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Montagu's Harriers are small harriers. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. Male Montagu's Harriers have a grey body, with black wing tips and off-white wing panels that are dissected by a narrow black band, on both the upperside and the underside. In the folded wing that band can be seen as a black spot. The belly, vent, undertail coverts and "trousers" are a lighter shade of grey than head, chin, chest and back. The long, thin tail is grey, with lighter grey barring on the underside. Females, being the sole incubators and the species being ground-nesting, have much more cryptic plumage. Apart from some white around the eyes and some streaking around the neck, the head and upperparts of females are dark brownish-grey. The wing coverts have rufous edges, while the flight feathers have black tips, giving the folded wings a scalloped appearance. The front is grey with heavy rufous streaking, in particular on chin and chest. The underwings are grey, with darker grey barring on the flight feathers and rufous barring on the coverts. Both sexes have yellow irises and a slender downcurved grey bill with yellow cere. The legs and feet are also yellow. Juveniles have a rufous front and underwing coverts, while the rest of the underwings is dark-grey, with mid-grey panels that show dark-grey barring. The upperparts of juveniles are very similar to those of females.

Compared to Pallid Harriers, both sexes of Montagu's Harrier have darker underwings.

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 Montagu's Harrier is available HERE .

Montagu's Harrier is a strongly migratory species. Their breeding range extends from coastal northern and north-western Africa, via large parts of Europe, into Asia Minor and western and central Asia. In Asia the breeding range encompasses an area roughly between the Caspian Sea and far-western China in the South and ca. 60 degrees geographic latitude in the North. There are two areas where Montagu's Harriers overwinter: The Indian subcontinent, including Sri Lanka, parts of Pakistan and of Bangladesh in the East and sub-Saharan and highland eastern Africa in the West. During their migration they can be found also in areas between breeding grounds and winter quarters, such as e.g. the Middle East, Arabia, Asia Minor and the West coast of Africa.

In Europe Montagu's Harrier is a breeding migrant. The species is found mostly in Iberia, the southern half of France, the northern half of Italy and much of eastern Europe, but also along the Danube (e.g. the Hungarian Puszta) and other selected sites in central Europe. They also breed on Mediterranean islands such as the Balearic islands and Sardinia. Except for a few coastal locations in the South of England, along the Benelux, German and Dutch coastlines and the southern Baltic Sea they are not found in western Europe or Scandinavia.

During the breeding season Montagu's Harrier has a preference for open plains, bogs, wasteland or heathland with sparse shrubby vegetation in between which they nest on the ground.

J. Pires reports spotting a Montagu's Harrier occasionally in various locations in Portugal, from the far South to the far North.

A. Sarok found a Montague's Harrier in Vojvodina, Serbia, in the timeframe 2010-2024.