The Dark Chanting Goshawk (Melierax metabates) is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. The Accipitridae also include many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles and harriers.
This hawk breeds in sub-Saharan Africa, but avoids the rain forests of the Congo basin. There is a small and declining isolated population in Morocco, and it also occurs in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
It is a resident species of tropical and subtropical savannah. It builds a stick nest in a tree and lays one or two eggs. It eats a variety of vertebrate prey and large insects.
The Dark Chanting Goshawk is a large, long-tailed, broad-winged hawk, with a 105 cm wingspan. It is slate-grey above and white with fine barring below. The tail is black and white. In flight, the wings are grey with black tips. The flight is stiff and mechanical.
This species derives its name from the breeding season song, which consists of chanted flutes and whistles.
Famous quotes containing the words dark and/or chanting:
“It is better that, as scholars,
They should think hard in the dark cuffs
Of voluminous cloaks,
And shave their heads and bodies.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“In the far South the sun of autumn is passing
Like Walt Whitman walking along a ruddy shore.
He is singing and chanting the things that are part of him,
The worlds that were and will be, death and day.
Nothing is final, he chants. No man shall see the end.
His beard is of fire and his staff is a leaping flame.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)