Circus pygargus
| Montagu's harrier | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Accipitriformes |
| Family: | Accipitridae |
| Genus: | Circus |
| Species: | C. pygargus |
| Binomial name | |
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Circus pygargus (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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| Range of C. pygargus Breeding range Wintering range | |
The Montagu's harrier (Circus pygargus) is a migratory bird of prey of the harrier family. Its common name commemorates the British naturalist George Montagu.
The first formal description of Montagu's harrier was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco pygargus. The genus Circus was introduced by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek. Circus is from kirkos, referring to a bird of prey named for its circling flight (kirkos, "circle"), probably the hen harrier, and pygargus is Modern Latin derived from Greek pugargos, from puge,"rump" and argos, "shining white". The species name was formerly used for the hen harrier before Montagu's was identified as a different species.
Sexual dimorphism is particularly apparent in the plumage of this species. Adult males are characterized by their overall pale grey plumage contrasting with black wingtips. Compared with other harriers this species has characteristic black bands along the secondaries, both above and below the wing and rusty streaks on belly and flanks. Adult females have a broadly similar plumage to that of pallid and hen harriers. The underparts are mostly pale yellow-brown, the belly with longitudinal stripes and the wing coverts spotted. The upper parts are uniform dark brown except for the white upper tail coverts ("rump"), and the sightly paler central wing coverts.
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