Dark chanting goshawk

Appearance

The dark chanting goshawk is a medium-sized, bulky hawk with an upright stance. The head, breast and upperparts are essentially dark grey, while the underparts, other than the breast, are white, finely barred with black. The wing primaries are black, and the tail has broad black and white bars. The cere and the long legs are orange-red. The female is, on average, larger than the male, weighing up to 840g to the male's maximum weight of 700g. Juveniles tend to have browner plumage reminiscent in colour and pattern to a buzzard "Buteo spp" but with the broad winged, long tailed silhouette of an accipiter.

Naming

The dark chanting goshawk breeds in sub-Saharan Africa, but avoids the rainforests of the Congo basin and the far south, where it is replaced by the pale chanting goshawk and east Africa where the Eastern chanting goshawk seems to replace it.

There are five currently recognised subspecies,

⤷ "Melierax metabates metabates": Senegal and the Gambia east to Ethiopia, south to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Tanzania.
⤷ "Melierax metabates neumanni": Mali east to northern Sudan.
⤷ "Melierax metabates theresae": south west Morocco.
⤷ "Melierax metabates ignoscens": South western Arabia, i.e. south western Saudi Arabia and western Yemen.
⤷ "Melierax metabates mechowi": south eastern Gabon to Angola, south Tanzania south to northern Namibia and north eastern South Africa.

Although the status of M. neumanni is debatable as it is poorly differentiated.

Distribution

The dark chanting goshawk breeds in sub-Saharan Africa, but avoids the rainforests of the Congo basin and the far south, where it is replaced by the pale chanting goshawk and east Africa where the Eastern chanting goshawk seems to replace it.

There are five currently recognised subspecies,

⤷ "Melierax metabates metabates": Senegal and the Gambia east to Ethiopia, south to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Tanzania.
⤷ "Melierax metabates neumanni": Mali east to northern Sudan.
⤷ "Melierax metabates theresae": south west Morocco.
⤷ "Melierax metabates ignoscens": South western Arabia, i.e. south western Saudi Arabia and western Yemen.
⤷ "Melierax metabates mechowi": south eastern Gabon to Angola, south Tanzania south to northern Namibia and north eastern South Africa.

Although the status of M. neumanni is debatable as it is poorly differentiated.

Status

The dark-chanting goshawk is widespread and common and therefore not globally threatened. However, the two isolated subspecies occurring in Morocco and the Arabian Peninsula, are highly vulnerable to the clearance of woodland. In particular the subspecies "Melierax metabates theresae", is confined to a small area of south western Morocco, where it is thought to be nearly extinct as a result of deforestation and hunting. Otherwise its wide range means that Birdlife International categorise the species as Least Concern.

Habitat

The dark chanting goshawk occurs in savannahs and open woodlands, favouring mixed bushveld and broad-leafed woodlands and avoid dense forest and desert, where it overlaps with other "Melierax" species the dark chanting goshawk prefers moister richer woodland. In southern Africa it is found in tall, well-developed woodland, especially wheremiombo, mopane, Zambezi teak, Knob thorn and Marula are among the canopy.