Circus aeruginosus
Silhouette: Mathieu Pélissié · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The western marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) is a large harrier, a bird of prey from temperate and subtropical western Eurasia and adjacent Africa. It is also known as the Eurasian marsh harrier. Formerly, a number of relatives were included in C. aeruginosus, which was then known as "marsh harrier". The related taxa are now generally considered to be separate species: the eastern marsh harrier (C. spilonotus), the Papuan harrier (C. spilothorax) of eastern Asia and the Wallacea, the swamp harrier (C. approximans) of Australasia and the Madagascar marsh harrier (C. maillardi) of the western Indian Ocean islands.
The western marsh harrier was scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco aeruginosus. Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but restricted this to Sweden in 1761. The western marsh harrier is now placed in the genus Circus that was introduced by Bernard Germain de Lacépède... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Rabat | 🇲🇦 Morocco | |
| 3 | Luxor | 🇪🇬 Egypt | |
| 4 | Cairo | 🇪🇬 Egypt | |
| 5 | Kalyan-Dombivli | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Indore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Tunis | 🇹🇳 Tunisia | |
| 8 | Abu Dhabi | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | |
| 9 | Surat | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ZooParc de Beauval | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Parc du Belvédère | 🇹🇳 Tunisia | |
| 3 | Tiergarten Halberstadt | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Hortobágyi Madárpark | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 5 | Дендропарк ім. Бенедикта Дибовського | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 6 | akwarium warszawskiego ZOO | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 7 | hipopotamiarnia i akwarium morskie warszawskiego ZOO | 🇵🇱 Poland |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Western Marsh-Harrier sighting in Kozhikode on a given day, based on 22 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 175th most-seen of the 229 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Western Marsh-Harrier in Kozhikode on a given day, against under 5% in February to December, the lowest months. That is one of Kozhikode's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain against 390 mm in June.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Western Marsh-Harrier sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
56th of 82
Of the 82 cities where we can rate Western Marsh-Harrier sightings, Kozhikode ranks 56th at under 5%. The best odds are in Vasai-Virar (India, about 50%), Rabat (Morocco, about 20%) and Luxor (Egypt, about 20%).
Same family: Accipitridae
The closest relatives of the Western Marsh-Harrier that you can see in Kozhikode (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are Brahminy Kite (about 70%), Black Kite (about 50%) and Crested Serpent Eagle (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Western Marsh-Harrier is recorded against all the birds logged in Kozhikode (22 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
