Foods of the harrier

A study of the stomach contents of 124 harriers showed their food to be predominantly birds, mammals and insects, occasionalIy frogs and fish. Birds taken were mainly house sparrows, blackbirds, song thrushes and skylarks. Mammals, often eaten as carrion, were rabbits, hares, Australian opossums, and hedgehogs. Insects frequently present were crickets, grasshoppers and locusts (Orthoptera) and cicadas (Hemiptera). Macerated plant material, found in many specimens, came from the gut of prey. Fresh plant fragments appeared to have been taken accidentally. The proportions of each kind of food varied seasonally but all the main categories were represented in stomachs throughout the year. More than half the specimens contained only one food, the rest a mixture of two or more.