Ovambo sparrowhawk

The Ovambo sparrowhawk (Accipiter ovampensis), also known as the Ovampo or Hilgert's sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey of sub-Saharan Africa in the family Accipitridae. It is named for Ovamboland in northern Namibia. Adults have plain grey upperparts, a white rump with bars, and finely grey-barred white underparts; the bill is black against a red cere, the eyes are dark red and the legs orange. A melanistic form is almost entirely black. Females are about 14 percent heavier than males, at roughly 180 to 305 grams against 105 to 190 grams, and the bird is about 30 centimetres long with a 67 centimetre wingspan. It favours the edges of drier forest, woodland, plantations and savanna, especially miombo woodland, and breeds mostly south of the equator. It hunts almost only birds, often by soaring high and stooping like a falcon, and builds a stick platform nest in a tree canopy. Its closest relative is the Madagascar sparrowhawk.