This bird of the hawk family is scientifically called Circus aeruginosus. In our country, it is called reed, or marsh harrier. What this hawk eats, where it nests, when it brings offspring - read about this in this article. We will also consider the distribution range of the species and its regional features. Surely you have seen this beautiful bird with a long tail and narrow wings raised behind its back in the form of the letter “V”. Its flight is characterized by a smooth, like a glider, sliding low above the ground, right at the panicles of reeds or sedge tops. The predatory look of the moon resembles a wolf's. Yes, it can be compared with this gray "forest orderly". After all, the reed hawk maintains the ecological balance of swamps and lakes.
What a marsh harrier looks like
The photo shows us a fairly large bird. Of all the types of harriers, the marsh harrier is the largest and darkest. Females are much larger than their cavaliers. Their weight reaches 750 grams, body lengthis 60 centimeters. Males differ not only in their modest size (550 g and 50 cm), but also in plumage. They have it more colorful: white, brown, gray and even black feathers create a beautiful pattern. Females are "dressed" in ocher plumage with a chocolate sheen, and only their head is covered with dark speckles. A characteristic feature of the harriers are long (up to 43 centimeters) and narrow wings. They allow birds to successfully maneuver, hover over prey or glide silently over a pond for a long time. The reed harrier has long legs, which it often uses. He carries even the building material for the nest not in his beak, but in his claws. The bird is also distinguished by a long tail - 23.5-26 centimeters.
Distribution
Marsh Harrier is found everywhere in the Old World, except for the Far North. In Russia, the species is distributed from the very south of the country to the middle taiga. Ours is a migratory bird. It migrates to the south long before the freezing of water bodies - in August in the forest zone, in September in the steppes. Starting from Italy and to the south, populations lead a sedentary lifestyle. The number of individuals in them in the summer is small. In winter, birds that have arrived from the north join. Thus, the reed harrier is also found in Northwest Africa (up to the zone of equatorial forests), on the islands of Madagascar and Reunion. Birds from the eastern part of Russia fly to Southeast Asia for the winter, even reaching the coast of Australia. In this regard, two subspecies of marsh harriers are distinguished. They differ from each other in the plumage of males. In western birds, it is lighter, brown, and in eastern birds it is darker.brown, black on crown.
What does he eat
Marsh harrier is a bird of prey. Its prey is often small waterfowl and their chicks. The hawk can even kill an adult duck and a young muskrat. He also likes to destroy nests. It snatches gaping fish from the water with its claws. Does not disdain frogs, small animals (water voles), carrion. If it is not possible to catch anything on the reservoir, it flies to the steppes, where it feeds on land animals and birds - larks, ground squirrels, jerboas, snakes and even large locusts. Thus, the reed harrier is not only a swamp orderly (since it eats carrion and wounded ducks killed but not found by hunters), it destroys harmful rodents and insects in the fields. Seagulls can give a friendly rebuff to a pair of harriers. Then predators are forced to look for food away from the reservoir. They can harm poultry farms by stealing chickens and ducklings.
How the marsh harrier breeds
Nomadic birds arrive when water bodies are freed from ice. Males arrive first, making demonstrative circles with sharp turns and soaring upwards over the chosen territory. These birds are mostly monogamous, but sometimes it also happens that the male acquires a small harem. Then the nests are located close to each other. The masonry of the harriers is bulky, reaches a meter in diameter and 0.5 m in height. The material is last year's sedge, reeds and other near-water vegetation. Marsh harrier nests insecluded places - among peat bogs and swamps, on the islands. The female lays 4-5 large (up to 5 centimeters) eggs, white with green and ocher mottled. She incubates them all 35 days, and her husband brings her food. In newborn chicks, the fluff is yellow, and only the head is white. After molting, they add dark spots around the eyes. The chicks begin to fly on the fortieth day.
Lifestyle
Interestingly, the marsh harrier, being a predator, never pursues its prey. He prefers to grab birds or animals from the surface of the water, and land living creatures when they sit on the ground. During nesting, the harrier stays near a lake or swamp, and only when the chicks grow up does it go in search of prey to the surrounding meadows or fields. On a hot afternoon, birds arrange a siesta for themselves in dense thickets of reeds, but more often than not, an indefatigable appetite makes hawks circle non-stop over the water surface. His piercing "kiyuyu-kiyuyu-kiyuyu" can often be heard in the middle of the forest, near small eyes-lakes with swampy shores. The legs of the harrier are so strong that he is able to carry prey off his weight. But he is reluctant to move on the ground, preferring to spend time in the air.
