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6

Swamp Harrier (Circus approximans) Alternate name(s): "Marsh Harrier", "Gould's Harrier", "Swamp-hawk", "Wheat-hawk" Aboriginal name(s): "tjuRk" [tjapwurrung]; "djilyoordo" (WA) Size: 50-60 cm; wing span 1.2-1.5 m Weight: 0.5-0.7 kg (male), 0.7-1.0 kg (female)

Australia: Family Group 6 Family Group 6 Table Osprey Brahminy Kite Whistling Kite Little Eagle Black Kite Square-tailed Kite Black-breasted Buzzard Wedge-tailed Eagle White-bellied Sea-Eagle Spotted Harrier Swamp Harrier Black-shouldered Kite Letter-winged Kite Pacific Baza Collared Sparrowhawk Brown Goshawk Grey Goshawk Red Goshawk Nankeen Kestrel Australian Hobby Peregrine Falcon Brown Falcon Grey Falcon Black Falcon Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Swamp Harriers have a dimorphic plumage, i.e. males and females are slightly different. They have an overall dark brown-grey plumage, with a lightly barred tail. Head, neck and front are streaked. Males become progressively greyer and lighter of colour with age, females maintain their rufous-grey streaked appearance. This trend is visible in birds in flight. The underwings of males are primarily light-grey, with darker grey tips of the primary flight feathers and a dark-grey trailing edge. Females maintain streaked rufous-grey inner frontal underwings through their lifespan, with three narrow rufous-grey bars and a broad dark-grey trailing edge on the otherwise greyish outer and rear parts of the underwing. Females also tend to have much more prominent bars on the undertail than males. When perched, females look almost homogenously rufous-grey streaked from the front, while males show more colour contrast, with a dark-grey head, greyish-streaked front and almost white "trousers". Both sexes have yellow irises, greyish-yellow legs and feet and black talons. Juvenile Swamp Harriers are very dark grey-brown, with a chestnut hue on their "trousers", vent and undertail . Twitcher's tip In-flight Swamp Harriers can often be seen with dangling legs.

Taxonomy, classification See Swamp Harrier at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Swamp Harrier is available HERE . The range of the Swamp Harrier extends from Australia, including Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island, and New Zealand to parts of New Guinea, plus most of the southern Pacific islands, such as the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga, as far to the East as French Polynesia. Swamp Harriers can be found everywhere on the Australian continent, including Tasmania. They breed in the southern winter in the far South-West corner of WA and the South-East of the continent (from Adelaide through all of VIC to eastern Tasmania). At least part of the population migrate to the North outside the breeding season, usually populating all of NSW, south-eastern QLD and the Lake Eyre Basin and parts of the tropical North of Australia. Occasionally, though, they can be found in the rest of the continent too (although rarely in the driest parts of the continent). Swamp Harriers hunt in tall grass and reeds around swamps, marshes and other wetlands and above open water. They are therefore often found around various well-vegetated wetlands, including ephemeral wetlands.

Sightings Click here for sighting information We first spotted a Swamp Harrier 20 km South of Narrabri in October 2005. It was seen carrying away a snake that it had just caught. Since then, Swamp Harriers have been spotted by us infrequently in inland NSW, e.g. by roadsides, in low flight above reeds or also in grassland. A single Swamp Harrier was spotted in August 2010, above Narrabri Lake and another in January 2011, 20 km East of Narrabri. A pair was observed by us 15 km South-East of Narrabri in March 2012. A single Swamp Harrier was also observed by us near Jerseyville, NSW, in January 2011. Swamp Harriers were spotted by us in the Hunter Wetlands NP, NSW, on various occasions. In August 2014 we spotted a first-year Swamp Harrier at Fogg Dam CR, NT, while B. Hensen found the species at Lambell's Lagoon, NT, in November 2018. R. Plumtree reports spotting a Swamp Harrier at Ensay South, East Gippsland, VIC, in November 2014, and another at Lake Omeo, Benambra, East Gippsland, VIC, in February 2017. A. Ross-Taylor reports spotting a Swamp Harrier in a wetland at Carrara, Gold Coast, QLD, in February 2015. In May 2015 a pair of Swamp Harriers was found hanging out near a small farm dam for a short while at Eulah Creek, 20 km East of Narrabri, NSW. A pair of Swamp Harriers was found by us at Macquarie Marshes NR in April 2017. 3 Swamp Harriers were found by us, together with V. Collins, at the same location in May 2021. B. Hensen reports finding a Swamp Harrier near Cape Banks, La Perouse, Sydney, NSW, in December 2017. M. Eaton found a Swamp Harrier at Sandy Camp Wetlands, Lytton, QLD, in September 2018. Another was spotted at Bedourie, QLD, in August 2022. M. Windeyer found a Swamp Harrier above an ephemeral wetland by the side of a rural road near Gilgandra, NSW, in June 2020. C. Pears reports spotting a Swamp Harrier at Lake Herdsman, Perth, WA, in August 2022. By October 2022 a pair was present and found to be breeding.

Photos

ADULT

MALE

Near-dorsal view of a Swamp Harrier in flight; the general paleness of its plumage and the absence of barring on the tail characterize this bird as an old male (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Near Cape Banks, La Perouse, Sydney, NSW, December 2017]

Near-lateral view of a male Swamp Harrier in flight
[Macquarie Marshes NR, NSW, April 2017]

Lateral view of a male Swamp Harrier in flight; note the thin trailing edge on the underwing and the near-white leg feathers typical of a male
[Macquarie Marshes NR, NSW, April 2017]

FEMALE

Near-frontal view of a harrying female Swamp Harrier in flight; note the rufous leg feathers typical of a female
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Sandy Camp Wetlands, Lytton, QLD, September 2018]

Lateral view of a hovering Swamp Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Ensay South, East Gippsland, VIC, November 2014]

Lateral view of a female Swamp Harrier in-flight, being harassed by a Little Eagle (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Bedourie, QLD, August 2022]

Distant near-dorsal view of a female Swamp Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[Lake Herdsman, Perth, WA, September 2022]

Sex unknown

Near-frontal view of a Swamp Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Ensay South, East Gippsland, VIC, November 2014]

Near-dorsal view of a Swamp Harrier in flight, probably an immature male moulting into adult plumage (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Ensay South, East Gippsland, VIC, November 2014]

Dorsal view of a Swamp Harrier in flight, showing clearly the characteristic white rump of an adult bird
[Macquarie Marshes NR, NSW, April 2017]

Dorsal view of a Swamp Harrier in flight, upsetting the local Grey Teals (photo courtesy of M. Windeyer)
[Near Gilgandra, NSW, June 2020]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Two juvenile Swamp Harriers; one bird is just taking off, while the other is still sitting in the tree (lower left)
[Near Narrabri, NSW, March 2012]

Lateral view of a juvenile Swamp Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Lake Omeo, Benambra, East Gippsland, VIC, February 2017]

Clear view of the underwing pattern of a juvenile Swamp Harrier in flight
[Hunter Wetlands NP, NSW, July 2013]

Dorsal view of a juvenile Swamp Harrier in flight
[Hunter Wetlands NP, NSW, December 2016]

Breeding information

Breeding season: Sep - Dec

Eggs: 2 - 5

Incubation period: 32 - 34 days

Fledging age: 42 - 45 days

Nest building: Female (& male?)

Incubation: Female

Dependent care: Female & male

Nest

"bungobittah", "lar", "malunna", "jindi" [bundjalung] = nest [Aboriginal]

Type: Basket

Material: Reeds, other plants

Height above ground: N/A

Unusually for a raptor, Swamp Harriers do not nest in a major fork of a tall tree, but on a, potentially anchored but floating, platform in reeds.

Female Swamp Harrier carrying nest material - click on image to see the reeds the bird is flying over
(photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[Lake Herdsman, Perth, WA, October 2022]

Eggs

"boyanga", "booyanga", "derinya", "dirandil", "koomura", "mirk", "ngampu", "nooluk", "pateena", "pum-pum" = Egg; "dirundirri" = eggs [Aboriginal]; "gawu" = eggs [gamilaraay]

Size: 52 x 40 mm

Colour: White

Shape: Ellipsoidal

Behaviour

Like all species of harriers, Swamp Harriers use a hunting technique called "harrying". An example of this technique is shown HERE.

Food, Diet

Adults: Birds, small mammals

Dependents: As adults

Water intake: None

All raptors are carnivores. Swamp Harriers prey on water birds and waders.

During the first few weeks, raptors feed their chicks with pieces of meat. Later on in their development, the chicks learn to tear apart their parents' prey.

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Sun, 16 October 2022, 1:15 +00:00