Goshawk

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Goshawk
Black hawk, bright colored morphs

Black hawk, bright colored morphs

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Birds of prey (Accipitriformes)
Family : Hawk species (Accipitridae)
Genre : Hawks and sparrowhawks ( Accipiter )
Type : Goshawk
Scientific name
Accipiter melanoleucus
A Smith , 1830

The Mohr hawk ( Accipiter melanoleucus ), also called mourning hawk known is the largest African member of the genus Accipiter . It occurs mainly in forests and non-desert areas south of the Sahara , especially where there are large trees that are suitable for breeding. Preferred habitats are suburban and human-influenced habitats. He mainly hunts birds of moderate size, such as pigeons.

features

The goshawk is a larger to large species of the goshawks and sparrowhawks, but smaller than the goshawk ( Accipiter gentilis ). It can reach a body length of 40 to 58 cm and a wingspan of 77 to 105 cm. The males weigh 430 to 490 g, the approximately 15% larger and probably 55% heavier females 650 to 980 g. Adult animals are usually blackish on top and white on the underside, have a powerful beak and somewhat long, thick legs and toes. The wings rounded at the tip extend slightly behind the upper tail-coverts of the rather long tail, which is rounded at the tip. Except for size, weight and the slightly darker brown upper side, the females are similar to the males. Dimorphism occurs in the goshawk . In addition to the common one, there is a rarer dark color morph that only occurs in the east and south of Africa . In this dark form, only the throat and usually the edges of the belly and under tail-covers are white. Their tail is completely black or banded very indistinctly.

Juvenile animals are dark brown on top with a black dashed head, light stripes above the eyes and neck and indistinctly banded tail. The underside is either red-brown or whitish, with variable brown dashed lines, especially on the throat, chest, flanks and thighs. Juvenile females are more strongly marked on the underside. Color differences (junvenile males are more reddish brown than females) are considered gender specific, however pale and reddish brown juveniles of both sexes were found in the same nest, with one reddish brown juvenile developing into a dark color morph and the other into the common one with a white breast.

The iris of adults is dark red to dark yellow. In juvenile animals it is gray-brown and we brown at the end of the first year and red at the middle of the second year. The wax skin of adult birds is yellow, that of young birds is greenish yellow. The legs are yellow, lighter in young birds.

Black hawk, dark colored morphs
Accipiter melanoleucus

Subspecies

There are two known subspecies:

  • Accipiter melanoleucus temminckii ( Hartlaub , 1855) occurs from Liberia to northern Angola .
  • Accipiter melanoleucus melanoleucus Smith, A , 1830 is distributed from Sudan and Ethiopia across East Africa to South Africa.

The nominate form is larger than Accipiter melanoleucus temminckii . In Accipiter melanoleucus temminckii , the flanks are also more mottled, the dark colored morph does not occur in this subspecies.

Way of life

Moorish hawks live solitarily or as a couple. Their diet consists almost entirely of birds, a few rodents and a few mongooses . In crop of young animals were found Bluebird eggs and small snakes. The prey birds usually weigh 80 to 300 g and are killed in flight. The breeding business takes place in West Africa from August to January, almost all year round in East Africa, from July to February in Zambia and from May to March (mainly July to January) in southern Africa. The extensive nest is a platform made of branches that can reach a diameter of 50 to 70 cm and a height of 30 to 75 cm, whereby larger nests can be taken over by other birds of prey. As a rule, the nest is lined with thick green leaves. It is usually in the main fork under the treetop, sometimes in a side branch. All available tree species are used, often eucalyptus in southern Africa . The nest is rarely found on the ground at the tree base. The clutch consists of 2 to 3 (1 to 4) eggs, the incubation period is 34 to 38 days, the young are fledged after 37 to 50 days or more.

Etymology and history of research

Andrew Smith described the goshawk under its current name Accipiter melanoleucus . The type specimen came from South Africa. Mathurin-Jacques Brisson introduced the new generic name Accipiter as early as 1760 . This name is derived from the Latin "accipiter, accipitris" for "falcon, hawk" or "accipere" for "grab". The species name is a Greek word formation from "melas, melanos μελας, μελανος " for "black" and "leukos λευκος " for "white". After all, »temminckii« is dedicated to the ornithologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck .

literature

  • Andrew Smith: A description of the Bird inhabiting the South of Africa . In: South African quarterly journal . tape 1 , no. 3 , 1830, p. 225-241 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Gustav Hartlaub: Description of some new species of birds collected there by Mr. HS Pel, a Dutch resident on the Gold Coast . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 3 , no. 17 , 1855, pp. 353-360 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • James A. Jobling: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4 .
  • Mathurin-Jacques Brisson: Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés: a laquelle on a joint une description exacte de chaque espèce, avec les citations des auteurs qui en ont traité, les noms quils leur ont donnés, ceux que leur ont donnés les différentes nations, & les noms vulgaires . tape 1 . Ad Ripam Augustinorum, apud Cl. Joannem-Baptistam Bauche, bibliopolam, ad Insigne S. Genovesae, & S. Joannis in Deserto, Paris 1760 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).

Web links

Commons : Accipiter melanoleucus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Accipiter melanoleucus Smith. Black Sparrowhawk; Great Sparrowhawk. Autour noir. In: The Birds of Africa . Academic Press Limited, ISBN 978-0-12-137301-6 , doi : 10.5040 / 9781472926982.0231 ( bloomsburycollections.com [accessed May 21, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Odette E. Curtis, Philip AR Hockey, Ann Koeslag: Competition with Egyptian Geese Alopochen aegyptiaca overrides environmental factors in determining productivity of Black Sparrowhawks Accipiter melanoleucus . In: Ibis . tape 149 , no. 3 , March 2, 2007, ISSN  0019-1019 , p. 502-508 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1474-919x.2007.00675.x ( wiley.com [accessed May 21, 2018]).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g James Ferguson-Lees, David A. Christie: Raptors of the World. Christopher Helm, 2001, ISBN 0-7136-8026-1 , pp. 592-594.
  4. ^ A b AC Kemp, GM Kirwan: Black Sparrowhawk (Accipiter melanoleucus). In: J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, DA Christie, E. de Juana (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2018. (online)
  5. ^ IOC World Bird List New World vultures, Secretarybird, kites, hawks, eagles
  6. ↑ a b Gustav Hartlaub, pp. 353–354.
  7. ↑ a b Andrew Smith, pp. 229-230.
  8. ^ Mathurin-Jacques Brisson, pp. 28 & 310f.
  9. ↑ James A. Jobling, p. 30.
  10. ↑ James A. Jobling, p. 247.