---
title: "Western Marsh Harrier"
description: "Circus aeruginosus — Uccelli. The western marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) is a large harrier, a bird of prey from temperate and subtropical western Eurasia and adjacent Africa."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/it/animal/western-marsh-harrier
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Western Marsh Harrier

> Circus aeruginosus — Uccelli. The western marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) is a large harrier, a bird of prey from temperate and subtropical western Eurasia and adjacent Africa.

- Scientific name: *Circus aeruginosus*
- Category: `birds` (Uccelli)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Laghi e fiumi)
- iNaturalist observations: 66097
- Wikidata: [Q26431](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q26431)
- iNaturalist taxon: [5173](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/5173)

## Names

- en: Western Marsh Harrier
- de: Rohrweihe
- es: Aguilucho lagunero occidental
- fr: Busard des roseaux
- nl: Bruine kiekendief
- pt: Tartaranhão-ruivo-dos-pauis
- pl: Błotniak stawowy

## Countries with the most observations

RU (20145), ES (4918), GB (3789), IT (3659), DE (3371), FR (2936), UA (2263), AT (1854), IN (1686), PT (1517), NL (1185), DK (1181)

## Summary

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…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_marsh_harrier

## Photo

![Western Marsh Harrier](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/western-marsh-harrier/medium.jpg)

Photo: Лариса Артемьева · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/271701128

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/western-marsh-harrier?lang=it` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).