Hieraaetus ayresii
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Ayres's hawk-eagle (Hieraaetus ayresii), or Ayres' eagle, is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It is native to African woodlands. Its name honours South African ornithologist Thomas Ayres. The adult male has blackish upper parts that are mottled with white and usually has a white forehead and supercilium. The upper-wing coverts are similar. The tail is ashy grey with a broad black tip and three to four narrower dark bars. Primary feathers and secondary feathers are black. The underparts are white, with heavy dark brown spots and blotches on the breast and belly, becoming sparser on the thighs and vent. The legs are well-feathered and pure white. The under-wing coverts are brown and marked with white, and the underside of flight feathers is dark and heavily barred lacking any noticeable grey patch. The eyes are yellow to orange, the cere and feet yellow, and the bill is bluish horn coloured becoming paler towards the base, with a black tip. This species has a small but at times pronounced crest. The males are smaller than the females, darker and usually more densely spotted on the underparts, and have a smaller amount of white on the forehead and... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Semuliki National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Bale Mountains National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 4 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Meru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 6 | Mana Pools National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 7 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Lower Zambezi National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 9 | Mkomazi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 11 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 12 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 13 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 14 | Lake Manyara National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 15 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 16 | Volcanoes National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 17 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 18 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Ayres's Hawk-Eagle sighting in Mana Pools National Park on a given day, based on 18 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 218th most-seen of the 275 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.
August to October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Ayres's Hawk-Eagle in Mana Pools National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April–July and November–February, the lowest months. Those are among Mana Pools National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 290 mm in January. March has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Ayres's Hawk-Eagle sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 18
Of the 18 parks where we can rate Ayres's Hawk-Eagle sightings, Mana Pools National Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in iSimangaliso Wetland Park (South Africa, about 10%), Semuliki National Park (Uganda, about 10%) and Bale Mountains National Park (Ethiopia, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Ayres's Hawk-Eagle is recorded against all the birds logged in Mana Pools National Park (18 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.
