Beautiful hawk spotted in backyard in Ladysmith
They are excellent hunters and have double-jointed legs and sharp talons, which help them to climb trees and reach into cavities to find their prey
Bianca Joubert spotted a beautiful bird sitting on a branch in her backyard last weekend.
Curiously, she moved slowly towards the bird to capture a photo it. Once she was close, she saw it was an African harrier-hawk.
The African harrier-hawk or gymnogene (Polyboroides typus) is a large bird of prey species found throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa. It is only one of two species of harrier-hawk, the other one being the very similar Madagascan harrier-hawk (Polyboroides radiatus).
These beautiful birds grow up to 65cm tall. They are excellent hunters and have double-jointed legs and sharp talons, which help them to climb trees and reach into cavities to find their prey (including small mammals, birds, eggs, insects and lizards). They also eat palm nuts.
Also read: Interesting bird behaviour spotted at Ingula
They have no feathers on their face, which is helpful when sticking their beaks into small areas to catch prey. This also enables them to blush during their mating displays. At breeding time, they lay one to three eggs in a large nest made of sticks they build on a cliff or in a tree.
Both the male and female help to incubate the eggs and often only the oldest of the chicks survives.
African harrier-hawks live in forests and savanna areas of sub-Saharan Africa and are quite common throughout their range. Quite fascinating!
“The hawk didn’t stay too long before flying away, but it was beautiful and I hope it comes back,” says Bianca.
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