On World Wildlife Day on Friday, a focus on a critical species that feeds on the locusts and grasshoppers that could damage crops.

Harriers are a group of birds that belong to the hawk family that are active during the day and mostly found in vast open plains and grasslands. There are 16 species of harriers distributed worldwide throughout tropical and temperate regions, and six of these species migrate to India from central Asia and neighbouring areas during the winter. They can travel between 3,500 km and 5,000 km during this migration. Studies on tagged harriers in Africa show that they follow different routes during spring and autumn migrations. We do not really know much about the migration of harriers from India – the routes they fly from, or their breeding grounds – but researchers once found that a tagged harrier from Gujarat migrated to Kazakhstan.