Falco dickinsoni
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Dickinson's kestrel (Falco dickinsoni) is a bird of prey of southern and eastern Africa belonging to the falcon family Falconidae. It is named after John Dickinson, an English physician and missionary who collected the type specimen. It is also known as the white-rumped kestrel. Its closest relatives are the grey kestrel and banded kestrel and the three are sometimes placed in the subgenus Dissodectes.
It is a fairly small, stocky kestrel with a large, square head. It is 27–30 cm (11–12 in) long with a wingspan of 61–68 cm (24–27 in) and a weight of 167–246 g (5.9–8.7 oz). The female is about 4% larger and 10-20% heavier than the male. The plumage is mostly dark grey with a pale head and rump. The tail is grey with narrow black bars and a broad subterminal band. The underside of the flight feathers are also barred. The cere and feet are yellow and there is bare yellow skin around the eye. The bill is dark grey and the eyes are brown. Juvenile birds are grey-brown with barred flanks and without the paler head and rump. They have a greenish cere and eye-ring.
It is usually silent but has a high-pitched alarm and contact call. At the nest, a soft, mewing call attracts... Wikipedia →
Call0:37
Tanzania · 2011
© Martin St-Michel · XC94807 · CC BY-NC-ND 2.5
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liwonde National Park | 🇲🇼 Malawi | |
| 2 | Gonarezhou National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 3 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 4 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 5 | Mana Pools National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 6 | Gorongosa National Park | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 7 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 9 | Lower Zambezi National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 10 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 11 | South Luangwa National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 12 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 13 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
No species of the same family or order lives in Gonarezhou National Park, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Dickinson's Kestrel sighting in Gonarezhou National Park on a given day, based on 29 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 130th most-seen of the 233 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Dickinson's Kestrel in Gonarezhou National Park on a given day, against about 10% in February, May and October–November, the lowest months. That is one of Gonarezhou National Park's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain against 150 mm in January. March–April, June and December–January have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dickinson's 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.
2nd of 13
Of the 13 parks where we can rate Dickinson's Kestrel sightings, Gonarezhou National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Liwonde National Park (Malawi, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dickinson's Kestrel is recorded against all the birds logged in Gonarezhou National Park (29 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
