Diet
Small mammals such as voles, waterbirds and their chicks, small birds, frogs, reptiles, large insects and occasionally carrion.
Behaviour
Hunts by quartering slowly and low over reeds and wet meadows with wings held in a shallow V, dropping suddenly onto prey. In spring males perform sky-dancing display flights and pass food to females in mid-air. It nests on the ground in dense reedbeds on a platform of reeds; polygyny is not uncommon.
Sources
Photo: Stephan Sprinz, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Männliche Rohrweihe im Flug 04.jpg
Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC705925, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/705925
Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_marsh_harrier
