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Description: | The call of the Montagu's harrier, recorded in Cornwall. This is the smallest and by far the rarest of the three British harriers, and is here for just a few summer months before disappearing to African climes for the winter. It is named after a Mr Montagu who identified the species as being distinct from the hen harrier in 1802. It is superficially similar to the hen harrier, with the male being predominantly grey and the female brown, but is much slimmer with narrower, more pointed wings. Being light and agile means it is suited to catching fast-moving prey such as larks and pipits, small mammals, and even lizards and insects. Montagu's harrier traditionally nested in fens, wet fields, heaths, and moors but has recently started to nest in arable fields of crops, such as winter wheat and barley in the south and east of England. Around the nest is one of the few places that this generally silent bird is likely to produce its chattering call. Although never a common breeding bird in Britain, pairs of Montagu's have declined from about 50 pairs in the 1950s to the current precarious position of between five and fifteen pairs, meaning that each nest is specially protected during the breeding season. | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Rights holder: | British Library | Subjects: | Bird Moor Farmland Wildlife sounds Heath | Source: | Collect Britain | Creator: | Shove, Lawrence | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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