African goshawk
| African goshawk | |
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| Captive adult female | |
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| immature female | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Accipitriformes |
| Family: | Accipitridae |
| Genus: | Accipiter |
| Species: | A. tachiro |
| Binomial name | |
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Accipiter tachiro (Daudin, 1800) |
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| Global range Year-Round Range Summer Range Winter Range | |
The African goshawk (Accipiter tachiro) is a species of African bird of prey in the genus Accipiter which is the type genus of the family Accipitridae.
The African goshawk is a medium sized to large Accipiter which is mainly grey and rufous with the typical broad winged and long tailed shape of its genus. The adult has grey upperparts which tend to be darker in males than in females, the underparts are whitish marked with rufous barring which is more rufous and heavier in the males. The underwing is pale rufous fading to white on some birds and the flight feathers and tail vary from sooty brown to grey with faint grey bars above, white with grey bars below. The bill is black, the cere is greenish-grey, the eyes are yellow and the legs and feet are yellow. Juveniles are brown above and boldly blotched with brown and with brown flank bars too. Females weigh 270–510 g (9.5–18.0 oz), while smaller males weigh 150–340 g (5.3–12.0 oz). They wingspan is 172–225 mm (6.8–8.9 in) for males and 211–275 mm (8.3–10.8 in) in females, the wingspan is 1.7 times the bird's total length.
Noisy when displaying when it makes its characteristic clicking call like two stones being knocked together, which is made every 2–3 seconds.
From the Western Cape of South Africa north to the southern Democratic republic of Congo and through east Africa to southern Ethiopia, including the islands of Mafia, Unguja (Zanzibar) and Pemba.
The African goshawk generally occurs in forest and diverse dense woodland in both lowland and montane areas, but it can also be found in riverine and gallery forest, plantations of exotic trees, parks and large gardens. It can occur in both moist and dry forest, even in isolated patches.
The African goshawk is typically soars above the canopy in the morning in a display flight involving slow wing beats interspersed with gliding, sometimes so high up that the only sign of the birds is its regular clicking call. Its main prey is birds up to the size of hornbills or francolins, it also feeds on mammals and lizards. It is an ambush hunter, waiting on a perch until the prey is observed then swooping down to catch it. Pairs occasionally hunt co-operatively at large congregations of prey, such as bat roosts or weaver colonies. Invertebrates are also sometimes recorded as prey.
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Wikipedia