Profile
In flight
Birds of Prey
Shikra
Tachyspiza badia
- uncommon
- 48 km/h
- Least Concern
A trim pale hawk perched stock-still in a roadside neem, watching the bulbuls. Mynas mob it, parakeets scream past it, and yet it returns the same branch every dawn.
- Population
- very large; one of the most adaptable small hawks of South Asia, comfortable in cities
- Habitat
- open woodland, mango groves, neem-shaded farmland, village trees, parks, and well-wooded urban edges across South Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa
- Diet
- small birds, lizards, small rodents, large insects, frogs
- Size
- 0.33 m
- Wingspan
- 0.6 m
