- Accipiter tachiro
Identification
The male (38 cm, 200 g) is smaller than the female (46 cm, 350 g). The upperparts of the male are slate and the underparts are white, finely barred rufous. The male's tail is indistinctly barred, and has two white spots on the upper side. The female has dark brown upperparts and the underparts are barred brown (less finely barred than the male). In both sexes the cere, eyes and legs are yellow; the underwing is barred, and the underwing coverts are of a similar colour to that of the barring on the breast.
Immature birds: The underparts have brown blotches, there is a dark streak down the centre of the throat, and the eyebrow is white.
Distribution
Africa: Southern and eastern South Africa northwards to Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
Taxonomy
There are five subspecies, with variation in size, colour of the underparts, and the pattern on the underparts and tail. Accipiter tachiro tachiro is found in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique south of the Limpopo, Accipiter tachiro sparsimfasciatus is from north-eastern Namibia, the extreme north and north-east of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Democratic Rep. of Congo, Angola, Somalia, Tanzania and Mozambique north of the Limpopo, Accipiter tachiro unduliventer is from Eritrea and Ethiopia, Accipiter tachiro croizati is endemic to Ethiopia, and Accipiter tachiro pembaensis is endemic to Tanzania.
Habitat
Forest, plantations, and closed riverine woodland.
Behaviour
The African Goshawk is usually inconspicuous, but its presence is often betrayed by its call, a sharp "tchit......tchit......tchit" (at two-second intervals) that has been likened to the click of two stones being struck together. This call is often given when circling high above the forest, but is also given by birds perched in the canopy of large trees. Prey comprises mainly birds (usually bulbul size or smaller), but includes small mammals. Hunting is usually done using a quick dash from a perch in cover, and birds are caught both in flight and on the ground.
References
Hockey PAR, Dean WRJ & Ryan PG (eds) 2005. Robert's Birds of Southern Africa, 7th edition. John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, Cape Town, South Africa. ISBN 0620340533
Lepage D. 2007. Avibase. Search for "Accipiter tachiro" downloaded 10 October 2007.
Steyn P. 1982. Birds of Prey of Southern Africa. David Philip, Cape Town, South Africa, ISBN 0908396643, Tanager Books, Dover, USA, ISBN 0880720255, Croom Helm, Beckenham, UK. ISBN 0709923821.
