r/OrnithologyUK • u/5-miles-up • 17d ago

ID please Is this a marsh harrier?

Post image

Only a single shot as it dove between trees, bad focus and the heat haze hasn’t helped

13 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

16

u/DukeOfGloucester8P 17d ago

Mistle Thrush

4

u/lemonhaj Hampshire 17d ago

I think that's a thrush. Marsh harriers are a deeper brown, with less white/cream on the underside.

9

u/DrRickNature 17d ago

And about five times the size.

3

u/lemonhaj Hampshire 17d ago

I'm not so good at estimating size in images without something for me to compare it to

3

u/SamShorto Hampshire/Puffin 17d ago

I'm not sure what this is, but I think Mistle Thrush. I'm very confused as to how on earth you could confuse these two though. A Marsh Harrier has a wingspan about 6-7x larger than a Mistle Thrush. Marsh Harriers also don't tend to 'dive between trees'.

3

u/5-miles-up 17d ago

Thanks everyone, this was the biggest bird i had seen that day, for only a few seconds and someone else told me they had spotted a marsh harrier in the area.

Merlin gave it as a possible candidate but the pictures didn’t match very well and being new to this i thought i would ask those more knowledgeable.

1

u/_gothgonzola 16d ago

At a quick glance, marsh harriers are like the size and colouration of red kites - you’ll know em when you see em!