Melierax metabates
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The dark chanting goshawk (Melierax metabates) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which is found across much of sub-Saharan Africa and southern Arabia, with an isolated and declining population in southern Morocco.
The dark chanting goshawk is a medium-sized, bulky hawk with an upright stance. The head, breast and upperparts are essentially dark grey, while the underparts, other than the breast, are white, finely barred with black. The wing primaries are black, and the tail has broad black and white bars. The cere and the long legs are orange-red. The female is, on average, larger than the male, weighing up to 840g to the male's maximum weight of 700g. Juveniles tend to have browner plumage reminiscent in colour and pattern to a buzzard Buteo spp but with the broad winged, long tailed silhouette of an accipiter.
As its common name suggests, the dark chanting goshawk is a vocal bird, although less so than its two congeners. It often calls from a perch or in flight, making an accelerating series of piping notes and fluty whistles, which has been described as a song or chant and there are up to a dozen notes in a series peeu-peeu-pu-pu-pu. It also... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 2 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 3 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 5 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 9 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 11 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 12 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 13 | Lower Zambezi National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 14 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 15 | Mana Pools National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 16 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 17 | South Luangwa National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 18 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 19 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 2 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dark Chanting-Goshawk sighting in uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, based on 69 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 153rd most-seen of the 283 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Dark Chanting-Goshawk in uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in July and September, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dark Chanting-Goshawk sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 19
Of the 19 parks where we can rate Dark Chanting-Goshawk sightings, uMkhuze Game Reserve ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 60%), Serengeti National Park (Tanzania, about 30%) and Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Accipitridae
The closest relatives of the Dark Chanting-Goshawk that you can see in uMkhuze Game Reserve (family Accipitridae, Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) are White-backed Vulture (about 50%), Bateleur (about 40%) and Wahlberg's Eagle (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dark Chanting-Goshawk is recorded against all the birds logged in uMkhuze Game Reserve (69 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.
