FAQs: England's Hen Harrier Recovery
- Rob Beeson
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
England's hen harrier population has reached its highest level in 200 years - a remarkable conservation achievement. But with conflicting narratives in the media, what's really happening? Here are answers to the most common questions.
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What Are Hen Harriers and Why Do They Matter?
Hen harriers are elegant birds of prey that nest on the ground in upland areas. They're an important part of Britain's natural heritage and were once extremely rare in England. Their recovery is seen as a key test of whether conservation efforts can work in working landscapes.
How Successful Has the Recovery Been?
The numbers speak for themselves:
2013: Zero successful hen harrier nests in England
2023: 141 chicks successfully fledged - a record
The population has quadrupled in just five years
This represents a complete turnaround from near-extinction to a thriving population.
What's Behind This Success?
The recovery is driven by a government-led partnership between conservation organizations, land managers, and gamekeepers. The key factor? Active management of moorland habitats, particularly on driven grouse moors.
Despite making up only half of available upland habitat, managed grouse moors are home to 80% of all successful hen harrier nests. These areas have become some of Britain's most effective bird reserves.
How Does Moorland Management Help Hen Harriers?
Gamekeepers on managed moors control predators like foxes and stoats that would otherwise eat hen harrier eggs and chicks. This protection creates safer nesting environments not just for hen harriers, but also for other threatened ground-nesting birds like curlews and lapwings.
When this management stops, so does the success. At Langholm Moor, hen harriers left when gamekeepers departed, a powerful demonstration of the connection.
What Is the Brood Management Trial?
This Defra-led program involves rearing some hen harrier chicks in specialist facilities before releasing them back into the wild. While these birds show better survival rates (44% vs. 24% for wild-reared birds), the program's biggest success has been building trust.
It reassured land managers that hen harrier populations could grow without destroying grouse shooting, encouraging them to protect nesting birds rather than see them as threats.
Are Hen Harriers Being Illegally Killed?
This is where the debate becomes heated. While some illegal persecution does occur, claims of widespread systematic crime are contested. Critics point to several problems with how evidence is presented:
"Confirmed or Suspected" Statistics: Reports often combine a small number of proven cases with many unproven disappearances, creating misleading impressions about the scale of illegal activity.
Missing Satellite Tags: When a bird's tracking tag stops transmitting, it doesn't automatically mean foul play. Tags can fail, solar panels can stop working, and birds die from natural causes. Some birds publicly reported as "killed" have later turned up alive.
Location Arguments: Critics note that arguing birds disappear "on or near grouse moors" ignores the fact that this is where most hen harriers live. If birds are concentrated in these areas, some will naturally die there too.
What About Natural Mortality?
Young hen harriers face enormous natural challenges. A long-term study on Orkney, where there are no grouse moors, found that about 75% of hen harriers die in their first year from natural causes including predation, starvation, disease, and bad weather.
This scientific baseline shows that high first-year mortality is normal for the species, not automatic evidence of illegal killing.
Has the Recovery Happened Elsewhere?
The comparison with Ireland is telling. The Republic of Ireland has seen a 30% drop in hen harrier numbers despite having no driven grouse shooting, suggesting that the relationship between grouse moors and hen harrier decline is more complex than sometimes claimed.
What Are the Concerns About Misleading Claims?
Research shows that hostile rhetoric against land managers has real-world consequences. A study by Professor Simon Denny found that gamekeepers in England experience physical attacks on average every 12 days. Their families also face harassment, with children reportedly bullied at school because of their parents' profession.
What's the Path Forward?
The evidence suggests that collaboration works. The hen harrier recovery has been achieved through:
Partnership between conservation bodies and land managers
Science-led management practices
Trust-building initiatives like the Brood Management Trial
Active habitat stewardship by gamekeepers
This pragmatic, evidence-based approach has delivered tangible results where conflict-driven narratives have not.
The Bottom Line
England's hen harrier population has grown from zero successful nests to record numbers in a decade. This success has been achieved through practical partnerships between conservationists and the people who manage the land where these birds live.
While debates about illegal persecution will continue, the data shows that collaborative, science-led management delivers real conservation wins, and offers a replicable model for protecting other threatened species.
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