Falco concolor
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The sooty falcon (Falco concolor) is a medium-sized falcon, breeding from northeastern Africa to the southern Persian Gulf region, and wintering in East Africa (Mozambique, eastern South Africa) and Madagascar. The Sooty Falcon is part of the order Falconiformes, family Falconidae and genus Falco. The sooty falcon belongs to the hobby group, a rather close-knit number of similar falcons often considered a subgenus Falco. Eleonora's falcon F. eleonorae is sometimes considered its closest relative, but while they certainly belong to the same clade, they may not be direct sister species, with F. concolor possibly closer to Eurasian hobby F. subbuteo and African hobby F. cuvieri than it is to Eleonora's falcon.
This is an elegant bird of prey, 32–37 cm long with a 78–90 cm wingspan. It is shaped like a large Eurasian hobby or a small Eleonora's falcon, with its long pointed wings, long tail and slim body. The adults are blue-grey, and lack the black underwing coverts of the Eleonora's falcon. The young bird is like a large juvenile hobby, or small juvenile Eleanora's falcon. Its dark trailing edge to the wings and tail distinguish it from the former species... Wikipedia →
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Saudi Arabia · 2021
© David Darrell-Lambert · XC739084 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ankarafantsika National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 2 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Mantadia National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 4 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antananarivo | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Sooty Falcon sighting in Kidepo Valley National Park on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 256th most-seen of the 332 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and September–October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Sooty Falcon in Kidepo Valley National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June–August and November–February, the lowest months. April and May have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sooty Falcon sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Sooty Falcon sightings, Kidepo Valley National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Ankarafantsika National Park (Madagascar, about 10%).
Same genus: Falco
The closest relatives of the Sooty Falcon that you can see in Kidepo Valley National Park (genus Falco, Typical Falcons) are Grey Kestrel (about 20%), Fox Kestrel (about 20%) and Common Kestrel (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sooty Falcon is recorded against all the birds logged in Kidepo Valley National Park (10 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.
