Western Marsh Harrier

Description:

The Western-Marsh-Harrier is the largest of the four species living in Europe.It has slender silhouette with long bent wings. Its plumage is dark brown, as the mantel. Male has ashy-grey tail and wings. Its rump is darker than in the other harriers, and it is more robust.The adult male has brown back and dark reddish-brown head and nape, both streaked of dark brown. Throat is dark, chest is reddish and underparts are chestnut, heavily streaked brown. Tail is silver-grey. On the wings, most part of the secondaries is bluish grey, and when the wing is spread, this area forms a large oblique wing bar crossing the wing, contrasting with the extreme black of the primaries and the brown plumage. Legs and talons are yellow with reddish-brown feathered thighs and unfeathered tarsi. The Western-Marsh-Harrier is an extremely lazy and apathetic raptor, which does not hunt too much. It chooses easy preys like young shore birds, injured or sick birds. While flying for hunting, when it selects a prey, it retains itself in the air and turns, throwing several times into the water to catch a frog or a coot.

Habitat:

Fairly common although local, the Western-Marsh-Harrier breeds in marsh reedbeds, sometimes in meadows, lowlands, marshes or lake edges and streams, less often in peat bogs.The Western-Marsh-Harrier is a typical marsh raptor. In migration, it frequents coasts and open country, but never far from water, near lakes and ponds. At other times, it also frequents grassy areas, cultivated lowlands and salt-water marshes.