Episode 87: Northern Harrier – Voice of the Wild

This is Brodie with Illinois Extension and I’m here with a new “voice of the wild”

Rather than soaring high circles through sunlit skies, or surveying the highway from a tall roadside perch, this long-tailed hawk flies low meandering paths over grasslands and marshes; and rarely perch higher than a fencepost. Unique for a hawk they have an owl-like circular face; the shape of which gives them a hearing advantage; the disk of feathers acting like a cupped hand behind the ear. This is the northern harrier.

You’d be forgiven if you didn’t recognize this call; the northern harrier is not a particularly vocal bird; they’re more likely to be identified by their conspicuous white rump, or by the way they sweep across an open field with their long and agile wings held in gentle V. While the harrier is diurnal, which means they’re active during daylight hours, the most reliable time to see them seems to be at dawn and dusk. They share the same habitat with short-eared owls and with a little luck you find both hunting the same field at sundown. Here’s the northern harrier again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW