Can you identify these birds of prey?

[Jeeps]

Good evening,

I stumbled across this site while trying to identify some birds we photoed last week in south west France. I hope it's ok to come straight on with a question, not even from Britain, but the identification of the birds is driving me mad!

The photos are very poor quality. It was dusk and we just turned a corner in the road to be greeted by these birds having supper. They were taken at 40x digital zoom without a tripod so all in all, nothing to be proud of, regretably.

The creature they are feeding on is a coypu, to give an idea of size.

Looking through your Gallery, I think number 1 is a buzzard? I am a little unsure as we have buzzards here in northern Scotland and they are smaller and not so prettily marked.

In number 3, the black bird standing on the coypu has white at the base of it's belly and both wings have been tagged. I have no idea what it or the other two are but I am guessing the two are young of some type as they deferred to the black bird.

4 is just to give an indication of the shape of the wings of the black bird. It has a blue tag on the left wing and a green one on the right.

5 is a smaller bird altogether.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated and I do apologise for just jumping straight in with a question.

[Picidae]

From the top:

1. Common Buzzard
2. Marsh Harrier on left, Common Buzzard right
3. Marsh Harrier on left, Black Kites on right
4. Marsh Harrier again, and Common Buzzard
5. Black Kite

Some pics

Marsh Harrier in flight showing white belly patch
marsh-harrier_49.jpg (image)

Black Kite (see inset - it's hard to find photos of perched birds!)
Galleriet - Netfugl.dk

[HamieRaptorcliff]

Tell you something, these are some cool pics.

To see all these birds together must have been so exciting.

Very jealous.

H

[The Woodman]

The MH in 2 looks like it has a ring on its right leg.

The coypu would have excited me let alone a gathering of BOP's.

A memory you'll keep for many years, Jeeps.

[faz]

hi jeeps welcome to WAB agree with picidae nice pictures of so many BOP,S
at a road kill

[Jeeps]

Thanks very much indeed for the identification Picidae.

I would never have guessed the dark one was a marsh harrier and yes, The Woodman, I think it is ringed. Having Googled marsh harrier, I saw this entry on Wikipedia "There is a rare hypermelanic morph with largely dark plumage" so I wonder if this particular bird, being so dark, is relatively rare hence its' tags and ring?

Thank you for your kind welcome and comments folks. Yes, it was very exciting to see and we watched for a good 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour. At one point I counted 10 various bops coming in which was incredible. The birds knew we were there and we were taking almost constant photos but conditions were against us and these were mainly the best of the bunch. Here's another you might be interested in.

[Picidae]

Hi Jeeps

(Welcome to WAB btw!)

The Marsh Harrier appears to be a juvenile (Note the fresh uniform very dark/almost black plumage and rufous tips to the upper wing coverts and dark brown tail - 2nd to last photo). Juveniles can be very dark all over with just a touch of ochre on the nape - if you look closely, you will see your MH shows this faintly. While most juveniles show anything from extensive ochre crown and throats to just yellowish spotting on the upper breast some can show just a pale band at the nape (as yours does) this varies amongst individuals. There is a rarer 'dark morph' Marsh Harrier but these are from Middle Eastern populations and unlikely to be seen in South West France. The females and juveniles of the 'dark morph' can be identical to the western Marsh Harriers of juveniles lacking ochre markings so it's more likely yours is 'just' a dark juvenile of the western population of MH.

As for the wing tags, there are lots of raptor projects (including French ornithological groups) that carry out wing tagging on Harriers but you could try emailing this one with details of wing tags and plumage/age

formulaire saisie br

[Jeeps]

That is great, thank you Picidae, the information is much appreciated. I will contact that French project and see if they will supply some more details.

This is where we saw the birds, if you are interested. Bernezac.com - Brouage, in the marsh of Brouage, France, Atlantic coast, We also saw herons, egrets and two, apparently empty, stork nests.

[Picidae]

Thanks for the link Jeeps - I'm personally always interested in potential birding sites as part of the intininary for an overseas trip - looks like a good location.

Do let us know if you get any response from the email.

[Jeeps]

I am really chuffed to have heard back from the guy in France who tagged the marsh harrier:

"thank you for this observation. I ringed this bird, on 28/06/2010 in the
/marais de Brouage- 45,8567 -1,0375. /Your observation is the first
for this bird.
I study Marsh Harrier on four sites in Charente-Maritime, and each sites
offer different habitats for Marh harrier reproduction (reed beds,
grasslands, crops..). With tagging birds I hope to undersand relations
between sites, and know if Harriers born in one type of habitat will
nest in the same habitat or not. I want to know too, the dispersion of
birds, longevity"

My husband and I have found the whole experience really interesting and are very grateful to you for your help.