Ovambo Sparrowhawk
Accipiter ovampensis
Medium-sized sparrowhawk that is normally gray, but there is a rare black morph. In all plumages, shows diagnostic white streaks along the central part of the tail, but these are hard to see. The legs and the base of the bill are yellow to reddish. On the typical gray birds, there is gray barring below which is finer and denser on the chest and throat than in other gray sparrowhawks. Generally rare in thick woodland, savanna, plantations, and gallery forest. Call is a repeated “chyek.”
Identification
The Ovambo sparrowhawk is a small sparrowhawk with the typical broad winged, long-tailed shape of a member of the genus Accipiter. The adults have plain grey upperparts with white bars on the rump and white underparts which are finely barred with grey but with a plain white vent. The tail has three dark bars and a broad, dark subterminal band. The bill is black, contrasting with the red cere, the eyes are dark red and the legs are orange. There is a melanistic form which is all black except for the white barred flight feathers on the underwing. The juvenile is browner and may be white over the underparts and head or have a brown head and rufous underparts. Females are about 14% bigger than males, weighing in at 180–305 g (6.3–10.8 oz) to the males 105–190 g (3.7–6.7 oz). The total length is about 30 cm (12 in) and the wingspan is 67 cm (26 in).
Taxonomy
The Ovambo sparrowhawk is apparently closely related to the Madagascar sparrowhawk Accipiter madagascarensis and phylogenetic analysis supports these two species forming a well defined clade.
- Scientific name
- Accipiter ovampensis
- Authority
- Gurney, JH Sr, 1875
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Genus
- Accipiter
Range and habitat
The Ovambo sparrowhawk generally favours the edges of drier forest, woodland and exotic plantations, moving into surrounding savanna and tall woodland with patches of open ground, such as riverine and broad-leaved woodland. In southern Africa its habitat is usually dominated by miombo (Brachystegia spp), Mahobohobo (Uapaca kirkiana) or Zambezi teak (Baikiaea plurijuga). It occurs in sub-Saharan Africa and breeds mostly south of the equator. It is a localised and uncommon breeder in east Africa north as far as Ethiopia and Eritrea south to Tanzania. The main range is in southern Africa where it extends from the southern Democratic Republic of Congo to northern Namibia, Botswana, northern South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique. In western Africa it is found from the Central African Republic in the east to the Ivory Coast in the west. Birds seen in the northern parts of the range, especially in west Africa, are probably nomadic non-breeding visitors.
- Breeding range
- AF : Senegal and Gambia to Ethiopia s to n South Africa
- Non-breeding range
- c, w AF
- Migration
- Nomadic movement
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
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