Spotted harrier
Circus assimilis Jardine & Selby, 1828
Status not recordedbirds of prey
The spotted harrier (Circus assimilis) is a species in the family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes. Recorded adults weigh 465 g to 654.2 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the spotted harrier
- Weight
- 465 g – 654.2 g
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- grassland
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3
- Lifestyle
- Aerial
- Migration
- Partial
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the spotted harrier live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The spotted harrier is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Is the spotted harrier endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the spotted harrier classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderAccipitriformes
- familyAccipitridae
- genusCircus
- SpeciesCircus assimilis Jardine & Selby, 1828
Synonyms Circus assimilis assimilis, Circus assimilis quirindus, Circus assimilis rogersi
Other names and names in other languages (33)
- صقر الدخانArabic
- arpella pintadaCatalan
- moták kropenatýCzech
- Boda MannogWelsh
- PerlekærhøgDanish
- FleckenweiheGerman
- makula cirkuoEsperanto
- Aguilucho moteadoSpanish
- puis-loorkullEstonian
- helmisuohaukkaFinnish
- Busard tachetéFrench
- pjegava ejaCroatian
- pettyes rétihéjaHungarian
- Elang Rawa TutulIndonesian
- Albanella macchiataItalian
- ウスユキチュウヒJapanese
- dėmėtoji lingėLithuanian
- Gevlekte KiekendiefDutch
- prikkjerrhaukNorwegian
- błotniak plamistyPolish
- tartaranhão-malhadoPortuguese
- Пятнистый луньRussian
- kaňa bodkovanáSlovak
- Pegava ejaSerbian
- fläckig kärrhökSwedish
- Benekli DeliceTurkish
- лунь австралійськийUkrainian
- 斑鹞Chinese
- عُقيب أرقطArabic
- مرزة مرقطةArabic
- Elang-rawa tutulIndonesian
- tartaranhão-pintadoPortuguese
- 斑點鷂Chinese
Relatives of the spotted harrier
Other species in the same genus Circus.

Hen harrier
Circus cyaneus

Western marsh harrier
Circus aeruginosus

Pallid harrier
Circus macrourus

Montagu's harrier
Circus pygargus
Pied harrier
Circus melanoleucos
Harrier hawk
Circus approximans
CompareSpotted harrier vs Hen harrierSpotted harrier vs Western marsh harrierSpotted harrier vs Pallid harrierSpotted harrier vs Montagu's harrier
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the spotted harrier?
An adult spotted harrier weighs 465 g – 654.2 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the spotted harrier live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the spotted harrier for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
What kind of animal is the spotted harrier?
The spotted harrier (Circus assimilis) belongs to the family Accipitridae in the order Accipitriformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Spotted harrier (Circus assimilis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/spotted-harrier
“Spotted harrier (Circus assimilis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/spotted-harrier.
@misc{spotted_harrier_2026,
title = {Spotted harrier (Circus assimilis)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/spotted-harrier},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}