Accipitridae

Looks uniformly sooty, but has inconspicuous dark moustache-mark and pale throat, bill blue-grey with dark tip, cere and eyering blue-grey, legs and feet dull straw-coloured, eye dark. Immature: patterned by paler feather-margins; cere, eyering and legs lead-grey to neutral.

Diurnal , Solitary nomads, mating seems to be temporary, territory is not well marked and nests are not defended until they have young.

Grassland Woodland Shrubland, Sparsely timbered plains and steppes of interior often around waterholes.

June to December, Uses old nest of other species, 2-4 eggs, pink buff spotted red-brown.Incubation about 32-34 days done by female, young fledge 6 wks.

Kakadu National Park

Carnivore, birds; small mammals; reptiles; insects.