Marsh harrier perching on a leafless tree!

The marsh harriers are birds of prey of the harrier subfamily. Marsh harriers are slow fliers and can remain airborne at speeds of less than 32kmph (20mph). Flying at such slow speeds makes it easier for them to detect prey. They are medium-sized raptors and the largest and broadest-winged harriers. Most of them are associated with marshland and dense reed beds. They are found almost worldwide, excluding only the Americas.

It feeds particularly on small mammals such as water voles (Arvicola) and birds such as Acrocephalidae warblers, but also eats insects, squamates, amphibians, fish and carrion. Once in a female bird two crushed frogs were observed in the Crop in postmortem examination of a shot bird. It feeds particularly on small mammals such as water voles (Arvicola) and birds such as Acrocephalidae warblers, but also eats insects, squamates, amphibians, fish and carrion. Once in a female bird two crushed frogs were observed in the Crop in postmortem examination of a shot bird.

The Western Marsh-harrier is often divided into two subspecies, the widely migratory called aeruginosus which is found across most of its range and harterti which is resident all-year in north-west Africa. This species has a wide breeding range from Europe and northwestern Africa to Central Asia and the northern parts of the Middle East. It breeds in almost every country of Europe but is absent from mountainous regions and subarctic Scandinavia. It is rare but increasing in Great Britain where it has spread as far as eastern Scotland. In the Middle East there are populations in Turkey, Iraq and Iran, while in Central Asia the range extends eastwards as far as north-west China, Mongolia and the Lake Baikal region of Siberia.

Most populations of the Western Marsh-harrier are migratory or dispersive. Some birds winter in milder regions of southern and western Europe, while others migrate to the Sahel, Nile basin and Great Lakes region in Africa, or to Arabia, the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar. The all-year resident subspecies harterti inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

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