Falco chicquera
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The red-necked falcon (Falco chicquera) is a bird of prey in the falcon family with two disjunct populations, one in India and the other in Africa. This medium-sized falcon has bluish grey wings and upper body, a chestnut red cap with short chin straps passing through the eye. The primary feathers of the wing are black and a single black band at the tip of the tail are distinctive. The Indian subspecies Falco chicquera chicquera also known as the red-headed merlin or red-headed falcon is found mainly in the open plains of the India Subcontinent although it is thought to have occurred further west in southeastern Iran. The subspecies Falco chicquera ruficollis found in sub-Saharan Africa is sometimes treated as a full species, the rufous-necked falcon (Falco ruficollis), on the basis of its well-separated geographic range and distinctive pattern. It appears very similar to the Indian form but has dark barring on the upperparts, a rufous breast band, and black moustachial and eye stripes. As in most falcons, the females are larger and falconers in India called the female turumti and the male as chatwa. They hunt in pairs mostly at dawn and dusk, capturing small birds, bats and squirrels... Wikipedia →
Call0:05
Senegal · 2016
© Bram Piot · XC336033 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | N'Djamena | 🇹🇩 Chad | |
| 2 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 3 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 4 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Dhaka | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 6 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 7 | Lucknow | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Chennai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red-necked Falcon sighting in Ruaha National Park on a given day, based on 15 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 199th most-seen of the 276 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.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red-necked Falcon in Ruaha National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June, August–September and November–February, the lowest months. That is one of Ruaha National Park's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain against 180 mm in January.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-necked Falcon sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 29
Of the 29 parks where we can rate Red-necked Falcon sightings, Ruaha National Park ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in Etosha National Park (Namibia, about 20%), Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 20%) and Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 10%).
Same genus: Falco
The closest relatives of the Red-necked Falcon that you can see in Ruaha National Park (genus Falco, Typical Falcons) are Grey Kestrel (about 40%) 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 Red-necked Falcon is recorded against all the birds logged in Ruaha National Park (15 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.
