Eastern Marsh Harrier (juvenile plumage)

 Eastern Marsh Harrier is a unique harrier with diverse plumage. Hybrid in this species did not make it any better.

Some plumage is very straight forward such as this one below. The dark crescent behind the eye and not join to the eye is typical to the Eastern marsh Harrier. Cream coloured head pointed to marsh harrier and all other feature does not create confusion.

Nevertheless this is not the case all the time. Some individual show patchy ear patch rather than crescent. To make it worse some of this patch come close to the eye and never join. The danger when observing individual like this is that many conclude it to be Western Marsh Harrier. While they can be very close to Western the feature actually pointed to Eastern Marsh Harrier. One need to take careful observation. Look at the same bird in different view. Follow them with scope if you can although this is not all the time possible. Once you have a good look usually many observer manage to point the bird back to Eastern marsh Harrier. See photo below :)