Hen Harrier

The Hen Harrier is part of a group of Harriers referred to as grizzly due to the color of its male plumage. In the western Palearctic region, there are three grizzly harriers, including the Hen Harrier, the Common (or Grey) Harrier, and the Pallid Harrier, whose female and immature plumage can create real identification problems. In fact, harriers are highly sexually dimorphic. For the three mentioned here, the males have a grey back with black tips on the wings and the females have a discreet, streaked brown plumage for nesting safety. When perched, the adult male Hen Harrier appears to be uniformly grey-ash, except for the black wing tips and the lighter tail. The underside is white, except for the grey chest. The eyes, nostrils of the bill and legs are a bright yellow. In flight, it can already be recognized by its silhouette; it is the largest of the three. It has wide wings, with five black fingers at the hand and a marked black border on the edge of flight due to the black tips of the remiges. The tail, of medium length, is light and often vaguely barred. From above, the white rump is well visible. The adult female is entirely brown on the upper parts, not uniform brown, but with pale areas, especially on the head, neck and on the wing covers. The head shows a pale face with a dark spot in front of the eye and light eyebrows. At the back of the covers, a kind of light collar, like a pearl necklace, is more or less visible depending on the individuals. The underside is off-white or reddish with many brown stripes on the neck and chest, continuing more finely and fewer on the belly and up to the under tail coverts. In flight, the silhouette is also distinctive, even more massive than that of the male, with also five fingers at the hand.The white rump is broad and striking. The underwing shows pale primaries heavily barred with brown. At the carpal, the dark brown postsecondaries form, along with the dark brown spots on the secondaries, a dark area contrasting with the pale hand. The pale tail is barred with blackish-brown. Iris, wax and legs as the male. The juvenile is of a darker and more uniform brown on top, with reddish spots on the coverts. Its head is dark brown with the forehead, throat, eyebrow, an area under the eye and the pale collar more marked. The underside looks very red. In flight, the white rump stands out clearly against its brown background and the tail is well barred. The underside is like that of the female, but with the neck darker, the body well reddish and the dark area at the wrist darker and more contrasting. Finally, let us remember the specific diagnostic criterion: 5 fingers at the hand (4 in the ash-gray and the pale one).