Falco biarmicus
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The lanner falcon (Falco biarmicus) is a medium-sized bird of prey that breeds in Africa, southeast Europe and just into Asia. It prefers open habitat and is mainly resident, but some birds disperse more widely after the breeding season. A large falcon, it preys on birds and bats. Most likely either the lanner or peregrine falcon was the sacred species of falcon to the ancient Egyptians, and some ancient Egyptian deities, like Ra and Horus, were often represented as a man with the head of a lanner falcon.
The lanner falcon was described by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1825 under the current binomial name Falco biarmicus. The type locality is Caffraria and the Cape of Good Hope. Falco is Late Latin for a "falcon", from falx, falcis "sickle". The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus had used the specific epithet biarmicus for the bearded reedling and Temminck clearly believed that the word meant "bearded" but it is likely that Linnaeus was using the Latinized form for Bjarmaland, a district in northern Russia. The English word "lanner" is believed to come from the Old French lanier meaning "cowardly". The first recorded use of the word in English... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 2 | Lagos | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 3 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 4 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 5 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 6 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 7 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 8 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 10 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lanner Falcon sighting in Hwange National Park on a given day, based on 8 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 281st most-seen of the 308 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lanner Falcon in Hwange National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February and April–November, the lowest months. Those are among Hwange National Park's wettest months, with about 90 mm of rain a month against almost none in July.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lanner Falcon sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
22nd of 32
Of the 32 parks where we can rate Lanner Falcon sightings, Hwange National Park ranks 22nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (South Africa, about 50%), Bale Mountains National Park (Ethiopia, about 40%) and Etosha National Park (Namibia, about 10%).
Same genus: Falco
The closest relatives of the Lanner Falcon that you can see in Hwange National Park (genus Falco, Typical Falcons) are Amur Falcon (about 10%), Dickinson's Kestrel (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 Lanner Falcon is recorded against all the birds logged in Hwange National Park (8 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.
