I was recently asked, “When was the last time you saw a Gray Ghost?”

The question, from a birder I did not know and had just met, had a two-point challenge to it: first, to see if I knew what the Gray Ghost was and second, to see if I was aware of how uncommon a bird it is to see. Fortunately, I have long known the Gray Ghost is the male Northern Harrier (photo 1), and I have also long been keenly conscious that sighting one is a truly exciting and uncommon birding experience. (above) Curiously it does seem that 90 percent of the Northern Harriers one sees out in the field are either juveniles of either sex, or adult females. In fact, seeing an adult male sitting in a field is an even more uncommon experience. (photo 2)

I’m sorry, dear Reader, but my research with Mr. Google did not produce a reason for this apparent discrepancy of why adult females should be more common than adult males in a species, but the research did disclose that male Harriers may breed with two or more females, and I suppose that could possibly be an unstated explanation.

However, there is no question, adult males and adult females are easy to distinguish. Males are a distinctive gray above and white below with a gray owl-like face, while females, as in so many bird species where the female is the egg layer, nest sitter, and baby raiser, are a more nondescript and less conspicuous ground blending brown above and below, with some white on the underside. (photo 3) Both, as well as juveniles, have white rump patches which are quite distinctive when they are seen soaring low over the ground searching for mice, voles, snakes, lizards, frogs and toads, grasshoppers, and sometimes even small birds. Northern Harriers have long legs, adapted for reaching into long grass for prey. With their owl-like facial pattern they are able to hunt for food by sound as well as eyesight, although all their hunting is in the daytime.

Both male and female juvenile Harriers look alike and are therefore indistinguishable. I always thought all juveniles and adult females were also indistinguishable, however, in researching for this column I have learned that adults, both male and female, have yellow eyes, while all juveniles have brown eyes. (photo 4, juvenile)

In addition, juveniles have small white tufts of feathers on the forehead and a little more white around the eyes than adult females. These features are visible in photo 4 as compared to photo 3. Even on a gray day in light rain a juvenile Northern Harrier cruising over a marsh can be a very pleasing sight. (photo 5)

We humans certainly have a fascination with ghosts. There have been movies and television shows about ghosts, searching for them, finding them, being frightened by them and any number of ways we think we might be affected by them. As for birds, the long lost Ivory-billed Woodpecker is often referred to as the “Ghost Bird” as there have been unverified alleged sightings of one or more over recent past years; the Screech Owl is sometimes referred to as the “Ghost Owl” and other owls with their ethereal night calls and “now you see them, now you don’t ways” are occasionally thought of in ghostly terms. And Google even has a web page for “Images for birds described as ghosts.”

But the Northern Harrier male, the Gray Ghost, is the most enduring, descriptive and real reference to a day-time ghost that actually exists, albeit uncommonly seen. So, when you are out in open country passing farmer’s fields keep your eyes open for Northern Harriers and particularly the Gray Ghost. Maybe you can return home and tell your friends that you did indeed see a ghost - a real, existing, for sure, Gray Ghost.

For more on Northern Harriers, see https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/northern-harrier. For more on human our fascination with ghosts, see: https://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/believe-in-ghosts.