{"id":11860,"date":"2013-12-14T03:40:51","date_gmt":"2013-12-14T10:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=11860"},"modified":"2025-10-03T06:50:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:50:37","slug":"a-juvenile-female-northern-harrier-the-eyes-have-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/12\/14\/a-juvenile-female-northern-harrier-the-eyes-have-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Female Northern Harrier – The Eyes Have It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FemaleJuvenile female Northern Harrier in flight – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 214mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

A few days ago Jerry Liguori posted an article on his blog called “Juvenile Harrier eyes” where he discussed the eye colors of juvenile males and females and briefly touched on the differences in their plumage.<\/p>\n

I have been hesitant to ID juvenile harriers because I don’t really relish being wrong. On his post I made this comment:<\/p>\n

“Brilliant images Jerry, I admit I have had some confusion over the eye color of harriers and sexing juveniles. I just don’t do it!<\/em>“<\/p>\n

\"Juvenile<\/p>\n

Female juvenile Northern Harrier flying – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 235mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

So… I am sticking my neck out here and identifying this Northern Harrier as a juvenile female and if I am wrong please don’t hesitate to tell me so.<\/p>\n

Being wrong and studying the differences more carefully is a way to learn and I do want to learn to feel more confident more about identifying juvenile harriers.<\/p>\n

When I spotted this harrier she was on the top of a creek bank and I wasn’t sure why she kept circling over the same area. After photographing her for a period of time in flight she landed on a post down the road\u00a0for a bit.<\/p>\n

I was reviewing my images on my LCD screen and when I looked up the harrier had left the post and\u00a0then I saw her down on the frozen creek with a dead duck (I am fairly sure about that) and knew why she had kept flying over the same spot.<\/p>\n

I’d love to know if she killed the duck or if another raptor killed it.<\/p>\n

Eye color can be used to sex juvenile Northern Harriers, brown for juvenile females and yellowish for the males and this harrier is a definite brown-eyed beauty.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Northern Harrier photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eye color can be used to sex juvenile Northern Harriers, brown for juvenile females and yellowish for the males and this harrier is a definite brown-eyed beauty. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1022,697,348,26],"tags":[970,2663,765,4620,4070,4052,4122,2783,3164,4033,4169,2386,4067,4071,4094,4006,153,4018,4095,373,4193],"class_list":["post-11860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-northern-harriers","category-utah","tag-autumn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-fall","tag-female","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-marsh","tag-northern-harrier","tag-raptors","tag-sky","tag-wetlands","tag-winter","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-female-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-9087.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-35i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43054,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/09\/juvenile-northern-harrier-female-in-flight-over-farmington-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":11860,"position":0},"title":"Juvenile Northern Harrier Female in Flight Over Farmington Bay","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday at Farmington Bay I was pleased to photograph this juvenile Northern Harrier female in flight as she went past me while I sat in a mobile blind.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Northern Harrier female in flight, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-juvenile-female-mia-mcpherson-2650.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-juvenile-female-mia-mcpherson-2650.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Bay WMA and I spotted a juvenile female Northern Harrier in a field of snow next to the road who was a cooperative subject.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile female Northern Harrier lifting off from a snowy field, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-snow-mia-mcpherson-9582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-snow-mia-mcpherson-9582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-snow-mia-mcpherson-9582.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Ahhh.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Northern Harrier in flight over a snowy field, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-7617.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-7617.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-7617.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-7617.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":33188,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/11\/23\/a-juvenile-northern-harrier-perched-on-a-post\/","url_meta":{"origin":11860,"position":5},"title":"Juvenile Northern Harrier perched on a post","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this juvenile Northern Harrier as it perched on a post near Goose Egg Island at Farmington Bay.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched Harrier, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-winter-mia-mcpherson-4187.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-winter-mia-mcpherson-4187.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-winter-mia-mcpherson-4187.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-winter-mia-mcpherson-4187.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}