African Harrier-Hawk

Polyboroides typus

Other Names

  Harrier-hawk, Gymnogene, Banded Harrier-hawk   Gymnogène d'Afrique   Madagaskarhöhlenweihe   Aguilucho-caricalvo Común   Klätterhök   Afrikaanse kiekendief   Sparviero serpentario

World: Africa - widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa except in the arid regions of Somalia, Ethiopia and the SW.

Kenya: Uncommon in woodland and forest edge, absent from the arid northern regions.

This is a large hawk with extensive bare facial parts which change colour from yellow to a deep crimson shade. It has smallish feet for its size and has a very flexible tibio-tarsal joint which allows it to forage on the branches and trunks of trees. Its diet consists mainly of small mammals, birds (and their eggs), bats, squirrels, reptiles and insects. It will also eat oil palm and other fruits. It occasionally forages while walking on the ground and also from low coursing flight across vegetation. But it is its primary method of feeding that makes it a remarkable bird of prey. Its preference is for clambering along trunks, hanging onto the tree limbs by its feet with its wings dangling down and flapping to give it balance. It then probes with its slender bill for insects and their larvae, young animals, eggs or nestlings. African Harrier-Hawks can often be seen hanging from weaver nests while they pry the young or eggs out. In fact they use the small passerine habit of mobbing birds of prey that come a nest site, to their advantage as this identifies suitable foraging areas for them.