Oh…apparently it is now called the

EURASIAN MARSH HARRIER

Its scientific name is Cirrus spilonotus….and they do remind me of the cloud that bears the same first name.

It’s a winter visitor to our country, amongst others…it breeds in the grasslands and wetlands of southern Siberia, northern Mongolia, north-east China, Manchuria and Japan, and migrates for the northern winter to South-east Asia, the Philippines and northern Borneo.

It’s a magnficient bird, as it soars on the wind-currents.

It’s lovely to see the “headlights” on its wings.

You can see two of them here: We watched them for quite a while, on both days. The Wiki entry says: Like all marsh harriers, it favours open, wet environments. It is frequently seen drifting low over ricefields, (and lakes!)..interspersing long, watchful circling glides with two or three slow, powerful wingbeats. We watched the waterbirds keeping a wary eye on the predator gliding above them at Hosakote kere (lake), when we visited on 281213:

I got one gliding to a landing at Hennagara Lake:

I enjoyed my observation of these beautiful raptors….and I hope you do, too.