hen harrier

noun

British

: a slender, long-tailed, Eurasian hawk (Circus cyaneus) inhabiting open and marshy regions that is largely pale gray above and white below in the adult male and brown above and buff with dark streaks below in the female and young male

In Britain, the hen harrier, Circus cyaneus, is a beautiful but scarce bird of prey, today found mainly on moorland in Scotland.

—Robert M. May, Nature, 25 Sept. 1997

see northern harrier

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