BirdTab LogoBirdTab

Western Marsh Harrier

Circus aeruginosus

Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Hawks, Eagles, and Kites
Western Marsh Harrier, photographed by Stephan Sprinz

Photo: Stephan Sprinz · Wikimedia · CC-BY 4.0 (licence)

Add to my checklistRange map and sightings on eBird

Call and song

About the Western Marsh Harrier

Gangly raptor with long wings and tail; local in marshes and wetlands with extensive reed beds. Mainly seen in flight, quartering fairly low over marshes, with wings raised in shallow V. Commonest plumage dark brown overall with variable creamy cap, throat, and narrow leading edge to wing. Brightest adult males have tricolored upperwings, grayish tail, pale head and breast contrasting with rusty-brown belly. Extremely similar to closely related Eastern Marsh-Harrier; males of that species are darker-headed and browner-chested, and females are warmer brown and streakier on the chest, without Eurasian's discrete white 'cap' and dark line through the eye.

Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made

Where it has been recorded

Recorded in 137 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.

More hawks, eagles, and kites