6

Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) German name(s): "Kornweihe" Size: 41-52 cm (incl. tail); wing span 1.0-1.2 m Body mass: 290-400 g (male), 390-750 g (female) Wing loading [g/cm2]: 0.27-0.32 (male), 0.31-0.51 (female)

Europe: Family Group 6 Family Group 6 Table Lammergeier Eurasian Black Vulture Griffon Vulture Rueppell's Vulture Egyptian Vulture Osprey White-tailed Eagle Golden Eagle Spanish Imperial Eagle Short-toed Snake Eagle Bonelli's Eagle Booted Eagle Greater Spotted Eagle Red Kite Black Kite European Honey Buzzard Common Buzzard Rough-legged Buzzard Long-legged Buzzard Western Marsh Harrier Hen Harrier Montagu's Harrier Pallid Harrier Black-winged Kite Eurasian Goshawk Eurasian Sparrowhawk Gyrfalcon Lanner Falcon Peregrine Falcon Common Kestrel Lesser Kestrel Red-footed Falcon Merlin Eurasian Hobby Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names European birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Hen Harriers are small harriers. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. Male Hen Harriers have a grey body, with black wing tips and off-white underwings with a dark trailing edge on both the upperside and the underside. The belly, vent, undertail coverts and "trousers" are a lighter shade of grey than head, chin, chest and back. The long, thin tail is grey, with lighter grey barring on the underside. Females, being the sole incubators and the species being ground-nesting, have much more cryptic plumage. Apart from some white around the eyes and some streaking around the neck, the head and upperparts of females are dark brownish-grey. The wing coverts have rufous edges, while the flight feathers have black tips, giving the folded wings a scalloped appearance. The front is grey with heavy rufous streaking, in particular on chin and chest. The underwings are grey, with darker grey barring on the flight feathers and rufous barring on the coverts. The tertiaries are darker grey than the rest of the flight feathers. Both sexes have yellow irises and a slender downcurved grey bill with yellow cere. The legs and feet are also yellow. Juveniles have a rufous front and underwing coverts, while the rest of the underwings is dark-grey, with mid-grey panels that show dark-grey barring. They have white spots on their wing coverts and (a detail which is not described in field guides) also on their secondary and tertiary flight featers, given their wings a white trailing edge. The upperparts of juveniles are very similar to those of females.

Taxonomy, classification See Hen Harrier at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Hen Harrier is available HERE . Hen Harriers are a partly sedentary, partly migratory species. Apart from a few locations on the north-African coastal fringe, they are an entirely Eurasian species. The breeding range extends all across the width of Eurasia, roughly from Britain and Iberia in the West to the Pacific coastline of Kamchatka and Sakhalin in the East, from about 45 degrees latitude in the South to the polar circle in the North. Their winter range extends from parts of Europe via Asia Minor, parts of the Middle East and south-western Asia, in a band stretching roughly from Iran via the northern side of the Himalayas into southern China, South Korea and Japan. In Europe the Hen Harrier is partly sedentary, partly migratory. They are sedentary in parts of western and central Europe (northern Iberia, much of France, Scotland, parts of Ireland, the Benelux countries and Germany, and winter visitors in the rest of Europe, eastward of Oder/Neisse and southward of the Danube river valley, and breeding migrants anywhere to the East and North of Poland, apart from the western and northern near-coastal fringe of Norway. Apart from being breeding migrants in the Pyrenees, they are NOT found at high altitudes in the major mountain ranges such as the Alps and the Caucasus (for details see a field guide). During the breeding season Hen Harrier has a preference for open taiga, marshes or shallow lakes, moors or heathland, always near water. In winter they are found in various types of open country, but again with a preference for aquatic habitats.

Sightings Click here for sighting information J. Pires reports spotting Hen Harriers regularly as winter visitors in the area from the Tejo estuary to Mora, Evora, Portugal. They have also been found in other parts of central to southern Portugal. G. Normand reports spotting a Hen Harrier near Nieppe, Hauts-de-France, France, in November 2020. A. Sarok found Hen Harriers in Vojvodina, Serbia, in the timeframe 2010-2024.

Photos

ADULT

MALE

Near-frontal view of a male Hen Harrier in flight, wings up (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Near-frontal view of a male Hen Harrier in flight, wings down (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Lateral view of a male Hen Harrier in flight, wings up (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Near-lateral/ventral view of a male Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Lateral view of a male Hen Harrier in flight, wings flat (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Lateral/ventral view of a male Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Near-dorsal view of a male Hen Harrier in flight, wings up (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Near Mora, Evora, Portugal, February 2016]

FEMALE

Full-frontal view of a female Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Vila Franca de Xira, Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2022]

Frontal view of a female Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Vila Franca de Xira, Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2022]

Near-frontal view of a female Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Vila Franca de Xira, Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2022]

Near-lateral view of a female Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Vila Franca de Xira, Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2022]

Near-lateral view of a female Hen Harrier banking sharply, possibly to strike prey on the ground
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, January 2025]

Lateral view of a female Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Vila Franca de Xira, Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2022]

Lateral view of a female Hen Harrier in flight, wings up; note the darker tertiaries on the underwing compared to the rest of the wing (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Near Mora, Evora, Portugal, January 2018]

Lateral view of a female Hen Harrier in flight, wings up (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Lagoa dos Patos, Alvito, Beja, Alentejo, Portugal, November 2021]

Lateral view of a female Hen Harrier in flight, wings flat (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2019]

Lateral view of a female Hen Harrier in flight, wings down (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2019]

Lateral/ventral view of a female Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, March 2019]

Near-dorsal view of a female Hen Harrier in flight, wings down (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Vila Franca de Xira, Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2024]

Near-dorsal view of a female Hen Harrier in flight, wings up (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Vila Franca de Xira, Tejo estuary, Portugal, December 2024]

Near-dorsal view onto the upperparts of a female Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, March 2019]

PAIR

Pair of Hen Harriers in flight, male on the left (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Lateral view of a juvenile Hen Harrier in flight; note the white spots on the upperwings, in particular also the white trailing edges (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, January 2026]

Lateral view of a juvenile Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, January 2026]

Lateral view of a juvenile Hen Harrier in flight; note the white spots on the upperwings, in particular also the white trailing edges (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, January 2026]

Near-dorsal view of a juvenile Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, January 2026]

Dorsal view of a juvenile Hen Harrier in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, January 2026]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial

Mobility: Partially migratory

Elementary unit: Solitary/pair

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