Harrier ID in UAE. (1 Viewer)

Hi,
I saw this Harrier on 6. April near Al Ain UAE, which Harrier it can be?
Sorry, my camera need service!
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Peter.

I think it´s a Montagus Harrier.

The bird (from what i can see) lack the dark trailing edge on primaries/hand and has dark secondaries (just a dark "area".

On montagus one can usually see a dark edge and the montagus secondaries one can usually see clear barring towards the middle of the wing.

To sum it up i would say pallid harrier, female.

(add; but i can't see the boomerang in the inner hand/coverts, but that might has to do with quality on both pics and my computer screen?)

I would like to see better pics, as it is extremely difficult to see any sort of fine detail here. I'm not even sure what age or sex this bird is: I'm getting an impression that it may be a 2nd cal bird, with the underwing coverts appearing warm-toned, but this is just an educated guess, really. There don't appear to be any barred axilliaries, which would be diagnostic of Montagu's, but, then, perhaps these have yet to be moulted if it is a 2cy bird? Still, I would tend to provisionally agree with Mattias insomuch as that the inner primaries do appear to lack an obvious dark trailing edge, which would be a pro-Pallid character, but would stop short of claiming it as a certain Pallid on the available evidence. If it is one, the slight build would almost suggest 2cy male rather than a female?
Regards,
Harry

I would agree on Pallid regarding the pattern of inner primaries, also, I zoomed on the 1st picture and I think I can see a white collar which is a pro-pallid feature. But I am not sure about the age of this bird, streakings to the body underparts look pretty extensive, I think this is more in line with a bird in its 3rd cy (at least). On the other hand, the underwing coverts look quite uniform and warm coloured as Harry noticed...

It's adult female Pallid Harrier, sharp whitish collar, dark secondaries contrasting well with pale primaries, pale edges to inner primaries. Dark "hood"/ breast makes it adult.

mäkpe said:

Dark "hood"/ breast makes it adult.

Click to expand...

Actually, that was my impression too, but given the quality of the pics, I was hesitant to give a definite ID...

Regarding the ageing, one has to be at bit careful since some juvenile Pallid/Montague's Harriers may moult the head and upper breast in winter. Montague's Harriers moult usually earlier than Pallid, and they may have replaced the entire body plumage by spring, according to Forsman.

In this case features that do not point towards a 2cy Montague's Harrier are:
-like mentioned, the trailing edge of the hand looks pale
-the fingers look quite pale, only the tips are dark
-the barring on the primaries is quite broad and regular
-there's a collar, but at least 2cy male Montague's Harriers may show one, don't know about females

However, one would always hope to see close up pictures of such a difficult to identify pair of species.