Colours of Wildlife: African Pygmy Falcon
Created | Updated Jul 29, 2018
African Pygmy Falcon
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
These dearies are African Pygmy Falcons, Polihierax semitorquatus. This is Africa's smallest bird of prey species. Adults reach just 20 cm/8" in total length. In my painting you see a couple; the male has a grey back, the female's is dark-reddish-brown. These raptors are highly dependent on the occurrence of birds whose nests they can use. In Southern Africa, the species they co-occur with, is the Sociable Weavers, while in North-East Africa they occur along with White-headed Buffalo Weavers, who I hope to feature here in the future. The two populations of pygmy falcons are separated by thousands of kilometres. Both are dry, open regions, with much more well-developed woodland and savannah in between. Likely there was a time not long ago, when a dry corridor actually linked both these regions so that the dwarf falcons constituted just a single, continuous population.
Problem Neighbours
As the article about the sociable weavers makes clear, these finch-like birds build huge communal nests like haystacks thrown up into trees. Dozens or even hundreds of weavers inhabit one such communal nest, but each pair of them have an individual nest-hole inside the whole. These nest chambers are what the falcons are interested in. Being not much larger than the weavers, they can easily fit inside one such a little 'apartment'. The weavers, however, don't much like them, and will protest the falcons when they arrive. But they can't do much more than protest. The falcons, if they find a chamber or two, will move in regardless. Typically they use one chamber for roosting, and another for breeding. But they may make use of even more chambers, up to ten in one case. This may distress the weavers so much that they move out; abandoned weaver nests at any rate fit the falcons just fine, so long as the nest structure is still sound.
But most times, the weavers stay around in spite of their distaste of their new neighbours. The falcons are tolerated even while they may occasionally catch a weaver or two. But it might be that the weavers gain some advantage from having the falcons around, in that some of the larger birds-of-prey and other predators like snakes are kept away.
At any rate, weavers don't constitute the preferred food of these falcons. They mostly feed on lizards, which are plentiful in the hot semi-deserts of Southern Africa. They also catch insects like grasshoppers, beetles and termites. Only rarely do they catch and eat small mammals and birds. They hunt from perches, like shrikes, by scanning the terrain with their keen eyes, and swooping down on any yummy-looking critter. They catch these using their feet, and will carry it to a perch to dismember and eat.
Like most birds-of-prey, pygmy falcons form stable couples that stay close to each other year-round. The female has a display to charm the male with: she lowers her head, lifts her rump and tail high, wagging the tail up and down. This shows off the white barring on her black tail, as well as the white rump. She does this by way of greeting whenever her mate meets her. If a female should lose a mate, she will pick a new one from single hopefuls in her region. She may even pair up with one of her own offspring!
For these falcons, the breeding season is in spring and summer. They sometimes raise two broods in one season. It is possible that the falcons enlarge the chamber made by the weavers, but this has been hard to confirm. It's difficult to carry out a close study since the falcons will abandon their nest at the slightest disturbance. Nevertheless, we know that the female typically lays two to four eggs. The female does most of the incubating, while the male brings her food – and occasionally relieves her on the nest. The eggs hatch after a bit less than a month. The chicks are pinkish covered in white down. Their droppings stain the outside of the nest white, so it's easy to tell at this stage in which chamber of the nest the falcons are breeding. Once the chicks are fully feathered, their mother will start leaving them alone so she can go hunting as well. They leave the nest when they're about a month old. For two months longer, they remain close to their parents to learn how to hunt and sustain themselves. At this stage their parents might decide to raise a second brood for the season. Overall, the falcons are quite successful at breeding, with an 85% success rate, measured as raising a chick from the egg to the point where it can fly. They can likely breed having attained the age of one year.
At present, these falcons occur in extensive dry regions where there aren't many people. As such, they can be considered safe for the immediate future. They might suffer from climate change, either if the deserts become even drier, wiping out the larger trees the weavers and consequently the falcons nest in, or if the climate becomes moister, prompting an overgrowth of trees and shrubs making hunting and nesting conditions unfavourable for them.
