Hen harriers remain one of England's most persecuted raptors, with illegal killing on grouse moors preventing recovery of a species that should be far more numerous in suitable upland habitat.
Hen harrier welfare is directly compromised by deliberate persecution on driven grouse moors. Shooting causes immediate death or wounding. Poisoning with banned substances causes prolonged suffering from organophosphate, alphachloralose, or anticoagulant toxicity before death. Nest destruction kills eggs and chicks, causing breeding failures that impose welfare harm on the adults that invested in reproduction. Adult harriers that survive persecution live under chronic stress from repeated disturbance on moorland estates. The near-total exclusion of hen harriers from large areas of their potential English range means that a population that should number hundreds of pairs is reduced to a handful, with each individual welfare incident having amplified population significance.