{"id":131256,"date":"2023-03-05T05:40:47","date_gmt":"2023-03-05T12:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=131256"},"modified":"2023-03-05T07:35:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T14:35:08","slug":"northern-harrier-courtship-behavior-with-a-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/05\/northern-harrier-courtship-behavior-with-a-twist\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Harrier Courtship Behavior With A Twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rest of the story.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I posted a single photo of a female Northern Harrier taken three days ago in a remote area of northern Utah. That photo was one of a series of images documenting some interesting harrier courtship behavior and I told readers that I’d “tell the rest of the story tomorrow”.<\/p>\n

Well, tomorrow is here.<\/p>\n

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It all started when I saw this male Northern Harrier land on a faraway hillside. It wasn’t until I got him in my viewfinder that I realized he had prey in his bill. Harriers in this remote area are usually so spooky they won’t allow an even moderately close approach and normally I wouldn’t even have tried to get closer because I’d almost certainly fail.<\/p>\n

But because the bird had prey, and because he was so tiny in my viewfinder in the glaring light, I thought there was a small chance he was actually a Prairie Falcon so I made the attempt. As I creeped forward in my pickup he didn’t fly off and that’s when I took this photo and confirmed his ID as a male Northern Harrier.<\/p>\n

I didn’t realize it at the time but the “prey” in his bill turned out to be only a scrap of mammal hide and fur, probably from a small rodent but possibly from some larger mammal that he’d scavenged.<\/p>\n

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He took off with the food scrap in his bill and…<\/p>\n

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landed with it on another faraway hillside behind me. I had to back up to get closer to him and take this photo and the photos below.<\/p>\n

For a few moments he appeared to be trying to pick off some tiny bits of flesh from the mammal hide but to be honest I’m not sure what he was doing. It almost looks like he was trying to ‘kill’ it. After this photo was taken he spent most of his time with the scrap in his talons but otherwise he completely ignored it. He seemed to be waiting for something but for what I didn’t know.<\/p>\n

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Eventually he took off with the scrap in his talons but..<\/p>\n

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he was only a couple of feet off of the snow-covered ground when he…<\/p>\n

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deliberately dropped it.<\/p>\n

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He watched it fall.<\/p>\n

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This is the last photo I got where part of the scrap is still in the frame, at lower left.<\/p>\n

At this point of course I followed him to my right with my lens and took many more shots of him in flight, not realizing that there was something else more interesting going on with the food scrap he’d dropped.<\/p>\n

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A female harrier that I didn’t even know was in the area had retrieved the scrap immediately after it was dropped and flew past my pickup with it. This is the photo I posted yesterday.<\/p>\n

I’m quite certain the male meant the scrap to be a gift for the female he was courting. This time of year it’s typical behavor for harriers to use “courtship feeding” as a method of forming pair bonds.<\/p>\n

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She landed with it on yet another hillside.<\/p>\n

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But after realizing that there was really no meat on it she…<\/p>\n

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took off, rejecting the scrap and leaving it behind.<\/p>\n

At the time I remember wondering if this might be the harrier version of a clueless human male giving his wife a new vacuum cleaner as a birthday or anniversary gift. My mind goes to places like that, even in the field in the heat of the moment.<\/p>\n

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This is one of the last shots I got of the female as she flew past me. She clearly has nothing in her bill or talons and I never saw either bird again.<\/p>\n

Mate feeding is a harrier behavior I’ve observed multiple times over the years. They do it during courtship and when the female is on the nest but usually the food transfer is made high in the air when the male drops the food and the female snags it as it’s falling. This was the first time I’ve seen it happen so low to the ground, low enough that the female probably had to retrieve it from the ground. It’s also the first time I’ve seen the female reject the food gift.<\/p>\n

But with such a pitiful excuse for food, I don’t blame her. I also have to wonder if she eventually rejected him as a mate candidate. I wouldn’t blame her for that either.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n