{"id":17811,"date":"2014-12-16T17:10:53","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T00:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=17811"},"modified":"2025-10-03T08:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T13:12:09","slug":"eye-level-northern-harrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/12\/16\/eye-level-northern-harrier\/","title":{"rendered":"Eye Level Northern Harrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love to photograph birds in flight and it doesn’t matter which species it is. But I do thoroughly enjoy photographing raptors like this Northern Harrier as they fly by.<\/p>\n

\"EyeEye level Northern Harrier – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days ago I was able to photograph at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area for a few hours in the morning.<\/p>\n

It has been a challenge lately to find birds close enough to photograph, especially raptors there.<\/p>\n

Even though we have had some snow it didn’t stick around and raptor photography gets better at Farmington Bay WMA after the snow starts to build up on the ground.<\/p>\n

Harriers often have their eyes on the ground as they fly by so I felt fortunate that this one looked up when it did. This harrier sure appears very aerodynamic in this pose.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

I love to photograph birds in flight and it doesn’t matter which species it is. But I do thoroughly enjoy photographing raptors like this Northern Harrier as they fly by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159032,"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":[27,697,348,26],"tags":[9099,2663,765,7934,4070,4052,4122,2783,3164,4169,4359,4067,4071,767,4006,4063,4050,373],"class_list":["post-17811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-northern-harriers","category-utah","tag-aerodynamic","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-eye-level","tag-female","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-hawks","tag-hen","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-marsh-hawk","tag-northern-harrier","tag-raptor","tag-snow","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-eye-level-mia-mcpherson-5033.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-4Dh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20298,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/02\/20\/northern-harriers-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":17811,"position":0},"title":"Northern Harriers On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Male Northern Harriers, also called Gray Ghosts, are especially delightful to my eye when their plumage contrasts with soft bluebird skies that have just a touch of habitat in them","rel":"","context":"In "Davis County"","block_context":{"text":"Davis County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/davis-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Northern Harrier with the Wasatch Range in the background, photographed from Farmington Bay, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-0622.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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water.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Northern Harrier in flight over Farmington Bay WMA in Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-juvenile-flight-mia-mcpherson-9896.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-flight-mia-mcpherson-9896.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-juvenile-flight-mia-mcpherson-9896.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35085,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/23\/northern-harrier-in-flight-over-farmington-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":17811,"position":3},"title":"Northern Harrier in Flight over Farmington Bay","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent a little bit of time yesterday morning photographing a few birds including this Northern Harrier in flight over Farmington Bay WMA.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of a female Northern Harrier in flight over open water at Farmington Bay WMA in northern Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-6885.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-6885.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-6885.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-6885.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16030,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/10\/03\/northern-harriers-and-ground-hunting\/","url_meta":{"origin":17811,"position":4},"title":"Northern Harriers And “Ground Hunting”","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Whatever the reason for this behavior I know that I enjoy photographing Northern Harriers while they are ground hunting in a winter wonderland.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Northern Harrier \"ground hunting\", Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/northern-harrier-ground-hunting-mia-mcpherson-4551.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/northern-harrier-ground-hunting-mia-mcpherson-4551.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/northern-harrier-ground-hunting-mia-mcpherson-4551.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":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17811","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=17811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}