Hours and hours of birding , but also a raptor in your garden : that’s birding in The Gambia
Walking in the hotel garden, and suddenly an extremely fast bird between the trees. When he sits with his pray on a branch, you can identify him: the shikra.
A small raptor, 26-30 cm and 130 gram, with an absolutely correct name. Shikra comes from the Hindi ,,shikari,, and that means….hunter! A smart bird, long time trained for falconry, now forbidden.
Easy to identify thanks to the eyes and the striped underbody. The females, larger than the males, have yellow-orange eyes, the males reddish eyes. Together they build the nest, later the male provides the food.
Common in Great parts of Africa and Asia, also in The Gambia you will certainly see him several times.
