African Cuckoo-Hawk
Aviceda cuculoides
Slim, long-winged, mid-sized raptor with oddly cuckoo-like markings. Has fairly weak, floppy flight and rarely soars. Generally uncommon species of thick savannah, woodland, and forest edge. Call is a long, mournful whistle. Although its shape is distinctive with practice, cuckoo-hawks can be confused with many other raptor species. Note the widely spaced rufous barring on the belly, and the small crest. Cuckoo-hawks are much slower and weaker fliers than any of the goshawks or sparrowhawks.
Identification
The male is blackish-brown above with a grey mantle and chest with a blackish crest, the underparts are white marked with broad chestnut bars. The tail is black with three grey bars and grey and white tip. The females are browner with paler chestnut bars on the underparts. Distinctive in flight as a small raptor with a small head with broad, narrowly rounded wings and a medium length tail. Wingspan is just over double the body length, females are slightly larger than males.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Aviceda cuculoides
- Authority
- Swainson, 1837
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Accipitridae
- Genus
- Aviceda
Range and habitat
The African cuckoo-hawk is a shy species which occurs in the interior and edges of evergreen forest and deciduous woodlands, including suburban gardens and more open savannas, up to 3,000 m (9,800 ft). When migrating through east Africa it also occurs in drier woodland and bush. The African cuckoo-hawk is found across much of sub-Saharan Africa, and the following subspecies are recognised:
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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