African Marsh Harrier

The African marsh harrier (Circus ranivorus) is a bird of prey belonging to the harrier genus Circus. It is largely resident in wetland habitats in southern, central and eastern Africa from South Africa north to South Sudan. African Marsh harrier females are larger than males and they are 44–47 cm in length, with females being about 30% heavier than males. Adults, 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 have dark barring at all ages, but this is rarely visible in the juvenile birds. It resembles a small Eurasian marsh harrier but is slimmer and paler brown. It could be mistaken for an immature Montagu's harrier or pallid harrier, 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 pseeew-pseeew food and copulation call during breeding.