Falco ardosiaceus
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The grey kestrel (Falco ardosiaceus) is an African bird of prey belonging to the falcon family Falconidae. Its closest relatives are the banded kestrel and Dickinson's kestrel and the three are sometimes placed in the subgenus Dissodectes.
It is a fairly small, stocky kestrel with a large, flat-topped head and fairly short wings that don't reach past the tip of the tail when at rest. It is 28–33 cm long with a wingspan of 58–72 cm and a weight of up to 300 grams. The female is 4-11% larger and 5-11% heavier than the male. The plumage of the adult is uniformly dark grey apart from darker wingtips, faint dark streaking on the body and slightly barred flight feathers. The feet and cere are yellow and there is bare yellow skin around the eye. The most similar species is the sooty falcon which has a more rounded head, long wings extending past the tail and less yellow around the eye.
Juvenile grey kestrels are browner than the adults with a greenish cere and greenish around the eye. Juvenile Dickinson's kestrels are similar but have a barred tail and a more strongly barred underwing. The grey kestrel is generally silent outside the breeding season but has a shrill, chattering... Wikipedia →
Call0:30
Senegal · 2019
© Bram Piot · XC476002 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 2 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 3 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 4 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Akagera National Park | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 9 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 11 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 12 | Lake Manyara National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 13 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| 14 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 15 | Semuliki National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 16 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 17 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 18 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 2 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 3 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 4 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 6 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Grey Kestrel sighting in Ruaha National Park on a given day, based on 95 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 39th most-seen of the 276 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and September
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Grey Kestrel in Ruaha National Park on a given day, against about 20% in April, the lowest month. Those are among Ruaha National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 180 mm in January.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Grey 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.
3rd of 18
Of the 18 parks where we can rate Grey Kestrel sightings, Ruaha National Park ranks 3rd at about 40%. The best odds are in Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 50%) and Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Falco
The closest relatives of the Grey Kestrel that you can see in Ruaha National Park (genus Falco, Typical Falcons) are Eurasian Hobby (about 10%) and Red-necked Falcon (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grey Kestrel is recorded against all the birds logged in Ruaha National Park (95 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.
