African Marsh Harrier
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The African marsh harrier (''Circus ranivorus'') is a
bird of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as (although not the same as) raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively predation, hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and smaller birds). In addition to speed ...
belonging to the harrier genus ''Circus''. It is largely resident in wetland habitats in southern, central and eastern Africa from
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
north to
South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...
.


Description

African Marsh harrier females are larger than males and they are in length, with females being about 30% heavier than males (Simmons and Simmons 2000). Adults, (like the male bird right) have yellow eyes, but brown eyes when immature. Both sexes are mostly brown with pale streakings on the head, breast, forewing and rufous on the thighs and the belly. Adult males differ from females in that they have a pale grey wash to the dorsal secondaries and primaries. The female's are brown. The juvenile is dark brown and may have a pale breastband and pale markings on the head. The tail and
flight feathers Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tai ...
have dark barring at all ages, but this is rarely visible in the juvenile birds. It resembles a small
Eurasian marsh harrier The western marsh harrier (''Circus aeruginosus'') is a large harrier, a bird of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as (although not the same as) raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively predation, hunt and fee ...
but is slimmer and paler brown. It could be mistaken for an immature
Montagu's harrier Montagu's harrier (''Circus pygargus'') is a migratory bird of prey of the harrier family. Its common name commemorates the British naturalist George Montagu. Taxonomy The first formal description of Montagu's harrier was by the Swedish nat ...
or
pallid harrier The pallid harrier (''Circus macrourus'') is a migratory bird of prey of the harrier subfamily. The scientific name is derived from the Ancient Greek. ''Circus'' is from ''kirkos'' (circle), referring to a bird of prey named for its circling fl ...
, but the African marsh harrier can be readily distinguished from them by its lack of a white rump. It is usually silent but the male has a high-pitched, two-note display call, and only the female has the far-carrying ' food and copulation call during breeding.


Habitat

The African marsh harrier is generally found in
marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...
es or reedbeds in east Africa and hunts over open grasslands and cultivation near wetlands. Found from sea level up to , it predominantly occurs above .


Distribution

The African Marsh harrier is mainly resident in the moister regions of southern and eastern Africa, from the
Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...
northwards through eastern
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
,
Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...
,
Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...
, eastern
Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
, south and western
Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...
,
Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...
, southwestern
Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
, western and central
Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
, south eastern
Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...
into northern
Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
, especially in the
Okavango Delta The Okavango Delta or Okavango Grassland is a vast inland delta in Botswana formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough at an elevation of in the central part of the endorheic basin of the Kalahari Desert. It is a UNESCO Wor ...
, and north eastern
Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...
. Disjunct populations occur in northern Tanzania, another two in the south of
Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
, another in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,
Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...
and south eastern
Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
; and the northernmost in north western
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
, far north Uganda and
South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...
.


Habits and ecology

The African marsh harrier has a varied diet which includes small mammals (70% of items) and adult birds, fledglings, lizards, frogs and large insects. It can sometimes consume birds up to the size of the
Red-billed teal The red-billed teal or red-billed duck (''Anas erythrorhyncha'') is a dabbling duck which is an abundant resident breeder in southern and eastern Africa typically south of 10° S. This duck is not bird migration, migratory, but will fly great d ...
and the
speckled pigeon The speckled pigeon (''Columba guinea''), also African rock pigeon or Guinea pigeon, is a pigeon that is a resident breeding bird in much of Africa south of the Sahara. It is a common and widespread species in open habitats over much of its range ...
. A favoured prey in some areas are doves, especially
laughing dove The laughing dove (''Spilopelia senegalensis'') is a small pigeon that is a resident breeder in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Western Australia where it has established itself in the wild after being released from Perth Zoo in 1898. Th ...
s. African marsh harriers are not found in areas with less than in annual rainfall as wetlands are sparse in regions with less rainfall, its main prey in southern Africa, the striped mouse ''Rhabdomys pumilio'' , is also restricted to this
isohyet A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, isoquant or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensi ...
. It will also feed on larger animals such as flamingo carrion left by, for example, African fish eagles. Most prey is caught on the ground but birds and insects are often caught on the wing. Unlike many harriers, it is monogamous and remains on the breeding territory for most of the year. In the southern Cape, birds leave for a few months post-breeding, returning in May–June. The nest is usually built in a reedbed, sometimes well above the water and two to four white eggs are laid from July to November. All eggs start out with a blue wash allowing newly laid eggs to be identified. The African marsh harrier does not form communal roosts, unlike other harriers and normally roosts solitarily. It leaves the roost early in the morning and then flies slowly over the ground. It hunts in typical harrier fashion, usually less than 10 metres above the ground, over wetlands and adjacent drier ground.


Conservation

African marsh harriers are reported to be common at many wetland sites in both eastern and southern Africa, especially in Uganda, Botswana and Zambia. In South Africa, an estimated 3,000-6,000 pairs remain, but some populations are declining and the species is regarded as regionally endangered. Outside South Africa there are still large areas of suitable habitat, e.g. the Okavango Delta in Botswana and over much of Zambia, and the species is still locally common . The population is preliminarily estimated to number between 10,000–100,000 individuals. Populations are declining due to drainage and damming of wetland habitats, over-grazing and human disturbance and, possibly,
pesticide poisoning A pesticide poisoning occurs when pesticides, chemicals intended to control a pest, affect non-target organisms such as humans, wildlife, plants, or bees. There are three types of pesticide poisoning. The first of the three is a single and sho ...
.


References


Further reading

* Roger Clarke (1995) ''The Marsh Harrier'', Hamlyn, London. * Ian Sinclair & Peter Ryan (2003) ''Birds of Africa south of the Sahara'', Struik, Cape Town. * Simmons R.E. (1997) African Marsh Harrier In: Atlas of Southern African birds Vol 1. Non-passerines. (Eds James Harrison, David Allan, Les Underhill, Marc Herremans, Vincent Parker, Chris Brown) Avian Demography Unit University of Cape Town. * Simmons R.E. Simmons J.R. (2000). Harriers of the world: their behaviour and ecology. Oxford University Press, UK * Tarboton W.R. Allan D. (1984) The status and conservation of birds of prey of the Transvaal. Tvl Mus Monographs No. 4. Pretoria South Africa.


External links

* African marsh harrier â€
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q17556 Harriers (birds) Birds of prey of Sub-Saharan Africa Birds described in 1800