{"id":4260,"date":"2012-01-31T17:05:36","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T00:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=4260"},"modified":"2024-01-24T05:30:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T12:30:30","slug":"northern-harrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/01\/31\/northern-harrier\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Harrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was slow photographing this morning, the light wasn’t the best due to clouds coming in and there were very few birds close enough to photograph but you just never know when you’ll spot one cooperative bird and that is what happened today when I was on the way home.<\/p>\n

\"2nd\u00a02nd year male Northern Harrier ~ Davis County, Utah –\u00a0 Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/800, ISO 800, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 285mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

This Northern Harrier displayed interesting behavior, he didn’t appear to be hunting but it would dive into the vegetation where he would make a sound that reminded me of parrots chattering. Then he would lift up, fly a few feet and drop back down into the vegetation where he would chatter again. The male harrier repeated this for at least thirty minutes.<\/p>\n

At one point a female flew close and this male chased her for about half a mile. They did interact by diving towards each other and at one point I saw the female flying upside down with her legs extended towards the male. The male then flew back to the general location that it had been when I was photographing it.<\/p>\n

This second year male Northern Harrier is transitioning into adult plumage. His primaries and secondaries have begun to attain the gray color of an adult male but the shoulders, head and back are still the brown color I expect to see in a juvenile. I don’t see this plumage phase often.<\/p>\n

Because of the light I didn’t come home with as many acceptable, by my standards, images as I would have liked but I’m pleased with this one. Being out in the field with this harrier was fun.<\/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":"

This Northern Harrier displayed interesting behavior, it didn’t appear to be hunting but it would dive into the vegetation where it would make a sound that reminded me of parrots chattering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120081,"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":[14657,2663,5147,765,11978,4159,4052,4122,349,2783,3164,4033,4169,4067,156,4062,767,4006,153,4050,373],"class_list":["post-4260","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-2nd-year","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-chattering","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-desert-island","tag-diving","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-gray-ghost","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-immature","tag-low-light-2","tag-male","tag-marsh-hawk","tag-northern-harrier","tag-raptors","tag-snow","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-harrier-male-transition-mia-mcpherson-0160.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-16I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20564,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/02\/24\/a-gray-ghost-on-a-gray-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":4260,"position":0},"title":"Gray Ghost On A Gray Day","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Three years ago on a very gray morning I photographed this male Northern Harrier; the Gray Ghost, in flight along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gray Ghost, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-0179.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-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-0179.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-0179.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-0179.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4660,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/03\/20\/northern-harrier-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":4260,"position":1},"title":"Northern Harrier in flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Just an image I took yesterday of this male Northern Harrier in flight. As simple as the image is I like the great eye contact it has.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult male Northern Harrier in flight, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-male-mia-mcpherson-8327.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-male-mia-mcpherson-8327.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-male-mia-mcpherson-8327.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Typically I see far more Northern Harriers in the winter here in Utah than I do during the breeding season which might be partly due to the harriers preferring to nest within marshy wetland areas which are in abundance around the Great Salt Lake.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Northern Harrier in flight over the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-female-mia-mcpherson-1446.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-female-mia-mcpherson-1446.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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