Dark Chanting Goshawk
A species of Chanting goshawks Scientific name : Melierax metabates Genus : Chanting goshawks
Dark Chanting Goshawk, A species of Chanting goshawks
Botanical name: Melierax metabates
Genus: Chanting goshawks
Content
Description General Info
Photo By Francesco Veronesi , used under CC-BY-SA-2.0 /Cropped and compressed from original 
Description
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. 
Size
50 cm
Feeding Habits
Dark Chanting Goshawk predominantly consumes small vertebrates, including lizards, snakes, birds, and mammals like the dwarf mongoose. It also eats insects and is known to scavenge carrion. Dark Chanting Goshawk hunts from perches and on foot, sometimes utilizing wildfires or following other predators to find prey.
Habitat
Dark Chanting Goshawk is commonly found in moist broad-leaved woodlands and well-wooded savannas, often favoring areas with a mix of tall, well-developed trees like miombo, mopane, Zambezi teak, Knob thorn, and Marula. Although dark Chanting Goshawk avoids dense forests and deserts, it inhabits regions that are moister and richer in vegetation compared to the dry habitats preferred by its related species. In areas with no overlapping Melierax species, such as around Lake Chad, dark Chanting Goshawk shows some habitat segregation with other raptors like the Gabar Goshawk, with dark Chanting Goshawk hunting in different ecological niches. Notably, dark Chanting Goshawk is found in Argan woodlands in Morocco and has adapted to diverse habitats, including old olive and thornbush groves, as well as palm and orange groves. Altitudinally, dark Chanting Goshawk's habitat range extends up to 1,900 meters in Arabia and up to 3,000 meters in mainland Africa.
Dite type
Carnivorous
General Info
Distribution Area
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.
Species 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.
Scientific Classification
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