Western Marsh Harrier

Voice

Mostly silent. Over the breeding marsh in April and May the displaying male gives a high nasal kweea, and the female a whining pee-yah at food passes. Young beg querulously from the reeds throughout the summer.

Identification

Quarters low over reed on distinctly raised wings held in a shallow V, rocking slowly, and looks heavier and broader-winged than the other harriers. Male: brown back, grey wing panels and grey tail, black primaries. Female and juvenile chocolate-brown with cream crown, throat and leading edge; some juveniles are almost wholly dark.

Confusion species

Hen and Montagu's Harriers are slimmer, lighter in build and always show a white rump, which Marsh Harrier lacks. Dark juveniles are confused with young White-tailed Eagle or Black Kite: note the much smaller head, the narrower wings and the pale crown and throat of the harrier.

Habitat

Large reedbeds and silting-up marshes, but nowadays also reed fringes along ditches, young polders and even oilseed rape and cereal fields. Hunts low and searching over reed, rough grassland and field margins, turning abruptly and dropping onto voles, young birds and eggs.

Range and movements

Breeds from Spain to Scandinavia and east across Russia. The Dutch marshes — Oostvaardersplassen, Flevoland, Zeeland and Friesland — hold an important share of the north-west European population. Northern birds winter in the Sahel and around the Mediterranean; in southern Spain part of the population stays all year.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• Migration direction
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

April to August, early morning or the last hour before sunset, from a dike or viewpoint overlooking reed. Look for the rocking V-shaped flight low over the crop; in April the wild switchback display over the nest gives the territory away.

Conservation status

Strongly recovered since organochlorine pesticides were banned and new wetlands were created, though Dutch numbers have slipped again in recent years. Scrub encroachment and drying of reedbeds, fox predation, poisoning on the wintering grounds and turbine collisions in open polders all play a part.