AI overview
The Western Marsh Harrier is a large bird of prey that hunts over wetlands and marshes across Europe, Asia, and Africa. It matters as an indicator of healthy wetland ecosystems and is protected under European law due to past declines from pesticides and habitat loss.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Species
Least ConcernEurasian marsh harrier
Species
- PhylumChordata
- ClassAves
- OrderFalconiformes
- FamilyAccipitridae
Maximum longevity: 20.1 years (wild)
via IUCN
Article
The western marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) is a large harrier, a bird of prey from temperate and subtropical western Eurasia and adjacent Africa. It is also known as the Eurasian marsh harrier. Formerly, a number of relatives were included in C. aeruginosus, which was then known as "marsh harrier". The related taxa are now generally considered to be separate species: the eastern marsh harrier (C. spilonotus), the Papuan harrier (C. spilothorax) of eastern Asia and the Wallacea, the swamp harrier (C. approximans) of Australasia and the Madagascar marsh harrier (C. maillardi) of the western Indian Ocean islands.
The western marsh harrier is often divided into two subspecies, the widely migratory C. a. aeruginosus which is found across most of its range, and C. a. harterti which is resident all-year in north-west Africa.