From Opus

Alternative names: Madagascar Banded Kestrel, Barred Kestrel or Madagascar Barred Kestrel.

Photo by Vernon Lundy
Ampijoroa, Madagascar, September 2004

Falco zoniventris

[edit] Identification

27-30 cm

• Grey upperparts
• Underparts - whitish
• Throat and upper breast streaked dark grey
• Lower breast and belly, barred dark grey
• Yellow feet, eyes and cere
• Bare yellow skin around the eye
• Dark tail
  

Juveniles are browner than the adults with darker eyes and less bare skin around the eye.

[edit] Distribution

Humid lowlands and sub-desert of Madagascar.

[edit] Taxonomy

Monotypic.

[edit] Habitat

Clearings and edges in forest and woodland.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes small reptiles, large insects, grasshoppers and beetles and sometimes birds. Prey is caught on the ground or snatched from a branch or tree trunk.

[edit] Breeding

Mainly uses old nests made by other birds, in holes in trees or even epiphytic foliage. Three yellowish eggs are laid.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links