Public urged to help preserve hen harriers The Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime (PAW Scotland) is asking the public and land managers to record details of gender, behaviour and place, date and time of hen harrier sightings. The male is grey above, white below, and with black wing tips performs a looping skydancing display to entice a female to mate with him. However, the female is much larger, and brown, with white streaks below. Paul Wheelhouse, the Scottish Environment Minister, said: "This initiative will raise the profile of the hen harrier to provide us with important information about their activity and location, and I hope people across Scotland will join the efforts to conserve this alluring bird for future generations." The relationship between hen harriers and red grouse has been closely studied for the last 20 years on Langholm Moor in South West Scotland, owned by Buccleuch Estates. Despite these efforts, the Langholm harrier population has not come back to its mid-1990s peak and it is a similar scenario on some other hen harrier special protection areas (SPAs) in Scotland. Alex Hogg, chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, said: "Any venture which helps a wider understanding of the distribution of the hen harrier in Scotland has to be positive. The issues affecting its success are many and complex so this PAW Scotland initiative can only help increase the knowledge we have.  Douglas McAdam, chief executive of Scottish Land & Estates, which represents landowners, admitted that human persecution was "an issue in some places" and said it was working with its partners to "stamp it out."