Montagu's Harrier

Montagu's harrier is the slimmest and lightest of the harriers, with long, narrow wings that let it glide almost effortlessly over the fields. The male is grey with a black bar across the wing, the female brown with a white rump. Unlike its cousins, it nests in cereal fields, so its nest is often at risk during the harvest. That is why volunteers search for the nests every year and protect them with a fence or by leaving a patch of wheat standing. It is a migrant that leaves for Africa in autumn, far south of the Sahara. The useless fact: on migration, a Montagu's harrier sometimes covers more than 5,000 kilometres to Senegal and Mali. It does so in a few weeks, without the young birds needing to learn their parents' route.