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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tib78" data-source="post: 2666592" data-attributes="member: 71118">That is actually a character that I associate with adult female Hen harrier. On juveniles, either the secondaries appear almost wholy blackish with only one or two faint pale bars (most birds, if not all the birds showing this pattern are young females). On other cases, some juveniles show a more adult female-like pattern with distinct pale bars on the secondaries but in that case the black trailing of the secondaries is relatively narrow (as wide as the trailing edge of the inner primaries) while on adult female the trailing edge of the secondaries is two or three times as wide as the trailing edge of the inner primaries). Moreover, on such birds the middle black bar of the secondaries is usually quite narrow, unlike the subject bird. Most birds showing these characters are young males.So, to me ,the pattern of the secondaries point towards an adult female. The underparts pattern looks OK for adult female too (caution: some juv males may appear very similar in this respect, but I doubt this bird is a juv male because the primary barring is thick and regular and the middle black bar of the secondaries is thick and obvious).The ragged tail, on the other hand, is unusual for an adult at this time of the year (more in line with a juvenile). An accident perhaps?There is one aspect that I noticed after a carefull study of the photographs of the local Hen harriers wintering in my area: the tips of the "fingers" typically appear more worn and sharp on juv, while they look fresher, blacker more blunt/rounded on adult females. Which is logical, because the primaries of the juvs are several months older than those of adults. Unfortunately, this is of no use with this strongely backlit image.Finally, IMO, the shape of the bird matches ad female better than juvenile.</blockquote>

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