This long-winged and long-tailed hawk of open grasslands and marshes winters in Florida, most of the United States, south through Central America and the Caribbean into northern South America. Found year-round from Ohio through much of the central great plains into the northwest states plus southern and coastal British Columbia. The summer range adds most of Canada and Alaska.
One of the few raptors where the sexes look very different, with the male having a gray back and white underside, the female has a brown back and wings, the underside brown and white striped. Unlike other hawks, northern harriers use sound as well as sight when hunting prey, having stiff facial feathers that form an owl-like disk to improve hearing.
Circus cyaneus is a member of the Accipitridae - Hawks & Eagles family.