fcotterill
Well-known member
- Post score: 6
- #1
The Black Sparrowhawk, Accipiter melanoleucus, is a formidable, adaptable predator of Africa's denser savanna woodland and forest. The high wingloading of the broad, wide wings favours fast manoeuvrable flight under the canopy. Their long legs and impressive talons are formidable weapons. We know it in birder circles with affection and awe as the 'Black Spar'.
I've witnessed several hunts of this raptor taking Red-eyed Doves and Olive Thrushes off their perches. Usually all I see is the flash of the incoming hawk and then a puff of feathers! They are surprise hunters and I also see them flying close to the ground under the canopy quartering a woodland for prey to surprise. And I often have seen a Black Spar fly into the lower branches of a large tree in which a flock of Helmeted Guineafowl are roosting. The raptor then hops up into the canopy trying to flush the birds to fly over open ground where they easier to stoop on to. Anyone who knows the habits of guineafowl can well imagine the panic-stricken noise! Not surprisingly the flock then shifts roosts after their nightmare experience, but it has a tendency to return weeks or months later - in a macabre merry go round of living in a Fear Landscape. I always fail to even capture even one decent image in the fading light, as the raptor is far too quick
No surprises that this rapacious species is a favourite of experienced falconers. I have several friends, present and sadly departed, who rate a Black Spar the world's best species to fly from the fist. I know their prowess rather well, having been along on a few hunts for gamebirds in Zimbabwe.
I recently witnessed a Black Sparrowhawk launch a late afternoon attack into a large flock of guineafowl feeding in a wide fallow field. By the time I reacted, and turned to focus the camera on the action, all but one of the flock was well airborne; every galliform was hellbent for the scrub and trees two - three hundred metres away. The one hapless exception was struggling to escape the talons. The raptor must have made contact but lost this bird, and it was now pursing its fleeing prey on the ground, obviously having failed to lock on on the first strike. A guineafowl grounded by a raptor will usually choose to try and outrun the clumsier raptor on foot, and/or try and hide in vegetation. But, almost immediately, 3 Pied Crows appeared as if from nowhere, and they began to mob the raptor on the ground. It soon abandoned the terrestrial hunt and took off in a rapid retreat towards the riparian woodland. The Black Spar's path just happened to be aimed almost directly towards where I was standing.
Ideally the 800mm would have the been the ideal lens for the actual hunting sequence, as I had to crop these images. (I later measured the distance at 95m.) OTTH, with my erratic BIF skillset, I would still have preferred this wider lens to maintain the framing. I find flying birds too often too challenging to frame with the 800mm. In fac, the solution would have to also have hiked with my D6 on the 500 PF! For the record, this sequence with the Nikon Z9 further confirms there are no noticeable penalties using the ZTC14 on the 400 f4.5S. I've shared a selected sequence, here, from this encounter to illustrate how the Z9 tracking briefly lost focus on this hawk flying towards me, as it turned slightly to fly behind a post (I'd forgotten about in the heat of the action).
The sequence was taken at 20 fps: Custom Area 5*3 with 3D On. HE* RAW at 1/2000, f6.3, ISO varies 1000-1250, EC +0.3. The time stamps log the entire event at 24 seconds! In post mortem of my files, I lost a fair number of images where I failed to keep the tight CA mode on the subject (so important lesson, a 3rd CA option will be the ideal to setup in a 'Sudden Action' in RSF [Hold]. I prefer a 5*3 CA Group mode, as all too often my subjects on these walkabouts are perched birds in reeds or brush. The first image is not sharp, but still included here to illustrate the action.
This is the dark morph of the Black Sparrowhawk, which is significantly more common in the SW Cape, into which it's expanded its range over recent decades. Here the darker plumage has been demonstrated to be adaptive to hunting success. [Tate, G.J., Bishop, J.M. and Amar, A., 2016. Differential foraging success across a light level spectrum explains the maintenance and spatial structure of colour morphs in a polymorphic bird. Ecology Letters, 19(6), pp.679-686.]
I've witnessed several hunts of this raptor taking Red-eyed Doves and Olive Thrushes off their perches. Usually all I see is the flash of the incoming hawk and then a puff of feathers! They are surprise hunters and I also see them flying close to the ground under the canopy quartering a woodland for prey to surprise. And I often have seen a Black Spar fly into the lower branches of a large tree in which a flock of Helmeted Guineafowl are roosting. The raptor then hops up into the canopy trying to flush the birds to fly over open ground where they easier to stoop on to. Anyone who knows the habits of guineafowl can well imagine the panic-stricken noise! Not surprisingly the flock then shifts roosts after their nightmare experience, but it has a tendency to return weeks or months later - in a macabre merry go round of living in a Fear Landscape. I always fail to even capture even one decent image in the fading light, as the raptor is far too quick
No surprises that this rapacious species is a favourite of experienced falconers. I have several friends, present and sadly departed, who rate a Black Spar the world's best species to fly from the fist. I know their prowess rather well, having been along on a few hunts for gamebirds in Zimbabwe.
I recently witnessed a Black Sparrowhawk launch a late afternoon attack into a large flock of guineafowl feeding in a wide fallow field. By the time I reacted, and turned to focus the camera on the action, all but one of the flock was well airborne; every galliform was hellbent for the scrub and trees two - three hundred metres away. The one hapless exception was struggling to escape the talons. The raptor must have made contact but lost this bird, and it was now pursing its fleeing prey on the ground, obviously having failed to lock on on the first strike. A guineafowl grounded by a raptor will usually choose to try and outrun the clumsier raptor on foot, and/or try and hide in vegetation. But, almost immediately, 3 Pied Crows appeared as if from nowhere, and they began to mob the raptor on the ground. It soon abandoned the terrestrial hunt and took off in a rapid retreat towards the riparian woodland. The Black Spar's path just happened to be aimed almost directly towards where I was standing.
Ideally the 800mm would have the been the ideal lens for the actual hunting sequence, as I had to crop these images. (I later measured the distance at 95m.) OTTH, with my erratic BIF skillset, I would still have preferred this wider lens to maintain the framing. I find flying birds too often too challenging to frame with the 800mm. In fac, the solution would have to also have hiked with my D6 on the 500 PF! For the record, this sequence with the Nikon Z9 further confirms there are no noticeable penalties using the ZTC14 on the 400 f4.5S. I've shared a selected sequence, here, from this encounter to illustrate how the Z9 tracking briefly lost focus on this hawk flying towards me, as it turned slightly to fly behind a post (I'd forgotten about in the heat of the action).
The sequence was taken at 20 fps: Custom Area 5*3 with 3D On. HE* RAW at 1/2000, f6.3, ISO varies 1000-1250, EC +0.3. The time stamps log the entire event at 24 seconds! In post mortem of my files, I lost a fair number of images where I failed to keep the tight CA mode on the subject (so important lesson, a 3rd CA option will be the ideal to setup in a 'Sudden Action' in RSF [Hold]. I prefer a 5*3 CA Group mode, as all too often my subjects on these walkabouts are perched birds in reeds or brush. The first image is not sharp, but still included here to illustrate the action.
This is the dark morph of the Black Sparrowhawk, which is significantly more common in the SW Cape, into which it's expanded its range over recent decades. Here the darker plumage has been demonstrated to be adaptive to hunting success. [Tate, G.J., Bishop, J.M. and Amar, A., 2016. Differential foraging success across a light level spectrum explains the maintenance and spatial structure of colour morphs in a polymorphic bird. Ecology Letters, 19(6), pp.679-686.]
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