Falco ardosiaceus
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The grey kestrel (Falco ardosiaceus) is an African bird of prey belonging to the falcon family Falconidae. Its closest relatives are the banded kestrel and Dickinson's kestrel and the three are sometimes placed in the subgenus Dissodectes.
It is a fairly small, stocky kestrel with a large, flat-topped head and fairly short wings that don't reach past the tip of the tail when at rest. It is 28–33 cm long with a wingspan of 58–72 cm and a weight of up to 300 grams. The female is 4-11% larger and 5-11% heavier than the male. The plumage of the adult is uniformly dark grey apart from darker wingtips, faint dark streaking on the body and slightly barred flight feathers. The feet and cere are yellow and there is bare yellow skin around the eye. The most similar species is the sooty falcon which has a more rounded head, long wings extending past the tail and less yellow around the eye.
Juvenile grey kestrels are browner than the adults with a greenish cere and greenish around the eye. Juvenile Dickinson's kestrels are similar but have a barred tail and a more strongly barred underwing. The grey kestrel is generally silent outside the breeding season but has a shrill, chattering... Wikipedia →
Call0:30
Senegal · 2019
© Bram Piot · XC476002 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 2 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 3 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 4 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Akagera National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 9 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 11 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 12 | Lake Manyara National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 13 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| 14 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 15 | Semuliki National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 16 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 17 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 18 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 2 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 3 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 4 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 6 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Grey Kestrel sighting in Accra on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 110th most-seen of the 162 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–March, May, July and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Grey Kestrel in Accra on a given day, against under 5% in January, April, June and August–November, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Grey Kestrel sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 6
Of the 6 cities where we can rate Grey Kestrel sightings, Accra ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, about 20%) and Abuja (Nigeria, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grey Kestrel is recorded against all the birds logged in Accra (19 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
