Montagu's Harrier

Lightly built hawk with rather narrow and somewhat tapered wings. Favors heathland, grassland, arable fields, marshes. Mainly seen in flight, quartering fairly low with wings raised in shallow V; flight rather buoyant. Male pale gray overall with black wingtips (can be confused with a gull); note narrow black bar on upperwing. Female told from Hen Harrier by narrower wings, more buoyant flight; juvenile bright rusty below. Some individuals are very dark overall. Pallid Harrier males lack the black wing bars and rusty traces on the underparts of their Montagu's counterparts, while Pallid females and juveniles average far paler in the face.

It can breed in wetlands, though these are often smaller and drier than those used by the marsh harrier. It also utilizes heaths, dunes, moors, and can be found in the steppe. It adapts to shrublands in gorse or heather and to areas planted with young conifers.

In Sri Lanka, a Montagu's Harrier's diet primarily consists of small birds, lizards, large insects like grasshoppers, and occasionally small mammals, adapting to the local prey availability in the open grasslands and agricultural areas where they hunt; their diet can vary depending on the season and specific location within the country.