There are over 9,000 species of birds in the world, each with its ideal wingspan. Figuratively speaking, the wingspan is also used to indicate athletes’ arm breath, particularly in sports, such as basketball, where arm reach and length are important. The concept of wingspan is also used as a measure of airplane size. All Rights Reserved.A bald eagle’s wingspan is the length between the wingtips of its spread-out wings. ↑ © 2002-2022 Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust.
HAWK WINGSPAN PDF
Then check out our PDF list of key references for more information and visit us at the Wingspan National Bird of Prey Centre in Rotorua to see these wonderful birds up close and learn about them from our expert staff. These wonderful birds demand respect and above all their ‘control’ must not be taken lightly. Wingspan advocates that more research be undertaken and is strongly opposed to the inhumane trapping methods sometimes employed to control them. The decision to cull these beautiful birds should be based on fact. However, the evidence indicating that harriers have a negative impact on livestock is scarce and it is still not clear whether controlling harrier numbers to support threatened species programmes is practical or even successful (harriers are at such high densities in some areas that as soon as one individual is killed another will replace it immediately – in fact it could be argued that by removing a territorial pair a higher density of harriers could result). This downgrading includes allowing conservation managers to cull harriers if they are perceived to have a negative impact on a threatened species. The legal protection of harriers has recently been downgraded meaning that it is now legal to kill harriers if they are causing injury to livestock or damage to property. Falcons and harriers differ in their plumage and colouration (see photos below).ĭownload PDF 'differences between harriers and falcons' → Falcons have a much shorter wingspan and are much smaller (about the size of a magpie).ĥ. Harriers have a large 1 metre wingspan and stand around 50cm tall. Falcons almost exclusively take live prey and are very rarely seen on the side of the road.Ĥ. Harriers are often seen feeding on road-kill. Falcons glide with a very flat wing either very close to the ground trying to surprise prey, or very high in the sky as they survey their surroundings.ģ. Harriers glide with wings set in a shallow dihedral V-shape and rock slightly in the changing air currents. The falcon is usually seen in active hunting flight, chasing small birds with rapid wing beats whereas the harrier is mostly seen gliding over the ground searching for carrion and small prey.Ģ. ↑įive ways to tell the difference between a harrier and a falcon:ġ. As a result many birds are handed into Wingspan for rehabilitation after colliding with cars during the autumn/winter months. Due to their naivety and inexperience these young birds are not as wise to the perils of feeding on road-kill as the adults. They become independent of their parents soon afterwards. The male usually does not bring food directly to the nest but passes it to the female in their air by dropping the prey for her to aerobatically catch and take back to the nest.Īlmost uniformly dark brown chicks fledge the nest between December and February. Harriers lay between one and seven off-white eggs with the female doing all of the incubation. This spectacular circular display flight is common in harriers around the world and is where their genus name Circus (which is Latin for circle) comes from. During this display both birds of a pair rise on thermals high into the sky, dropping down in a spectacular rocking dive, then looping back up high, sometimes completing large circles in the sky. Pairs begin their characteristic ‘sky dancing’ courtship display in July/August. Very occasionally they will also nest in trees. They will also nest in rank grassland, areas of cereal crop and in young pine plantations where they make a large nest platform out of grass and sticks. Harriers generally nest in swamps and in areas surrounded by water to reduce access by predators. They naturally colonised New Zealand from Australia some 800 years ago after large areas of the country were cleared of bush during human settlement.
Harriers are common throughout the open landscapes of New Zealand and Australasia.
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