Falco dickinsoni
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dickinson's Kestrel sighting in Hwange National Park on a given day, based on 35 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 167th most-seen of the 308 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Dickinson's Kestrel in Hwange National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–April, July, September and November–December, the lowest months. That is one of Hwange National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 150 mm in January.
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.
4th of 13
Of the 13 parks where we can rate Dickinson's Kestrel sightings, Hwange National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Liwonde National Park (Malawi, about 30%), Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 20%) and Moremi Game Reserve (Botswana, about 10%).
Same genus: Falco
The closest relatives of the Dickinson's Kestrel that you can see in Hwange National Park (genus Falco, Typical Falcons) are Amur Falcon (about 10%) and Eurasian Hobby (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dickinson's Kestrel is recorded against all the birds logged in Hwange National Park (35 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.
