Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Accipitriformes > Accipitridae > Melierax > Melierax metabates

Melierax metabates (Dark Chanting Goshawk)

Wikipedia Abstract

The dark chanting goshawk (Melierax metabates) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. The Accipitridae also include many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles and harriers. This hawk breeds in sub-Saharan Africa, but avoids the rainforests of the Congo basin. There is a small and declining isolated population in Morocco, and it also occurs in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It is a resident species of tropical and subtropical savannah. It builds a stick nest in a tree and lays one or two eggs. It eats a variety of vertebrate prey and large insects.
View Wikipedia Record: Melierax metabates

Infraspecies

Melierax metabates ignoscens
Melierax metabates mechowi
Melierax metabates metabates
Melierax metabates neumanni
Melierax metabates theresae

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
5
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
28
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 12.0414
EDGE Score: 2.56813
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  1.673 lbs (759 g)
Birth Weight [2]  50 grams
Female Weight [1]  1.867 lbs (847 g)
Male Weight [1]  1.479 lbs (671 g)
Weight Dimorphism [1]  26.2 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates)
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  60 %
Diet - Endothermic [3]  20 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  10 %
Diet - Scavenger [3]  10 %
Forages - Mid-High [3]  20 %
Forages - Understory [3]  20 %
Forages - Ground [3]  60 %
Clutch Size [4]  1
Clutches / Year [1]  1
Fledging [1]  43 days
Mating Display [2]  Ground and non-acrobatic aerial display
Raptor Research Conservation Priority [5]  66
Snout to Vent Length [1]  18 inches (46 cm)
Wing Span [6]  37 inches (.95 m)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania No
Eastern Afromontane Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe No
Guinean Forests of West Africa Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Togo No
Horn of Africa Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Oman, Somalia, Yemen No
Mediterranean Basin Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey No

Prey / Diet

Helogale parvula (Common Dwarf Mongoose)[6]
Numida meleagris (Helmeted Guineafowl)[6]
Tockus flavirostris (Northern Yellow-billed Hornbill)[6]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Asio capensis (Marsh Owl)1
Micronisus gabar (Gabar goshawk)1

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Matabelea fuhrmanni <Unverified Name>[7]

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 5Buechley ER, Santangeli A, Girardello M, et al. Global raptor research and conservation priorities: Tropical raptors fall prey to knowledge gaps. Divers Distrib. 2019;25:856–869. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12901
♦ 6del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0