Falco ardosiaceus
Silhouette: Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Grey Kestrel sighting in Serengeti National Park on a given day, based on 322 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 151st most-seen of the 469 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Grey Kestrel in Serengeti National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August and October, the lowest months.
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.
10th of 18
Of the 18 parks where we can rate Grey Kestrel sightings, Serengeti National Park ranks 10th at about 10%. The best odds are in Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 50%), Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 40%) and Ruaha National Park (Tanzania, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Falco
The closest relatives of the Grey Kestrel that you can see in Serengeti National Park (genus Falco, Typical Falcons) are Lesser Kestrel (about 20%), Greater Kestrel (about 10%) 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 Grey Kestrel is recorded against all the birds logged in Serengeti National Park (322 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.
