Montagu's Harrier
Circus pygargus
The smallest and slightest of the harriers, with a long tail, long narrow wings and light, elastic wingbeats. The male's upperside is three-toned — pale grey body and , a darker panel over the secondaries and a broad black — and a black band runs lengthwise through the secondaries, clearest from above. Below it is white with rusty streaking. The hand shows four "fingers" against Hen Harrier's five. The male lacks Hen Harrier's conspicuous white , and the female's white rump is narrower than hers.
Can be confused with
- Hen Harrier — Hen Harrier is larger and broader-winged with a rounded hand and five "fingers", clean white below with no rusty streaking, and no band through the secondaries — instead a black wingtip running on into a dark trailing edge along the whole wing. Hen Harrier also shows a broad, conspicuous white rump in both sexes; the male Montagu's lacks it altogether and the female's is narrow.
- Pallid Harrier — Male Pallid Harrier is near-white with no rusty streaking and no band across the secondaries; its black is gathered into an isolated wedge out in the hand. The Pallid's hand also looks shorter and narrower than the arm, where Montagu's is long and pointed.
Plumage and variation
Male and female: The male is grey with a black band through the secondaries and rusty streaking on the belly. The female is brown and very hard to separate from Hen and Pallid Harriers, but is clearly slimmer than a Hen Harrier and has a narrower white rump than hers.
Juvenile: The immature resembles an immature Pallid Harrier, but is a colder red-brown and lacks its distinct pale collar.
Behaviour
Lighter and more agile than the other harriers — a restless, flickering, almost tern-like flight low over the ground, the wings held slightly raised when gliding. Forages over fields, meadows and heaths, taking many insects and reptiles as well as small birds.
When and where
Denmark lies at the northern edge of the species' range, and it is a rare breeder and a rare passage migrant here; it breeds only in south-west Jutland and Sønderjylland, having disappeared from Bornholm, north and central Jutland since 1980. It colonised the country around 1900 and reached 350-400 pairs in the 1940s before declining steeply. In 2021 the population stood at 22-28 pairs and in 2023 at about 21 — slowly declining over the last 25 years, but roughly stable over the last decade. Endangered on the 2019 Red List. It nests in loose colonies on heaths, in bogs and in embanked marshland — and increasingly in fields of winter cereal, where the ground around each nest is fenced so the harvesters do not maim the young. It is with us only about three months of the year: the first arrive in April, the first eggs are laid around mid-May, young fledge from early July into late August, and the last leave in early September. Danish birds winter in tropical Africa.
Relatives
Family
hawks, kites and eagles
Accipitridae
Order
hawks and eagles
Accipitriformes
Know this bird? Share how you recognise it with other birders.
No field marks yet. Be the first to share how you recognise this bird!
Tap the ones that fit this bird.