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Spotted Harrier |
Sightings
We have seen a Spotted Harrier in March of 2006 skirting the edge of bushland and then hovering low above open grassland in search of prey.
Spotted one bird in January 2007 10 km west of Narrabri above open farmland (paddocks).
A Spotted Harrier is a resident 20 km east of Narrabri, seen repeatedly in the timeframe March-June 2007. Later, in November 2007, an immature bird moved into the area.
Photos
Adult Spotted Harrier above a paddock; in a second photo (too poor to be shown here) one can see the reddish-brown front more clearly; note the trailing yellowish legs and long, striped tail typical of Spotted Harriers
Back of an adult Spotted Harrier on an old fencepost 20 km east of Narrabri, New South Wales
Lateral view of an immature Spotted Harrier (click on image for larger version)
Head partly turned (click on image for larger version)
Head now completely turned; note the similarity with an owl's "face", an adaption to optimize forward localisation of sound made by prey (click on image for larger version)
The same bird as above, now before a little skinny-dip in our mini-pond... (click on image for larger version)
... and here after the bath, shaking off water (click on image for larger version)
Possibly the same immature bird as above, 2.5 months later, now in flight (click on image for larger version)
Again, in flight (click on image for full-size display)
Habits
The immature bird shown above was not afraid to let a human approach to a minimum distance of about 12 metres, before slowly gliding away. Also its hunting skills were not yet up to par, with regular unsuccessful meandering walks through high grass.