Dave Taylor's African Safari: Trophic Level III: Omnivores and Small Carnivores - Pale-chanting Goshawk

Trophic Level III: Omnivores and Small Carnivores
Pale-chanting Goshawk
Page 32

Melierax canorus

Length: 55 cm (22")

Status: Common

Habitat: Pale-chanting goshawks are found in arid thornbush and grasslands.

Food: Pale-chanting goshawks eat lizards, snakes, francolins, doves, rodents and dung beetles. They are opportunistic hunters and will eat whatever food is available. They will scavenge from carcasses. They hunt from an exposed perch, often sitting in the same location for hours as they watch the ground for movement. When a lizard or insect is spotted, they glide down and, if necessary, will even chase the prey on foot.

Once killed, the victim is taken to a perch where it is eaten.

The pale-chanting goshawk can take prey as large as guineafowl.

Social System/Behavior: Both sexes of this goshawk are the same size. There is no sexual dimorphism in this species. They live together in pairs over the course of the year.

Pale-chanting goshawks occupy a permanent territory covering a few square kilometers (about a square mile). Sometimes the pair will hunt together. In dry years, when game is scarce, they will not breed but in wet years, they may raise two broods.

The uppermost branches of a thorn tree are preferred as nesting sites. Both share in the building of the nest. The nest is lined with dung, grasses, feathers and sometimes human rubbish!

Normally, two eggs are laid. However, they often succeed in raising only one chick. Two chicks will be raised only when food is abundant. The eggs are laid a day apart and the adults begin incubating the day the first egg is laid. This means the chicks hatch a day apart. The older, larger bird has an advantage over its smaller sibling. It gets most of the food and may push the smaller bird out of the nest.

Incubation lasts 37 days and the chick is fledged after seven or eight weeks.

Predators: Other hawks and eagles will take this bird. Owls may take the odd one at night. Caracals and servals are also threats.

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