Tawny Owl and Dark Chanting Goshawk in Morocco - are they out there? (1 Viewer)

[Surrey_Ed]

I'm recently back from a trip to Morocco, and during my time there I noted the reported sighting of a Tawny Eagle near Gorges du Dades. This got me wondering about this, and another species.

What is it's current status in Morocco? A couple of sources list it as a very rare breeder, and I note Gosney and Bergier suggest Goulimine as a site. Furthermore, a tour company had a bird near the Zaers (I think) in recent years.

I am also interested to know if Dark Chanting Goshawk is now considered extinct in the Western Palearctic, as this seems to be the case.

I wonder if anyone has ever spent a couple of weeks from one of the hills in the Sous Valley looking specifically for these two species.

 

[Maffong]

The local moroccan race of Dark Chanting Goshawk is believed to habe gone extinct in the 90s, however there have been reports in 2000 and 2001 and a single one in 2007, so maybe it was still around then (and maybe it still is), but I don't think that chances are high. That 2007 record nicht have been a vagrant, not sure how likely that is.

Tawny Eagle is extinct in Tunisia (1988) and I know of no breeding records from Morocco, but it might still hang on in Algeria.

There's a paper about the decline of large raptors (and others) in the Sahel here: https://www.google.de/search?q=seve...roid-wileyfox&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Tawny Eagle Aquila rapax
Formerly common in the Sudan and Sahelian zones of West Africa, the Tawny Eagle is
now rare outside protected areas (Thiollay 2006a, b). It just reached the southern
fringe of our study area (2 birds counted in the Tilemsi Valley in 1973, none in 2004).

Dark Chanting Goshawk Melierax metabates
A few resident Dark Chanting Goshawks reach at least 19u309N in Aı¨r and Adrar des
Iforhas in well-wooded valleys. On the four transects involved, 13 adults were seen in
the 1970s against 6 in 2004, suggesting a possible decline in arid habitats impoverished
by overgrazing

Acrocephalus will know more

Maffong

 

[Acrocephalus]

I can’t add much to what already said by Maffong about the Dark Chanting Goshawk. I can only add that finding a vagrant from sub-Saharan Africa in the traditional area of the Moroccan subspecies is very unlikely. Though, it’s possible to find a vagrant further south in the Sahara (recorded in the WP part of Mauritania).

The same for the Tawny Eagle. I can only add that the situation in Algeria and Morocco is apparently similar: no recent records in both countries.

We know now that an increasing numbers of Spanish Imperial Eagles migrate to Africa each year (the majority visit mainly Morocco but some also visit Algeria and reach as far south as Senegal River). Given the difficulty in differentiating between the Spanish Imperial (immature birds) and the Tawny eagles, any record of the later species should be well documented. As you may be aware, some old records of Tawny Eagle are reassessed by the Moroccan Rare Birds Committee exactly for this reason (the result are not yet published, but you can see this threat for an idea: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=315895)

Edit: I suggest that one of the admins move this to the Morocco sub-forum, so it can be easily found by others.