WATCH: The moment Winterwatch helped track Britain's rarest bird of prey to sunny AFRICA

THESE are the exciting scenes that are helping conservationists discover where Britain's rarest bird of prey hangs out in winter.

The incredible Montagu's harrier tracked to Africa

Catching and fitting a satellite tracker on a harrier called Sally has revealed how she is currently enjoying the sunshine on the coast of Ghana.

Daily signals from the bird's backpack antennae show she has flown more than 4,000 miles from Norfolk to a coastal wilderness almost on the Equator.

The incredible efforts to catch, fit and then monitor the tracker are vital to safeguard the extremely rare Montagu's harrier.

Montagu's harrier with wings spreadGETTY

The Montagu's harrier are extremely rare

Disturbance and illegal activity clearly has a impact on this species

Mark Thomas

Only five pairs nest in Britain and, as a successful mother bird, discovering Sally's migration route is a key part of efforts to protect the species' staging posts as they fly to and from Africa.

Capturing Sally and fitting tiny 12-gram tracking device is one of the more fraught parts of the operation.

Martin Hugh-Games was on hand with Winterwatch cameras when Sally was caught at her secret nesting site during the summer.

Montagu's harrier on a rockGETTY

Only five pairs nest in Britain

Footage shows how the protective mother harrier was trapped in fine netting after being duped into attacking a stuffed honey buzzard positioned near her nest with its two chicks.

Mark Thomas is the Royal Society for the Protection of Bird's Montagu's harrier specialist and has been heavily involved in the tracking project.

He says the British population of between five and seven pairs are very well protected with fences at sights to stop eggs and young being eaten by predators.

With the help of sympathetic land owners, the maximum number of young birds are now fledging, and a hotline has been set up to help collate information about the birds when they arrive in Britain for the nesting season.

Montagu's harrier in flightGETTY

Footage shows how the protective mother harrier was trapped in fine netting

Mr Thomas said: "There is also a real need to build support for this species by making information more accessible and interesting to the public and birders.

"However, disturbance and illegal activity clearly has a impact on this species, so we have to be careful but we will continue looking for breeding sites from where we can operate a public viewing scheme such as recently on our Blacktoft Sands Reserve.

"In 2016, the hotline produced nearly 50 pieces of information/sightings and enabled us to locate and keep track of individual birds and breeding pairs.

"At the moment, Sally is the poster girl, going the furthest south - in Ghana now - that any of the tagged birds have ever gone."

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