- Circus aeruginosus
Identification
48-56cm.
Male - wings with grey and brown sections and black wingtips, head, tail and underparts are grey, chestnut belly.
Female - mainly brown with a cream crown and cream leading edge to her wings.
Distribution
Eurasia and North Africa. Widely distributed in the Western Palearctic region from Spain and northwest Africa, east across Russia to Central Asia and north to Scandinavia. It is extremely patchy across most of this area but there are small breeding populations in most countries of mainland Europe, as well as southern Britain, Sweden and Finland. Also breeds in Morocco, northern Algeria and Tunisia, and parts of Turkey and Iraq. Has begun a major expansion in northern Europe in recent decades after declining through persecution and loss of habitat. However, the species is still under pressure in parts of the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Increasing in Britain with about 200 pairs present in 2000 from south-east England north to central Scotland.
Northern and eastern populations are migratory and winter in Africa and around the Mediterranean. Birds from Britain, France and Spain, and those from the eastern Mediterranean are resident or dispersive. A broad-front migrant but still appears at migration watchpoints in some numbers, particularly Gibraltar and Bor�ka. Wintering in central and eastern Europe is rare but does occur at Lake Neusiedl in Austria. Recorded as a vagrant in Iceland and the Faroes, Madeira and on the Azores.
Taxonomy
Subspecies: Nominate occurs over most of Western Palearctic range with harterti in northwest Africa, male is more contrasting than nominate and female paler overall.
Habitat
Breeds in reedbeds or other dense vegetation beside lakes, ponds and rivers or in marshes. Rarely, may nest in cornfields or heather. Hunts over water, reedbeds and adjacent farmland.
Behaviour
They prey on marsh birds and mammals. The diet includes birds' eggs, snakes, lizards, frogs, fish and insects.
Bird Song
<flashmp3>Circus aeruginosus (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program
