Swamp harrier - thunderstorm of fresh water bodies

This bird of the hawk family scientifically called Circus aeruginosus. We have it is called a reed, or a marsh harrier. What this hawk eats, where it breeds, when it brings offspring - read about this in this article. We will also consider the distribution area of the species and its regional features. Surely you saw this beautiful bird with a long tail and narrow wings, raised behind the back in the form of the letter "V". For her flight, smoothly, like a glider, glides low above the ground, right at the panicles of reeds or sedge tops. The ravenous look of a lunya reminds a wolf. Yes, and it can be compared with this gray "hospital attendant". After all, the reed hawk maintains the ecological balance of bogs and lakes.

How does a harrier harrow look like?

The photo shows us a rather large bird. Of all the types of moons, the marsh is the largest and darkest. The females are much larger than their knights. Their weight reaches 750 grams, the body length is 60 centimeters. Male are not only modest in size (550 g and 50 cm), but also plumage. They are more colorful: white, brown, gray and even black feathers create a beautiful pattern. The females are "dressed" in ocher plumage with a chocolate cast, and only their head is covered with dark specks. A characteristic feature of the moons are long (up to 43 centimeters) and narrow wings. They allow the birds to successfully maneuver, hover over the prey or plan silently and silently over the pond. The reed lunya has long paws, which he often uses. Even the building material for the nest he carries not in his beak, but in claws. The bird is also distinguished by a long tail - 23.5-26 centimeters.

Spread

The marsh harrier is found everywhere in the Old World, except for the extreme North. In Russia, the species is distributed from the south of the country to the middle taiga. We have it - a migratory bird. It migrates to the south long before the freezing of water bodies - in August in the forest zone, in September in the steppes. Starting from Italy and south of the population lead a sedentary lifestyle. The number of individuals in them in summer is small. In the winter birds coming from the north join. Thus, reed lun is also found in North-West Africa (up to the zone of equatorial forests), on the islands of Madagascar and Reunion. Birds from the eastern part of Russia fly to winter in Southeast Asia, reaching even the coast of Australia. In this connection, two subspecies of the bog moons are distinguished. They differ from each other in the feathering of males. In western birds it is lighter, brown, and in the eastern - dark brown, on the top of the head black.

What does he eat

The marsh harrier is a bird of prey. Its prey is often small waterfowl and their chicks. A hawk can kill even an adult duck and a young muskrat. He also likes to ruin nests. Snatching claws out of the water and zazevavshuyusya fish. Do not disdain frogs, small animals (water voles), carrion. If you can not catch anything on the pond, it flies to the steppe, where it feeds on land animals and birds - larks, ground squirrels, carcasses, snakes, and even a large locust. Thus, the reed lun is not only a swamp ambulance (as he eats carrion and porkins, killed, but not found by duck hunters), he destroys harmful rodents and insects in the fields. A friendly rebuff to a pair of moons can give seagulls. Then predators are forced to seek their food away from the pond. They can damage the bird farms by stealing chicks and ducklings.

How the marsh harrier breeds

Nomadic birds fly when water is released from the ice. First come the males, who make demonstrative circles with sharp turns and soaring up above the chosen territory. These birds are mostly monogamous, but sometimes it also happens that the male acquires a small harem. Then the nests are located close to each other. The laying of the moons is cumbersome, reaching a meter in diameter and 0.5 m in height. The material is last year's sedge, reeds and other near-water vegetation. The marsh harrier nests in secluded places - among peat drifts and swamps, on the islands. The female lays 4-5 large (up to 5 centimeters) white with green and ocher pestriny eggs. She incubates them all 35 days, and her husband brings her food. The newborn chicks have yellow fluff, and only the head is white. After the moult, they have dark spots in their eyes. The chicks begin flying on the fortieth day.

Lifestyle

It is interesting that the marsh harrier, being a predator, never pursues its prey. He prefers to snatch birds or animals from the surface of the water, and land animals - when she sits on the ground. During the nesting, the lunoon is kept near a lake or swamp, and only when the chicks grow up, go hunting for prey in the surrounding meadows or fields. On a hot afternoon, birds arrange a siesta in dense thickets of reeds, but more often than not, an irrepressible appetite makes the hawks circumnavigate the water surface nonstop. His piercing "cuey-cuey-cueyu" can often be heard in the middle of the forest, near small eyes-lake with wetlands. The legs of the moon are so strong that he is able to carry the prey from his weight. But on the ground he moves reluctantly, preferring to spend time in the air.