The Hen Harrier is 45-55 cm long with a 97-118 cm wingspan. It resembles other harriers in having distinct male and
female plumages. The sexes also differ in weight, with males weighing an average of 350 g and females an average of
530 g.
The male of the nominate race, C. c. cyaneus (Linnaeus, 1766), breeds in Europe and Asia, is mainly grey
above and white below except for the upper breast, which is grey like the upperparts, and the rump, which is white;
the wings are grey with black wingtips. The female is brown above with white upper tail coverts, hence females, and
the similar juveniles, are often called "ringtails". Their underparts are buff streaked with brown.
This medium-sized raptor breeds on moorland, bogs and (in Europe) farmland. The nest is on the ground. Four to
six whitish eggs are laid. In winter, the Hen Harrier is a bird of open country, and will then roost communally,
often with Merlins. There is now an accepted record of transatlantic vagrancy by the American subspecies, with a
juvenile being recorded in Scilly, Great Britain from October 1982 to June 1983. This is a typical harrier, with
long wings held in a shallow V in its low, contour-hugging, flight. Hen Harriers hunt small mammals and birds,
surprising them as they drift low over fields and moors.
Problems in the United Kingdom
In the UK, the Hen Harrier suffers illegal persecution by gamekeepers and their employers on shooting estates,
particularly those managed for Red Grouse shooting, resulting in local and regional extinction in many areas,
particularly in England where only 20 pairs survive despite abundant suitable habitat capable of holding several
hundred pairs. Because of this they are now very rare and in danger of extinction in the UK.
Since the assumed threat to Red Grouse is the main reason for the persecution of this species in the UK, a project
funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, the RSPB and Natural England was launched
at Langholm Moor in Scotland from 2007. The Langholm Moor Demonstration Project (LMDP), a 10-year investigation,
costing £3 million, is intended to see whether grouse and raptors can live side-by-side harmoniously.
A similar project, the Joint Raptor Study was run on Langholm in the 1990s, and produced some evidence that the
two species are unable to flourish simultaneously; at the end of the Joint Raptor Study in 1997, grouse shooting on
the moor was abandoned.
