CreatureData

Papuan harrier

Circus spilothorax Salvadori & D'Albertis, 1875

LCLeast Concernbirds of prey

The papuan harrier (Circus spilothorax) is a species in the family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes. Recorded adults weigh 502.2 g to 622.2 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

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Quick facts about the papuan harrier

Weight
502.2 g – 622.2 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Carnivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
wetlandsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
4.6src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Aerialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Migratorysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Where does the papuan harrier live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The papuan harrier is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Why a country list is not a range map

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the papuan harrier?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The Papuan harrier (Circus spilothorax) is a bird of prey native to New Guinea which belongs to the harrier genus Circus. It was classified as a subspecies of the eastern marsh harrier (Circus spilonotus) of eastern Asia.

It is thinly scattered across the whole of New Guinea except for the Vogelkop peninsula in the west. There are several unconfirmed reports from Australia but the bird can easily be confused with the swamp harrier. It inhabits grassland and wetlands up to 3800 m above sea-level. It hunts low over open ground searching for small mammals, birds and lizards.

The adult male is usually silvery-grey with black head, throat, back and wing-markings and white underparts. Adult females are brown with a pale rump, barred tail and streaked underparts. Juveniles are blackish-brown with cream-coloured markings on the head, more extensive in the female. The length of the bird varies from 47 to 54 cm; females are larger than the males.

In the central highlands and the Sepik valley there is a dark morph; males of this form are mostly blackish with a grey tail and the females are mostly dark brown.

From the Wikipedia article “Papuan harrier” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Papuan_harrier&oldid=1380703566), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the papuan harrier endangered?

The papuan harrier is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the papuan harrier classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderAccipitriformes
  5. familyAccipitridae
  6. genusCircus
  7. SpeciesCircus spilothorax Salvadori & D'Albertis, 1875

Synonyms Circus approximans spilothorax, Circus spilanotus spilothorax, Circus spilonotus spilothorax

Other names and names in other languages (28)
  • Papuan marsh-harrierEnglish
  • مرزة بابوانArabic
  • arpella de Nova GuineaCatalan
  • moták papuánskýCzech
  • Pletrygget RørhøgDanish
  • PapuaweiheGerman
  • papua cirkuoEsperanto
  • Aguilucho lagunero papúSpanish
  • Aguilucho lagunero de PapúaSpanish
  • Paapua loorkullEstonian
  • Busard de Nouvelle-GuinéeFrench
  • Elang-rawa timurIndonesian
  • Albanella della Nuova GuineaItalian
  • パプアチュウヒJapanese
  • Papuasinė lingėLithuanian
  • PapoeakiekendiefDutch
  • papuasivhaukNorwegian
  • błotniak nowogwinejskiPolish
  • tartaranhão-papuaPortuguese
  • tartaranhão-da-papuaPortuguese
  • Новогвинейский луньRussian
  • kaňa papuánskaSlovak
  • Papuanska eja močvaricaSerbian
  • papuakärrhökSwedish
  • Papua DelicesiTurkish
  • лунь папуанськийUkrainian
  • 巴布亚鹞Chinese
  • 巴布亞鷂Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the papuan harrier

Other species in the same genus Circus.

LC, Least Concern
Pied harrier (Circus melanoleucos)

Pied harrier

Circus melanoleucos

Accipitridae

ComparePapuan harrier vs Hen harrierPapuan harrier vs Western marsh harrierPapuan harrier vs Pallid harrierPapuan harrier vs Montagu's harrier

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the papuan harrier?

An adult papuan harrier weighs 502.2 g – 622.2 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the papuan harrier live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the papuan harrier for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the papuan harrier endangered?

The papuan harrier is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the papuan harrier?

The papuan harrier (Circus spilothorax) belongs to the family Accipitridae in the order Accipitriformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Papuan harrier (Circus spilothorax). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/papuan-harrier

MLA

“Papuan harrier (Circus spilothorax).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/papuan-harrier.

BibTeX
@misc{papuan_harrier_2026,
  title = {Papuan harrier (Circus spilothorax)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/papuan-harrier},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}