Western Marsh Harrier

Western Marsh Harrier is the largest of the 6 species of harriers that inhabit Eurasia. It has no equivalent on the North American continent. Like the others, it shows a marked sexual dimorphism, flying with wings raised in a V in open spaces where it hunts its prey on the ground or on the water.
The adult male in full plumage can be recognized by its variegated appearance, brown, gray, white, black ... From a distance, it looks brown with a lighter head. Up close at rest, the head has a variable background color (cream, beige, reddish, gray) and is streaked with brown. The area around the eye can be slightly darkened. The upper parts (mantle, back, rump and wing coverts) are brown with more or less light spots, especially on the coverts. The chest is often the color of the head and also mottled. Sometimes it is lighter, creamy reddish, and then contrasts sharply with the belly and thigh of a warm brown. The tail is grayish. From the wings, you usually only see the black tips, sometimes the gray of the remiges just in front. It is in flight that the variegated aspect takes on its full meaning due to the spread wings, tricolor in top view (brown, gray and black from the inside to the outside), bicolor (white and black) from below. Let's stick to that. The proximal 2/3 are lightly grayish white with the coverts slightly reddish, but from a distance it looks all white. The distal 1/3 is black with a very clear but slightly irregular border. The black concerns the ends of the primary remiges P5 to 10. The end of P3 and 4 is slightly darkened, but there is no black slip edge like in the B. Saint Martin. The tail is a very light gray. The iris is quite yellow. The wax of the beak and the long tarsi are also yellow.
The adult female is generally of a deep brown, which can appear almost black from a distance in bad light, with the head lighter which signs the species.The head is indeed cream-white with a brown band passing over the eye. The same color is found on the front of the wing at the level of the arm and often also towards the shoulder. The upper parts are entirely brown, wings and tail included, with the exception of the aforementioned pale areas. The lower parts, body and coverts, are of the same brown as above and more or less spotted with cream. Often the chest is noticeably lighter. The legs are a warmer brown. The remiges and rectrices are greyish with a glossy look. The first ones stand out well against the dark coverts. The last 6 primaries are blackish at their tips, but without the sharp contrast observed in the male. The iris color varies with age. At 2 years, it is still amber brown and will be bright yellow at 4 years or more.
The juvenile is typical. It is entirely a darker brown than the female. The head is cream with a distinct reddish hue, with a brown band starting from the eye. No clear area on the wing like the female. The large coverts, remiges and rectrices have a faint pale edge at the tip that will wear off in the autumn. In flight, it appears entirely brown with slightly darker wings and tail, in slight contrast to the coverts. The eye is brown.
The young Western Marsh Harrier in its 2nd year looks feminine. It is not easy to distinguish a one-year-old female from an older female. We will only see the male. The one-year-old young male is recognized by its already yellow iris, but it must be seen. In a top view, pay attention to the feathers. Some rectrices are beginning to grey and the same is true for the remiges but later. The remiges of the secondaries and primaries P1 to 5 have a clearly darkened tip, which causes a dark and slightly contrasting edge to the wing of the young male.The presence of melanic phenotypes complicates matters and we will not take it into consideration.