When we lived in the Munich area we saw many different sorts of birds of prey. They were mainly buzzards, sparrow hawks and kestrels but there were interesting summer and winter visitors. The first time I recognised a hen harrier was in January 1995 when out to a favourite raptor-watching area SE of Munich with my son.

 

He said "Dad, there is a gull over there", but from the low flight over the ground (which I knew had plenty of voles and mice as the buzzards and kestrels hunted them I did not think it was a gull. Also the bird had a long tail quite unlike a gull. I had a long lens with me so took the photo above - which sadly is not sharp - but you see the long grey wings with black wingtips, a white band at the base of the tail and a long grey tail.

I concluded that it was a male hen harrier but was surprised as Germany has very few breeding pairs. On getting home and reading a book on raptors I realised that it was probably a bird that was wintering from Sweden or Finland. Quite a few migrate southward to Germany for the winter. In subsequent winters we would see harriers from late October to about mid March.

 

The hen harrier has a wingspan similar to that of a common buzzard - just over a metre - but is more slimly built and has a much longer tail. The female (like that above) is a similar brown to a buzzard but has the white band at the base of the tail like the male.

While buzzards hunt from soaring or from a perch, hen harriers tend to fly low over the ground alternating between flapping and gliding. Occasionally they will strike something on the ground showing their long legs.

This weekend I found an old video recording (analog I'm afraid) from November 2005 showing a male then a female hen harrier hunting. I was with a friend and our boys were very excited to see the harriers!

Note that the male harrier strikes something on the ground at around 0:18 and 0:39. Unusually the male gains height and hovers 2:49-2:53 before rapidly dropping and resuming his hunt at ground level.

At 2:15 the male poos. Note that like buzzards and hawks, harriers squirt their poo while falcons let it drop!

Enjoy...