Accipiter melanoleucus

The Black Sparrowhawk occurs widely over sub-Saharan Africa, and in South Africa is found at least in parts of all our provinces, though they’re very sparsely distributed in the arid central and western parts of the country. They prefer denser habitats, like forests, mature woodland and riverine thickets and have adapted to plantations of exotic trees, which aided an expansion in their range locally.

Black Sparrowhawks feed almost exclusively on a wide variety of birds, usually hunted from a secreted perch. They have a particular liking for doves and pigeons (as in some of the images below), francolins and domestic poultry but even owls, cormorants and egrets have been recorded as prey! Though persecuted by pigeon fanciers and free-range poultry farmers it doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on their population and the IUCN considers the Black Sparrowhawk to be of least concern.

The Black Sparrowhawk usually breeds from late autumn to early summer. Monogamous pairs work together to construct a stick platform densely lined with green leaves in a tall tree to use as a nest. Here the female will incubate a clutch of up to 4 eggs over a 6 week period while the male brings her food. The chicks are brooded by the female for the first 3 weeks after hatching and only then will she start helping the male catch prey for the young ones. The youngsters become independent of their parents at about 4 months of age. At about 900g in weight the female is almost double the size of the adult male.

Black Sparrowhawk

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed being mobbed by a Pied Crow

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed