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To the Beauty of Birds

The Eastern (pale) Chanting Goshawk or Somali Chanting Goshawk (Melierax poliopterus) is a bird of prey of East Africa. This species is intermediate between the smaller dark chanting goshawk (widespread to the west and south) and the pale chanting goshawk (southern Africa) in color, size, and leg length, but not in range. It has often been considered a subspecies of the latter, but because of this disparity between geography and characters, it is now considered a separate species.

Adults have grey head, neck, breast, and upperparts, except for the white or lightly barred uppertail coverts. The belly has narrow grey and white bars and the undertail coverts are white.

The eastern chanting goshawk is usually seen alone. It often perches on the tops of trees and utility poles. Its wingbeats are shallow and "straight-arm". It holds its wings flat, or sometimes in a V, when it glides.

Its calls are "a melodious piping whee-pee-pee-pee, and a long high-pitched kleee-yeu", slightly lower-pitched than those of the dark chanting goshawk, or "peeu-peeu-peeu-pee-pee-pee-pee..." in the nesting season, the source of its name.

Eastern Chanting-Goshawk

Chanting-Goshawk Eastern 3842

Chanting-Goshawk Eastern 3845

Chanting-Goshwak Eastern 3863

Chanting-Goshawk Eastern 3838

Chanting-Goshawk Eastern 7496