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Portrait of Hen harrier

Nature · Birds

Hen harrier

Resident · wingspan 100–120 cm

Circus cyaneus — Accipitridae (hawks, kites and harriers)

A slim, long-tailed bird of prey that hunts by quartering low over moor and marsh on wings held in a shallow V. The pale grey male and brown, white-rumped "ringtail" female look so different that they were long thought to be separate species. It is England's most persecuted raptor: illegal killing on land managed for grouse shooting is, on the RSPB's assessment, the single biggest factor holding the population down.

How to spot them

  • ▸Bold white rump patch on both sexes — the single best field mark
  • ▸Low, buoyant, tilting flight with wings in a shallow V, quartering moorland
  • ▸Male pale grey above, white below, with black wingtips; female brown and barred, the 'ringtail'
  • ▸Slimmer and lighter than a marsh harrier, which is bulkier, browner and has no white rump
  • ▸Spectacular 'skydancing' display in spring, the male tumbling and looping over the nest site

How to know it

Quarters low over heather on wings held in a shallow V, showing a bold white rump patch

Hen harrier — the white rump is the key mark, and the marsh harrier has none.

The male tumbles, loops and plummets in a spring display known as skydancing

The hen harrier's skydance.

Pale grey male and brown barred female so unlike each other they were once thought to be two species

Hen harrier — the female and juvenile are called ringtails.

England's most persecuted bird of prey, down to no successful nests at all in 2013

Hen harrier — illegal killing on grouse moors is the principal constraint.

Named for a habit of taking free-range poultry; it now mostly eats meadow pipits and voles

Hen harrier — Circus cyaneus, 'the blue-grey circler'.

Survived British persecution only on Orkney and the Outer Hebrides before recolonising the mainland from the 1930s

Hen harrier — extinct on the British mainland by about 1900.

Bulkier brown relative of the reedbeds lacks its white rump and shows a cream crown and throat

Marsh harrier, the species most often confused with the hen harrier.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Scientific name Circus cyaneus: Circus from the circling flight, cyaneus 'dark blue', for the male's grey plumage
  • •The last full UK survey, in 2016, found 545 breeding pairs, with declines in all four UK countries since 2010 (BTO BirdFacts)
  • •In England in 2024 there were 34 breeding attempts, of which 25 succeeded, fledging 80 chicks — down from 54 attempts and 141 chicks in 2023 (Natural England)
  • •Red-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021) and on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, harriers being listed as a whole genus
  • •There were no successful hen harrier nests in England at all in 2013
  • •Females and juveniles are known as 'ringtails', for the banded tail
  • •The name comes from its old reputation for taking farmyard poultry; its usual prey is meadow pipits, skylarks and voles
  • •Males are polygynous, sometimes holding two or three nesting females at once, a habit well documented on Orkney
  • •Natural England's brood management trial, first licensed in 2018, is contested: the RSPB withdrew its support and holds that illegal killing remains the dominant factor

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources