Pallid Harrier
Circus macrourus Gmelin, 1770
Circus pallidus Sykes, 1832: Reiser, 1894: 107; Klain, 1909: 87
Order Falconiformes
Family Accipitridae
Conservation status: in Bulgaria: Extinct EX, BDA-II, III; International: IUCN–NT; CITES-II; BeC-II; BoC-II; ECS-Spec 3; BD-I.
General distribution. A Turkestan species whose breeding area embraces Romania, Moldova, the Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, China. It winters in Africa and the Indian subcontinent. There is a tendency for a decrease of the population in the whole area, in Europe and in the Balkan peninsula.
Distribution and abundance in Bulgaria. At present, a passage migrant and partly wintering species, in the past it bred in Dobrudzha, in the vicinities of Ihtiman and Pazardzhik, as well as near the village of Dabravino, Varna district [1]. The southern border of its area passes through the territory of the country. In the last decades it was registered only during migration [2]. Its appropriate habitats and the regions of its past distribution have recently been comparatively well studied in ornithological terms and the results show that most probably it does not breed on the territory of the country [3].
Habitats. Open sites, steppes, meadows, marshy depressions, often in the vicinity of water [1], recently observed in corn cultures.
Biology. It breeds in singular individuals or in small colonies (3-5 pairs) on the ground in natural grass associations (meadows, pastures), as an exception in agricultural corn cultures. It lays 3 to 6 eggs from the beginning of May to the end of June. It feeds predominantly on small rodents (mice and voles), lizards and small species of birds (mainly ground-breeding species of the order Passeriformes).
Similar species. Circus cyaneus (the Northern Harrier, the Hen Harrier), Montagu's Harrier (Circus pygargus) and the Western Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus).
Negative factors. In the past: decrease of the areas of the habitats due to the turning of the natural grass associations into agricultural areas, use of pesticides in agriculture (mostly rodenticides), use of poisonous baits for combating mammals of prey, persecution of diurnal birds of pray as pests. At present: gathering crops before the young birds leave the nests; shooting it down as a harmful bird.
Conservation measures taken. A protected species since 1962. Included in the Red Data Book of Bulgaria (1985) as rare.
References: 1. Ivanov, 1985; 2. Simeonov et al., 1990; 3. BSPB (in press).
Author: Svetoslav Spasov
