African Goshawk

 

African Goshawk - Krogulec trzypręgowy

Botswana, Okavango Delta, 2012

Description

Goshawks are small and medium-sized hawks, often called Sparrow-hawks. The females are almost invariably much larger than the males – in some cases weighing twice as much also browner, and more heavily marked below (the bars being dark brown rather than rufous). The tail bars are less distinct, and more grey. Their wings are short and rounded; the tail usually quite long. They are well adapted for flying through dense bush. This is a very variable species, and has been split into several sub-species with regional color variations.

Habitat

This is generally the common large or medium-sized sparrow-hawk in the African forests. It lives in deep forest, secondary growth, river strips and, in East Africa, the denser savannahs and mountain forests. The African Goshawk is found in Africa south of the Sahara, in well-wooded and forested areas in East, South-Central and South Africa.

Voice

Sounds of African Goshawk 

Diet

Mostly birds, some mammals, and the rest occasional lizards, frogs and insects. By weight mammals would probably form a greater proportion of the food. Mammals as large as a full-grown mole rat, and birds as large as six-week-old domestic poultry are taken. The birds are mainly those of the forest, sometimes fledglings. It is a bold and successful poultry thief in forest villages. It takes a fair proportion of its food – mammals, frogs, and insects on the ground.

Reproduction

At the onset of the breeding season both sexes perform a display flight, a hundred feet above the forest canopy, but sometimes much higher, circling slowly with bursts of wing-flapping interspersed with glides, and calling ‘kwit’. This is most often in the early morning.
Nests are constructed annually, both sexes taking part, but sometimes an old nest is refurbished. It is made at any height from twenty to sixty feet above ground, well concealed in a thick-leaved tree. It is a small structure, up to two feet across and three feet deep. The cup, about nine inches across by three inches deep, is lined with finer sticks and green leaves. Two or three eggs are laid at three-day intervals. They are white or greenish white, sometimes sparsely marked with brown and lilac. The breeding season normally coincides with the latter part of the dry season, but sometimes extends well into the wet season. Incubation is carried out by the female only, and the period is 28 to 30 days. She sits very tight, and only leaves the nest about twice a day for brief spells. She is fed on the nest by the male.
The young hatch at two, three, or even four-day intervals, resulting in considerable variation in size. Feathers first show through the down at about fourteen days and they are full-feathered by twenty days. They attempt to tear up prey by themselves from six days onwards, but continue to be fed by the female up to 28 days, less frequently towards the end of the fledging period. They make their first flight from the nest tree at about 32 days.
After the young make their first flights they return to roost in the nest or in the canopy of the tree above it, for up to two weeks. Thereafter they will remain in the neighborhood of the nest for up to two months.

Photos by others

 

  

Credits

Planetofbirds.com, Birds of Brazil (Wildlife Conservation Society)