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Sooty Falcon | Falco concolor
Woestijnvalk | Halcón Pizarroso
The Sooty Falcon breeds late in the summer in the hot deserts and on the islands around the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, so that its young can be fed on autumn migrants. It winters mainly in Madagascar; in southern Africa it is a rare but regular visitor, mostly along the east coast.
Voice
Mostly silent in its winter quarters; occasionally a high kee-kee-kee.
Recording: uri laor — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 34 cm, slim, with very long, narrow wings whose tips reach beyond the tail at rest. The adult is uniform slate-grey, with darker primaries, a faint dark moustache and yellow cere, eye-ring and legs. The juvenile is dark brownish grey above with pale fringes, and creamy below with heavy dark streaking, a dark moustache and a pale throat.
Confusion species
Grey Kestrel (Falco ardosiaceus) is stockier, with short wings and a large head. The male Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis) is smaller, with a rufous vent and red legs. The juvenile closely resembles a young Eurasian Hobby (Falco subbuteo), but is larger and darker, with a longer tail and a less sharply defined moustache.
Habitat
In southern Africa usually in coastal forest, forest edges, parks and gardens with tall trees, and over coastal wetlands. It hunts mainly at dusk and in overcast weather for flying insects such as termites and dragonflies, and for small birds and bats. By day it often sits for long periods in shade high in a tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
In the region mainly along the coast of Mozambique and in eastern South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo); scarcer in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia, and a vagrant elsewhere. Breeds in north-eastern Africa, on the Arabian Peninsula and in south-western Iran, and winters mainly in Madagascar.
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From December to March watch the coastal forests of KwaZulu-Natal and southern Mozambique for a slim grey falcon catching termites over the treetops at dusk. With every ‘juvenile Eurasian Hobby’, check the wing length and the dark tone.
Conservation status
Globally Vulnerable; the breeding population has declined sharply, partly through disturbance and development of breeding islands, poisoning and drought. The rise in records in southern Africa may point to a southward shift of the wintering range.
Scientific name
Falco concolor | Temminck, 1825
Temminck described the species in 1825 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Falco was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Falco is the Latin word for 'falcon', possibly related to falx, 'sickle', for the curved shape of the claws or wings. concolor is Latin for 'of one colour', from con- 'alike' and color 'colour', after the uniformly slate-grey plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Barqan Island, Gulf of Aqaba.