Dark chanting goshawk
| Dark chanting goshawk | |
|---|---|
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| Adult at Kapama Game Reserve, South Africa | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Accipitriformes |
| Family: | Accipitridae |
| Genus: | Melierax |
| Species: | M. metabates |
| Binomial name | |
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Melierax metabates Heuglin, 1861 |
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The dark chanting goshawk (Melierax metabates) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which is found across much of Sub-Saharan Africa and southern Arabia, with an isolated and declining population in southern Morocco.
The dark chanting goshawk is a medium sized, bulky hawk with an upright stance. The head, breast and upperparts are essentially dark grey, while the underparts, other then the breast, are white, finely barred with black. The wing primaries are black, and the tail has broad black and white bars. The cere and the long legs are orange-red. The female is, on average, larger than the male, weighing up to 840g to the male's maximum weight of 700g. Juveniles tend to have browner plumage reminiscent in colour and pattern to a buzzard Buteo spp but with the broad winged, long tailed silhouette of an accipiter.
juvenile
M. m. metabates with prey (a francolin), Senegal
As its common name suggests the dark chanting goshawk is a vocal bird, although less so than its two congeners. It often calls from a perch or in flight, making an accelerating series of piping notes and fluty whistles, which has been described as a song or chant and there are up to a dozen notes in a series “peeu-peeu-pu-pu-pu”. It also gives a high-pitched “peee-u”. During the breeding season it is more vocal than when non breeding.
The dark chanting goshawk breeds in sub-Saharan Africa, but avoids the rainforests of the Congo basin and the far south, where it is replaced by the pale chanting goshawk and east Africa where the Eastern chanting goshawk seems to replace it.
There are five currently recognised subspecies,
Although the status of M. neumanni is debatable as it is poorly differentiated.
The dark chanting goshawk occurs in savannahs and open woodlands, favouring mixed bushveld and broad-leafed woodlands and avoid dense forest and desert, where it overlaps with other Melierax species the dark chanting goshawk prefers moister richer woodland. In southern Africa it is found in tall, well-developed woodland, especially wheremiombo (Brachystegia spp), mopane (Colosphermum mopane), Zambezi teak (Baikiaea plurijuga), Knob thorn (Senegalia nigrescens) and Marula (Sclerocarya birrea) are among the canopy.
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Wikipedia