This video is called Montagu’s Harrier – Britain’s Rarest Raptor.
Providing harriers with satellite transmitters proved there are three main ways for the birds to cross the Mediterranean sea on their autumn migration from Europe to Africa: through Spain, through Italy and through Greece (a newly discovered flyway, which only east European birds use).
Montagu’s harriers from the Netherlands use only the two western flyways.
In Africa, they winter in areas where they can feed on locusts.
When, in spring, the harriers fly back north, Morocco is an important stop over area for them. That is also a new discovery.
The new research was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The importance of northwest African stopover sites for Dutch, German and Danish Montagu’s Harriers: here.
Farmers and birdwatchers are being urged to keep a lookout for Montagu’s harriers – the rarest breeding bird of prey in the UK, which nests almost entirely on arable farmland: here.