Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks range through­out the is­land of Mada­gas­car in var­i­ous for­est habi­tat, and are found from sea level to about 1,800 m el­e­va­tion. They are less com­mon in the south­ern plateau part of the is­land. (Lan­grand, 1990; Sin­clair and Lan­grand, 2004)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

• Other Geographic Terms
• island endemic

Habi­tat

Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks are na­tive to Mada­gas­car, dis­trib­uted through­out for­est zones, sub­trop­i­cal, trop­i­cal, and moist low­land areas. They are found in all types of for­est, sec­ondary for­est growth, for­est edges and for­est clear­ings, but less com­monly in palm and co­conut plan­ta­tions. Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks are also found in ever­green and dry de­cid­u­ous forests, wooded sa­vanna, and dense scrub. (Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Lan­grand, 1990; Sin­clair and Lan­grand, 2004)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• rainforest
• scrub forest

• Wetlands
• marsh

• Other Habitat Features
• riparian

• Range elevation

  0 to 1800 m

  0.00 to 5905.51 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks are medium-sized rap­tors, about 40 to 45 cm long, with a wingspan from 31 to 33 cm, and a tail length of 19 to 23 cm. The head is small and flat with a slight crest, usu­ally not vis­i­ble in the field. Adults are dark mot­tled brown above, ex­cept for a whitish rump. The un­der­parts are lighter, con­sist­ing of a white chest, lighter brown to white belly with brown bands; brown streaks on the throat and ex­tend­ing to a band across the chest. The long, nar­row tail is notched with white up­per-tail coverts. The upper side of the tail is brown; the under side of the tail is gray with three dark brown bands. The feet and short legs are a dull yel­low-grey color with a slight pink cast. The cere is whitish.

Adults dif­fer from ju­ve­niles by hav­ing brown or dull yel­low eyes and a grey­ish brown or­bital ring, slightly paler than the head. Ju­ve­niles have brown eyes, are darker brown above and ex­tend­ing on the sides of chest, and have more white bands on the head and base of tail. (Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Hutchins, et al., 2002; Lan­grand, 1990; Sin­clair and Lan­grand, 2004)

This species is mono­typic. They are con­sid­ered a "su­per­species" with the closely re­lated species African cuckoo-hawks. Aviceda cu­cu­loides dif­fers from A. mada­gas­carien­sis in its smaller size, less brown col­oration, and more black edges on the body. Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks are also con­fused with Mada­gas­car buz­zards which are heav­ier, larger, and stock­ier birds with short, rounded tails and broad rounded wings with un­evenly marked wing-lin­ings. Mada­gas­car buz­zards have no dark band on the breast and a brown or blotched chest (as op­posed to Aviceda mada­gas­carien­sis with a lighter, white chest). Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks dif­fer from Henst's goshawks and other smaller ac­cip­iters in being much larger and dif­fer­ing in shape and pat­tern. Henst's goshawks have short wings, no crest, and longer legs, with barred pat­terns on the chest and lit­tle con­trast be­tween chest and breast, or with a nearly plain pat­tern on both. (Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Hutchins, et al., 2002; Lan­grand, 1990; Sin­clair and Lan­grand, 2004)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike
• female larger

• Range length

  40 to 45 cm

  15.75 to 17.72 in

• Range wingspan

  315 to 331 mm

  12.40 to 13.03 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Lit­tle is known about the re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­iors of Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks due to a lack of stud­ies and band­ing ef­forts, es­pe­cially in trop­i­cal species. Large ter­ri­to­ries make it dif­fi­cult to ob­serve rap­tor be­hav­ior and many rap­tors will avoid their nest area when an ob­server is pre­sent. Males are be­lieved to at­tract mates with a soar­ing dis­play of tum­bling courtship flight and hold­ing wings high while rock­ing. Dis­play­ing has been seen in Sep­tem­ber with flights straight above the canopy, then the male tilts side­ways with a wing flut­ter. Sim­i­lar species of Ac­cip­itri­dae are thought to be monog­a­mous. (Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Hutchins, et al., 2002; Kim­ball, et al., 2003)

• Mating System
• monogamous

There is lit­tle data on re­pro­duc­tion in this species. Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks are soli­tary birds, ex­cept dur­ing breed­ing sea­son when they are paired with a mate. They lay two to three eggs from Oc­to­ber to De­cem­ber. Nest­ing ac­tiv­ity has been ob­served in No­vem­ber and De­cem­ber; flimsy nests are built high in the canopy and lined with leaves. A nest was ob­served at 14 m in a tree crown. As with other bazas, in­cu­ba­tion prob­a­bly takes about thirty two days and fledg­ing about five weeks. Sex­ual ma­tu­rity typ­i­cally takes two years in re­lated rap­tors. (Hutchins, et al., 2002; Lan­grand, 1990)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Breeding intervals in Madagascan cuckoo-hawks are not known.

• Breeding season

  Nesting has been observed in November and December; eggs are laid from October to December.

• Range eggs per season

  1 to 4

• Average time to hatching

  32 days

• Average fledging age

  5 weeks

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion on Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawk parental in­vest­ment. Both par­ents con­tribute to car­ing for off­spring that they in­cu­bate and care for through fledg­ling, which oc­curs at about 5 weeks after hatch­ing. Pairs have been seen feed­ing in­sects to young in nests. (Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Hutchins, et al., 2002)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Lifes­pan of Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks is not re­ported. De­for­esta­tion may be in­creas­ing mor­tal­ity in pop­u­la­tions. (Hutchins, et al., 2002)

Be­hav­ior

Be­hav­ior is poorly known since this species has not been well stud­ied. Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks are soli­tary out­side of the breed­ing sea­son. They do not mi­grate and are gen­er­ally ob­served in forests perched among fo­liage. Adults re­main in a home range, ju­ve­niles may roam more widely in search of a home range. They hunt dur­ing the day or at dusk using their keen eye­sight and sharp talons to cap­ture prey. (Hutchins, et al., 2002; Lan­grand, 1990)

Com­pared to other ac­cip­iters, Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks have long, less pointed wings, and longer tails. Flight is char­ac­ter­ized by slow, stiff beats mixed with glid­ing on level wings. The wings are held for­ward and slightly an­gled. They use the tail as a rud­der dur­ing glides and bulge their sec­ondary feath­ers. Ju­ve­niles are dif­fi­cult to dis­tin­guish in flight ex­cept that they have white head streaks, the base of the tail is whiter, and they have darker blotches that ex­tend to the sides of the chest. (Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• flies
• glides
• diurnal
• crepuscular
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Home Range

Home range sizes of Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks have not been doc­u­mented. ("In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture and Nat­ural Re­sources; Red List for En­dan­gered Species", 2007; Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

The voice of Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks is un­known, but they may have a weak mew or whis­tle as do other cuckoo-hawks and bazas. Mat­ing dis­plays in­di­cate that they use vi­sual cues to com­mu­ni­cate. (Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Hutchins, et al., 2002)

Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks use their sen­si­tive and sharp eye­sight to vi­su­al­ize move­ment. Eyes of mem­bers of the genus Aviceda con­tain red oil droplets that act as fil­ters, al­low­ing them to de­tect move­ment and dis­tin­guish prey from the green of veg­e­ta­tion. (Hutchins, et al., 2002)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks hide in fo­liage usu­ally around for­est edges and clear­ings, they ac­tively hunt dur­ing the day or dusk. They hunt from a con­cealed perch in the canopy and snatch prey from fo­liage by glid­ing from the perched po­si­tion. They have been ob­served glid­ing as far as 70 to 90 m for prey. Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks eat mainly large in­sects, grasshop­pers, small frogs, chameleons, other rep­tiles, and small mam­mals. They have been ob­served eat­ing fork-marked lemurs Phaner fur­cifer and rep­tiles and geckos in­clud­ing Chamaeleo, Phel­suma, and Gekko. (Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Hutchins, et al., 2002; Lan­grand, 1990)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• insects

Pre­da­tion

In­for­ma­tion on pre­da­tion on Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks has not been re­ported.

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

Ecosys­tem Roles

Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks im­pact the pop­u­la­tions of their prey and may be one of the top preda­tors in their Mala­gasy habi­tats. (Hutchins, et al., 2002)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks, as top preda­tors, play an im­por­tant ecosys­tem role in na­tive forested habi­tats. (Hutchins, et al., 2002)

• Positive Impacts
• research and education

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of A. mada­gas­carien­sis on hu­mans. (Hutchins, et al., 2002)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks are con­sid­ered least con­cern by the IUCN redlist. Pop­u­la­tions are threat­ened by de­for­esta­tion, in­creas­ing human ac­tiv­ity, and over-ex­ploita­tion of wildlife. Their mapped dis­tri­b­u­tion cov­ers over 350,000 km^2, but their range is re­stricted to for­est areas, which make up less than one-third of that area. Also, less than 10% of pri­mary for­est in Mada­gas­car re­mains, putting this species at long-term risk. They do adapt to sec­ondary growth habi­tat, but have dis­ap­peared from the de­for­ested, dry plateau re­gions of south­ern Mada­gas­car. Pop­u­la­tions and den­si­ties have not been quan­ti­fied but ap­pear to be de­clin­ing due to loss of habi­tat. The num­ber of in­di­vid­u­als is es­ti­mated at less than 10,000.

The Species Sur­vival Com­mis­sion (SSC) of the IUCN-World Con­ser­va­tion Union, has de­vel­oped a Con­ser­va­tion As­sess­ment and Man­age­ment Plan (CAMP) to help re­duce the risk of ex­tinc­tion of many African Fal­coni­formes, in­clud­ing Mada­gas­can cuckoo-hawks. This in­cludes pre­serv­ing habi­tat, in­creas­ing in­for­ma­tion gath­ered in the field in­clud­ing eco­log­i­cal roles, im­proved mon­i­tor­ing tech­niques, and cap­tive breed­ing. ("In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture and Nat­ural Re­sources; Red List for En­dan­gered Species", 2007; Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Vanessa Slack (au­thor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, Alec R. Lind­say (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity.

Ref­er­ences

2007. "In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture and Nat­ural Re­sources; Red List for En­dan­gered Species" (On-line). BirdLife In­ter­na­tional, 2004. Ac­cessed April 05, 2008 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​search/​details.​php/​49306/​all.

En­dan­gered Wildlife Trust Rap­tor Con­ser­va­tion Group. Se­lected African Fal­coni­formes: Con­ser­va­tion As­sess­ment and Man­age­ment Plan - Work­ing Draft Re­port. Apple Val­ley, MN: IUCN/SSC Con­ser­va­tion Breed­ing Spe­cial­ist Group. 2000.

Fer­gu­son-Lees, J., D. Christie. 2001. Rap­tors of the World. New York, NY: Houghton Mif­fling Com­pany.

Hutchins, M., J. Jack­son, W. Bock, D. Olen­dorf. 2002. Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia, sec­ond edi­tion: Vol­ume 8, Birds 1. Farm­ing­ton Hills, MI: Gale Group.

Kim­ball, R., P. Parker, B. James. 2003. OC­CUR­RENCE AND EVO­LU­TION OF CO­OP­ER­A­TIVE BREED­ING AMONG THE DI­UR­NAL RAP­TORS (AC­CIP­ITRI­DAE AND FAL­CONIDAE). The Auk, Vol­ume 120, Issue 3: 717-729. Ac­cessed April 05, 2008 at http://​www.​bioone.​org/​perlserv/?​request=get-document&​doi=10.​1642%2F0004-8038%282003%29120%5B0717%3AOAEOCB%5D2.​0.​CO%3B2.

Lan­grand, O. 1990. Guide to the Birds of Mada­gas­car. New Haven and Lon­don: Yale Uni­ver­sity Press.

Sin­clair, I., O. Lan­grand. 2004. Birds of the In­dian Ocean. South Africa: Struik.