I was sent these images asking me for an opinion on which species of harrier is involved. The discussion around the bird centres on whether it is a Northern Harrier or Hen Harrier – but you might have other views. It was photographed in a location where neither of those species is a breeding bird so it had to travel some way to get there.
the tattered nature of the inner primaries is interesting because it is similar on both wings and i keep wondering how that happened.
Let me know your views either through commenting on this post or by email, and I will pass them on.
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Its a female Hen Harrier in wing moult, there are not enough dark cross bars in the outer primaries for it to be a Northern Harrier and it has the right number to be a Hen. The apparently 3 new secondaries in photo 3 show it to be a female rather than young male.
Paul – well, you should know! Many thanks and the observers will be pleased with that. I will wait to see what other views come my way before, with the observers’ permission, revealing more details.