{"id":16214,"date":"2014-10-20T05:22:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T11:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=16214"},"modified":"2025-10-05T14:30:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T19:30:58","slug":"juvenile-dark-morph-harlans-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/10\/20\/juvenile-dark-morph-harlans-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Dark Morph Harlan’s Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JuvenileJuvenile dark morph Harlan’s Hawk – Nikon D300, f8, 1\/1250, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Harlan’s Hawks breed in Alaska and northern Canada and spend their winters in the northern Great Plains.<\/p>\n

Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk is a subspecies of the Red-tailed Hawk with distinct characteristics that set it apart from other Red-tailed Hawk subspecies.<\/p>\n

Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk come in three morphs:<\/p>\n

Dark morph: This is the most common type, making up approximately 55-60% of the Harlan’s Hawk population.
\nIntermediate morph: This is the second most common, comprising about 30-35% of the population.
\nLight morph: This is the rarest form, accounting for only about 5-10% of Harlan’s Hawks.<\/p>\n

Lately I have been seeing reports that the Harlan’s have started to show up here in Utah again to over winter and that has me excited. I haven’t been able to photograph many Harlan’s Hawks but in January of 2013 I spotted and pointed out this juvenile dark morph Harlan’s feeding on a coot at Farmington Bay WMA.<\/p>\n

This was during a very cold and snowy part of the winter when all of the raptors were having a hard time finding food to sustain them because of heavy snow cover on the ground.<\/p>\n

Quite a few hawks, eagles, and owls died during that cold stretch of time due to the harsh conditions we had.<\/p>\n

I will be looking for Harlan’s Hawks now along with Rough-legged Hawks which are also Arctic breeders and hope to photograph some of them soon.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Harlan’s Hawks are a subspecies of Red-tailed Hawks that breed in Alaska and northern Canada and spend their winters in the northern Great Plains. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[137,27,1022,697,2086,449,26],"tags":[4010,4021,2663,4170,2705,2772,4530,4286,5025,4121,4542,4169,4071,4094,4106,153,4209,4050,2239,373,4193],"class_list":["post-16214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-harlans-hawk","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-utah","tag-american-coot","tag-bird-photography","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-buteo-jamaicensis-harlani","tag-coot","tag-dark-morph","tag-eating","tag-feathers","tag-fulica-americana","tag-harlans-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-juvenile","tag-marsh","tag-prey","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-snow","tag-sub-adult","tag-winter","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t