Birds of prey and owls

African Harrier-Hawk

Polyboroides typus

Here all year

What it sounds like

A drawn-out, mournful whistle, though it is more often noticed by the commotion of every other bird mobbing it.

Nature sounds by Simply Birding, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

How to recognise it

Still widely called the Gymnogene. Pale grey with a bare yellow face that flushes red when it is agitated. Its trick is unique: double-jointed legs let it hang upside down on a trunk or palm and reach a whole leg into a cavity or weaver nest to raid it. Watch one work a colony and you will never mistake it again.

Seen in Manor Gardens

Nobody has logged a African Harrier-Hawk here yet. If you spot one, you will be the first on the record.

I saw this one

More birds of prey and owls

Spotted Eagle-Owl
African Wood Owl
Barn Owl
African Crowned Eagle
Yellow-billed Kite

More guides to what lives here

Monkeys, mongooses & Pigeon Valley Garden birds Snakes Trees Sighting log Whose call is that? My garden list