A rare bird of prey that was previously saved from extinction has been seen soaring over Hampshire in search for its next hunt.

Daily Echo Camera Club member Colin Vanner managed to take a photo of a marsh harrier swooping at full stretch on a gloomy day.

The brown-coloured bird stood out against the grey skies as its beady eye looked straight into Colin's camera.

Being the largest of the harriers, the birds stretch out into distinctive V-shapes in the air, as seen in Colin's photo, by holding their wings up.

Hampshire Wildlife Trust said marsh harriers usually nest in large reedbeds to feed on small mammals, frogs and other birds like moorhen and coot.

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The trust said that female marsh harriers can be spotted and easily identified by their "golden-yellow crown and throat" and "chocolate-brown colour".

A spokesperson said that males have a "brown back, gingery belly, pale head and neck, and long, grey wings with black tips".

The species was once so heavily persecuted and hit with such bad habitat loss that just one nesting female was left in the whole country in 1971, according to Hampshire Wildlife Trust.

After decades of conservation works though, the UK breeding population has now risen above 500 pairs, the trust said on its website.

Despite the recovery, marsh harriers are still a rare sight in parts of the country, mostly being found in East Anglia, the Somerset Levels and parts of east Scotland.

Males have a "brown back, gingery belly, pale head and neck, and long, grey wings with black tips", according to the trust.