Gabar goshawk
species of bird
The gabar goshawk (Micronisus gabar) is a small species of African and Arabian bird of prey in the family Accipitridae.
Description
The gabar goshawk is polymorphic and occurs in two distinct forms which fluctuate in relative abundance across the geographic range of the species. The more frequent, paler form has mostly grey upperparts with a conspicuous, white rump and white and grey barring on the chest, thighs and underwings, and a dark grey, barred tail. In contrast, the less frequent form, which accounts on average for approximately 25 percent of the overall population, is almost completely black. In both forms of adult the eyes are dark, and the legs are long and the cere is red. The cere and the legs are yellow in immatures and the plumage is generally browner, with the pale birds having untidier barring on the chest than the adult. The females are significantly larger than the males, the male's weigh 90 – 173g and the females 167 – 240g. The body length is 28–36 cm and the wingspan 63 cm.
Distribution and subspecies
The gabar goshawk is found in sub-Saharan Africa, extending to Arabian Peninsula. These subspecies are currently recognised:
M. g.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gabar goshawk” is species of bird. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gabar, goshawk and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gabar goshawk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.