Western Marsh-harrier

Description:

It is a large, bulky harrier with fairly broad wings, and has a strong and peculiar sexual dichromatism. The male's plumage is mostly a cryptic reddish-brown with lighter yellowish streaks, which are particularly prominent on the breast. The head and shoulders are mostly pale greyish-yellowish. The upperside and underside of the wing look similar, though the brown is lighter on the underwing. Whether from the side or below, flying males appear characteristically three-colored brown-grey-black. The legs, feet, irides and the cere of the black bill are yellow. The female is almost entirely chocolate-brown. The top of the head, the throat and the shoulders have of a conspicuously lighter yellowish colour; this can be clearly delimited and very contrasting, or (particularly in worn plumage) be more washed-out, resembling the male's head colors. But the eye area of the female is always darker, making the light eye stand out, while the male's head is altogether not very contrastingly colored and the female lacks the grey wing-patch and tail. Juveniles are similar to females, but usually have less yellow, particularly on the shoulders. It feeds particularly on small mammals and birds, insects, squamates, amphibians, fish and carrion. From Wikipedia.

Habitat:

This species has a wide breeding range from Europe and northwestern Africa to Central Asia and the northern parts of the Middle East. It breeds in almost every country of Europe but is absent from mountainous regions and subarctic Scandinavia. It is rare in the British Isles and does not currently breed in Ireland or Wales. In the Middle East there are populations in Turkey, Iraq and Iran, while in Central Asia the range extends eastwards as far as north-west China, Mongolia and the Lake Baikal region of Siberia. Like the other marsh-harriers, it is strongly associated with wetland areas, especially those rich in Common Reed. From Wikipedia.