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Breeding is between September and
February. The bulky nest of sticks, bracken, manuka, grasses and rushes is
usually sited on the ground in raupo swamps, bracken-fern, clumps of pampas or
on road verges. Over a period of days 3 – 5 off white eggs are laid and
incubated by the female for 31 – 34 days. The eggs hatch over a few days
so some eggs and the youngest chick often don’t survive. Although the
male gathers food for the female and chicks, only she feeds the chicks.
They fledge at 43 – 46 days old and finally disperse about 7 weeks after
fledging.
References: Heather, B.D.; Robertson, H.A. 2000 The Field
Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. Auckland, Viking.
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The
Australasian Hawk is a large brown hawk with long fingered wings held in a V,
and a long slightly rounded tail. The very dark brown juvenile has a
prominent white patch on the back of the head, brown upper tail and brown eye.
The adult has a distinctive pale facial disc with head and upperparts dark
brown. Underparts are reddish brown streaked dark brown and underwings are
barred at the tips. The light brown tail is barred dark brown and the
upper tail is white. Males have a yellow eye and the females a pale yellow
eye. As they become paler with age some very old males can be seen with
frosty-grey upperparts, pale buff underparts and white underwings.
Harriers are usually silent except for an occasional whistle but in the breeding
season during display flights the male utters a high – pitched ‘kee-a’ to
which the female responds with a ‘kee-o’.
Harriers hunt by day by slow
quartering the ground followed by a dive attack or by briefly hovering and then
dropping vertically to catch their prey in their sharp talons. They eat
both carrion (sheep, possums, hedgehogs, waterfowl and other game birds) and
live prey, mainly small mammals especially rabbits, hares, hedgehogs, rats,
mice, small birds, ducks and eggs, frogs, fish, lizards and large invertebrates
such as grasshoppers and crickets.