African Cuckoo-hawk Aviceda cuculoides

African Cuckoo-hawk Aviceda cuculoides

African Cuckoo-Hawk, Mole, Ghana, June 2011 - click for larger image

Ghana
May / June 2011

The African Cuckoo-hawk is distributed in Africa south of the Sahara but is missing from the south-west. There is a distribution map at Planetofbirds.com. It is found in forest and gallery forest as well as humid savannah woodland.

African Cuckoo-Hawk, Shai Hills, Ghana, June 2011 - click for larger image

It is a smallish and rather secretive kite showing a cuckoo pattern and shape. In flight note the small head, broad wings with a pointed look and a medium-sized tail. The wing linings are chestnut and the flight feathers have black tips.

It feeds on insects, reptiles, nestlings, small birds and small mammals.

There is an excellent page on this species at Planetofbirds.com.

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