![]() Harriers glide with wings set in a shallow dihedral V-shape and rock slightly in the changing air currents. The falcon is usually seen in active hunting flight, chasing small birds with rapid wing beats whereas the harrier is mostly seen gliding over the ground searching for carrion and small prey.Ģ. ↑įive ways to tell the difference between a harrier and a falcon:ġ. As a result many birds are handed into Wingspan for rehabilitation after colliding with cars during the autumn/winter months. Due to their naivety and inexperience these young birds are not as wise to the perils of feeding on road-kill as the adults. They become independent of their parents soon afterwards. The male usually does not bring food directly to the nest but passes it to the female in their air by dropping the prey for her to aerobatically catch and take back to the nest.Īlmost uniformly dark brown chicks fledge the nest between December and February. Harriers lay between one and seven off-white eggs with the female doing all of the incubation. ![]() This spectacular circular display flight is common in harriers around the world and is where their genus name Circus (which is Latin for circle) comes from. During this display both birds of a pair rise on thermals high into the sky, dropping down in a spectacular rocking dive, then looping back up high, sometimes completing large circles in the sky. Pairs begin their characteristic ‘sky dancing’ courtship display in July/August. Very occasionally they will also nest in trees. They will also nest in rank grassland, areas of cereal crop and in young pine plantations where they make a large nest platform out of grass and sticks. Harriers generally nest in swamps and in areas surrounded by water to reduce access by predators. They naturally colonised New Zealand from Australia some 800 years ago after large areas of the country were cleared of bush during human settlement. Harriers are common throughout the open landscapes of New Zealand and Australasia.
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