{"id":56323,"date":"2019-02-24T06:08:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T13:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=56323"},"modified":"2024-02-21T15:14:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T22:14:32","slug":"back-view-of-an-immature-female-northern-harrier-hovering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/02\/24\/back-view-of-an-immature-female-northern-harrier-hovering\/","title":{"rendered":"Back View Of An Immature Female Northern Harrier Hovering"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BackBack view of an immature female Northern Harrier – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/4000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Would you be able to ID this hawk from just this image or similar view of it in the field if I hadn’t already identified it in my title and my photo caption? Without a view of the face some people might not be able to form an ID but just the tail of this raptor tells me all I need to know to give a positive ID.<\/p>\n

Except for when they are flightless chicks in their nest the distinctive white upper tail coverts are always found on Northern Harriers which combined the length and shape of the tail plus the bands on it lead me directly to the ID of this species. A few other raptors can appear to have a “white rump” but they wouldn’t have the same pattern of bands on their tails.<\/p>\n

I also know that for a while I’d be able to recognize this specific Northern Harrier in the field if I saw her again because one of her left primary wing tips (P8) which are also known as flight feathers has been broken off and is shorter than the two primary feathers adjacent to it. In addition one of her rectrices, (R1), or tail feathers is damaged, partially missing or growing in which has caused a gap in her tail feathers. Once this harrier replaces those feathers I wouldn’t be able to tell her apart from any other female Northern Harrier in the field but for now I could.<\/p>\n

From other images I took of this harrier I could tell she is an immature female because of her darkish eyes and buffy colored body along with other ID keys.<\/p>\n

Usually I don’t like to take butt shots of birds but in this case I am glad that I did because when I saw it on my monitor at home I liked how the harrier is shown hovering over the marsh, how her tail is spread and how it shows the uniqueness of this individual bird.<\/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":"

Would you be able to ID this hawk from just this image or similar view of it in the field if I hadn’t already identified it in my title and my photo caption?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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":[5180,2663,765,4070,4052,6974,2783,3164,4169,2386,4174,6233,4067,4006,2318,153,6975,5216,6977,6976],"class_list":["post-56323","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-back-view","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-female","tag-flight","tag-flight-feathers","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-hovering-2","tag-id","tag-immature","tag-northern-harrier","tag-primaries","tag-raptors","tag-retrices","tag-tail-feathers","tag-white-rump","tag-white-uppertail-coverts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/northern-harrier-flight-back-mia-mcpherson-5723.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-eEr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":76758,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/12\/29\/young-female-northern-harrier-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":56323,"position":0},"title":"Young Female Northern Harrier In Flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I was able to photograph this young Northern Harrier flying over a marsh on a trip up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Northern Harrier flying over a marsh, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2210.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-immature-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2210.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2210.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2210.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54616,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/10\/15\/immature-female-northern-harrier-harassing-a-ring-necked-pheasant-hen\/","url_meta":{"origin":56323,"position":1},"title":"Immature Female Northern Harrier Harassing A Ring-necked Pheasant Hen","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago I observed and photographed an immature female Northern Harrier repeatedly harassing a Ring-necked Pheasant hen out on the marshes at Farmington Bay.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Northern Harrier female hovering over a Ring-necked Pheasant hen, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-hen-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-6911.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-hen-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-6911.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-hen-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-6911.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-hen-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-6911.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-9143.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-flight-mia-mcpherson-9143.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-9143.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-9143.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43054,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/09\/juvenile-northern-harrier-female-in-flight-over-farmington-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":56323,"position":3},"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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-juvenile-female-mia-mcpherson-2650.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-juvenile-female-mia-mcpherson-2650.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6782,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/12\/13\/female-northern-harrier-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":56323,"position":4},"title":"Female Northern Harrier in flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 13, 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 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2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":75615,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/12\/01\/frosty-female-northern-harrier-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":56323,"position":5},"title":"Frosty Female Northern Harrier In Flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I saw a few harriers on the wing yesterday at Farmington Bay WMA and I was able to take a few photos of a female Northern Harrier that still had frost on her nape.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Frosty adult female Northern Harrier in flight, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, 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