Gabar Goshawk

Fascinating facts about the Gabar Goshawk

• Around one quarter of all gabar goshawks are the all-black morph, a striking minority that contrasts with the more common grey-bodied birds that flaunt a white rump and barred chest. This split in plumage stays consistent across their range, hinting at a genetic balance that persists despite differing habitats. It shows how a single species can maintain distinct visual strategies side by side.
• Females weigh up to 240 g while males range from 90 to 173 g, making the females almost twice as heavy as their male partners. With a body length of 28–36 cm and a wingspan of 63 cm, the size gap is noticeable in the field. This dimorphism reflects the different roles each sex plays during breeding, especially the female’s longer incubation stint.
• The nest is a tiny platform of thin twigs tucked into the fork of a thorny tree, often an acacia, and the birds deliberately line it with fresh spider webs – even plucking live spiders to spin new ones. The added silk camouflages the structure and the resident spiders eat parasites that might threaten the chicks. This clever partnership turns a simple nest into a miniature, self-maintaining fortress.
• Egg-laying stretches from July to December, with a peak in September–November, and a typical clutch holds two eggs, though four have been recorded. The female incubates for about 33–38 days, then broods the hatchlings for 19–21 days while the male supplies food. The fledglings leave the nest at roughly 35–36 days old and become fully independent a month later, illustrating a tightly timed life-cycle tied to the rainy season.
• When hunting, the gabar goshawk often perches before swooping down to snatch small birds, but it will also raid weaver colonies, tearing through the nest tops to grab chicks. Its diet is dominated by small birds, supplemented occasionally by mammals, reptiles, and insects. Such aggressive, versatile foraging lets it thrive in open woodlands, savannas, and even the edges of cities.

At a glance

About the Gabar Goshawk

The gabar goshawk (Micronisus gabar) darts through the dry Acacia savannas and broad-leaved woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, its silhouette a flash of grey-white or, less often, an almost jet-black silhouette. The more common pale morph wears a slate-grey mantle, a stark white rump and barred chest, thighs and underwings, while its tail is dark grey with bold bars. The rarer dark form, making up roughly a quarter of the population, is uniformly black, yet both sexes share dark eyes, long legs and a vivid red cere. Males weigh 90–173 g, females 167–240 g; they measure 28–36 cm in length with a 63 cm wingspan, the females noticeably larger. In the heat-baked miombo and mopane woodlands, and even along the tree-lined watercourses of the Karoo and Namib, these raptors hunt with relentless energy. Small birds dominate their diet, flushed from foliage and pursued in swift, aerial bursts; they will also snatch rodents, reptiles and insects, and have been observed tearing into weaver colonies to pilfer chicks. A surprising twist to their breeding biology is the deliberate incorporation of live spider webs into their nests – the spiders spin fresh silk that camouflages the structure and may even mop up parasites threatening the hatchlings. The female incubates the two-to-four-egg clutch for about a month, broods the chicks for three weeks, and the fledglings leave the nest after roughly five weeks, soon becoming independent.

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