Also known as the African Pygmy Falcon, the Pygmy Falcon (Polihierax semitorquatus) here in Uganda can be seen in the far away Kidepo National Park located in the northern part of Uganda. Unique about this bird is that it is the smallest documented raptor on the African continent. Being a small bird (between 19 and 20 cm long), it’s prey comprises mainly of insects, tiny mammals as well as small reptiles.
Physical Description
A fully grown Pygmy falcon is white on the face and the underside, while the females have a chestnut color on the back and they have white spots on the back of their necks. The young ones have brown feathers on their backs which are duller compared to those of the adult females. Their flight feathers on their wings are black and white just as their tail feathers.
They don’t fly to great heights due to their size, and have a high pitched call which the make when communicating with each other.
Their Population and Habitat
These pygmy falcons prefer to stay in the dry bush. They love dry and semi-dry savanna and scrub-land preferably with less ground-cover and a couple of large trees. They are hardly seen around forest edges or in open forests. They can be seen in Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda as well as Tanzania.
Courtship
The Pygmy falcons rarely take part in polyandrous relationships (where a female is involved with more than one male at a time), however they are believed to be doing this primarily for four major reasons which include thermo-regulation (warmth), defense, delayed scattering of their offspring as well as co-operative polyandry.
Bird watching in Kidepo Valley National Park
This remote park is among the less visited tourist areas in Uganda and because of that reason it has conserved it natural state thus offering the ideal habitat to a variety of wildlife among which are 475 bird species. During your Uganda Birding Safari here, some of the Birds you will be able to see include: the
Yellow-billed Shrike, Golden Pipit, Varreaux Eagle, Ring-necked Spurfowl, Egyptian Vulture, Taita Fiscal, Piapiac, Hartlaub’s Turaccos, Rufous Chatterer, Emin’s Shrike, Dusky-turtle Dove, Fox’s Cisticola, Jackson’s & African-pied Hornbills, Yellow & red spotted Barbet, hornbills, Fox’s Weaver, black-breasted barbet African swallow, Lesser Kestrel, Black-rumped Waxbill, Pallid Harrier, Abyssinian Scimitar bill, Black-winged Pranticole, Red-winged Lark and the White-bellied Go-Away bird, among several others.
For information about the Birds in Uganda, visit adventureugandasafari.com
