From Opus

Alternative name: Hen Harrier

Male
Photo by RJSBRITS
Netherlands

Circus cyaneus

[edit] Identification

L. 17-24 in
W. 3 1/2-4 1/2 ft
Weight 12-18 oz
Male Grey head and upper parts with black primaries and white rump
Female Quite a bit larger than the male. Brown above and brownish-white below. Very noticeable white rump
In flight will show five obvious primaries (fingers) unless in moult.

Female
Notice the five primaries visible on the far wing
Photo by alibennLashi Lake, Yunnan, China, December 2005

[edit] Similar species

See Montagu's Harrier and Pallid Harrier which both show four noticeable primaries in flight. Also see other harriers depending on where the observation is done; in Europe, Western Marsh-Harrier is heavier with broader wings.

[edit] Distribution

Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere.

In North America breeds over most of Alaska except the far north and Canada south of the tree-line. Also breeds over much of the western and northern USA but absent from the south and south-east. Southernmost breeding limit is northern Baja California.

Winters from southern Canada and throughout the USA, and from Mexico to Panama, rarely the Caribbean, Colombia and Venezuela.

Subspecies hudsonius
Photo by rdavis
Orono Bog, Maine, USA, May 2009

In Europe main breeding range is from central Sweden, Finland and the Baltic States, south to the Black Sea and east to the Urals. However, also breeds patchily in Ireland and northern Britain, in north and central France and northern Spain, with smaller populations in the Netherlands, Denmark and central Norway, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. Recently bred for the first time for many years in Italy. A summer visitor to Scandinavia and Russia but resident or partly so in remainder of range.

Widespread in winter from British Isles, France and Spain east to the Black and Caspian Seas. Small numbers winter in Morocco and Egypt and can be seen on the major migration routes but relatively few cross the Mediterranean. Recorded in some numbers at Falsterbo, peaking in early-mid October.

A vagrant north to Iceland and the Faroes and to several Middle Eastern countries.

Asian range extends from the Urals to the Pacific coast breeding in the Russian Far East, on Kamchatka and Sakhalin, and northern and eastern China.

Winters in Japan, China south of the Yangtze, in South-East Asia and India. A rare straggler to Taiwan.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

• C. c. cyaneus (Eurasian):

• Widespread Eurasia

• C. c. hudsonius: (American)

• Widespread North America; winters to northern South America

The North American race hudsonius formerly known as the Marsh Hawk has rufous-spotted flanks and thighs in male and darker upperparts and more orange underparts in female. This race has occurred as a 'vagrant to the Azores and the Faroes and possibly also in Britain.
Gill and Donsker^[2] split the species, naming cyaneus Hen Harrier and hudsonius Northern Harrier.

[edit] Habitat

Breeds in marshes, grasslands and heathlands, sometimes in mountains, often in cultivated areas.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Flight

Harriers hunt using a low, slow flight over the ground, with their wings held in a shallow "V", then plunge onto their prey.

[edit] Diet

Includes small mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and carrion.

[edit] Breeding

They build a nest of sticks and grass on the ground in thick heather, grass or shrubs. The clutch consists of three to six eggs which are incubated by the female for 29 - 31 days, fledging after about a month later.

They take 2 - 3 years to mature, but may attempt breeding in their first year.

[edit] Vocalisation

Call: kek, kek, kek

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2011. IOC World Bird Names (version 2.10). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
3. Collins Field Guide 5th Edition
4. The Peregrine Fund
5. Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966

• List of references

[edit] External Links

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