A Northern Harrier . . . Maybe?

The thing about birding is that often you must guess at what you’re seeing or hearing. Hopefully, it’s an educated guess, but even if something less, “guessing” is a venerable part of bird identification. (Public Domain image of a male Northern Harrier.)

Take this example: on Sunday afternoon while driving home, I spotted in the distance a large, hawk-sized bird. My perspective allowed only a brief view of a creamy expanse of underwing and a russet “glow.” These wings were long and elegant. My immediate thought was Northern Harrier because of the wingspan and light plumage. Males have white underwings and bellies with gray backs. Females have dark brown backs and dark barred underwings. I thought male harrier because, though I didn’t see his back, my sense of the bird’s coloring overall was light.

The typical markings birders look for when identifying a harrier is a white rump (very pronounced against a female’s dark plumage, much less noticeable with a male) or the bird’s black wingtips. These are often described as “dipped in ink.” While my vantage didn’t allow me a view of the bird’s rump, neither did I make a mental image of black-tipped wings—but that doesn’t mean they weren’t there. My focus could have been elsewhere.

So where does all this speculation leave me? To be quite honest—nowhere.

I simply didn’t get a good enough look. However, attempting to identify this bird did give me reason to dive into my Peterson and Sibley guides, where I scanned images of many different raptors, including owls, looking for other possible candidates. Likewise I investigated images online and even posed a question to my local birding listserv.

All this investigation brought the juvenile harrier to the foreground, described by the Cornell Lab as “similar to adult female, but with rusty wash across mostly unstreaked underparts.” And yet my bird’s stomach appeared white to me with a gentle russet “glow.” That’s the best I can explain it.

If given another opportunity to see this bird, I’ll be sure to look for the white rump and black wingtips. A lesson I’ve learned from this failed effort!

Till next time . . . Keep birds in your heart!