Gray-Backed Fiscal

The genus Lanius includes birds in the shrike family Laniidae. Lanius comes from the Latin word for "butcher" and some shrikes are known as butcher birds because of the way they feed. The English name "shrike" is from Old English scric, "shriek", referring to the shrill call. Some African species are known as fiscals which comes from the Afrikaans word fiskaal ("public official", especially a hangman), because they hang their prey on thorns for storage. 

The gray-backed fiscal is a large shrike. The male has a gray crown and upperparts; a white supercilium, underparts and the base of the underside of the tail; a black mask, blackish wings, and a black tip on the tail. The female is similar, but has patches of chestnut on the flanks that are visible during display and preening. 

We saw them in Murchison Falls NP and Kidepo Valley NP. It is a handsome bird that we saw many of in Kidepo Valley NP. 

In Murchison Falls NP, Uganda.

  

This photo and the remaining photos were taken in Kidepo Valley NP in northeastern Uganda. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. Orange is breeding and blue/gray is year-round. 

Palm-Nut Vulture

The palm-nut vulture or vulturine fish eagle is usually found near water where oil and Raffia palms are, such as the edges of tropical forests, large rivers, mangroves, estuaries and seashores. 60% of its diet is the fleshy fruit-husks of the oil palm and the palm-fruits of Raffia palms, as well as wild dates, oranges and other fruits, some grains and acacia seeds. It also eats crabs, molluscs, frogs, fish, dung beetles, termite and other insects, small mammals, birds, snakes and other reptiles. 

It has bare facial skin which is orange to red, a yellow bill and is otherwise all white except for black areas in its wings and tail. 

We saw one palm-nut vulture in the Mabamba Swamp off Lake Victoria near Entebbe. It was perched on a mound in the swamp and I never did get a real good view of it. It is a beautiful bird. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Osprey: Eurasian and American

I did a previous post on ospreys on January 19, 2014 that I saw in Florida. Since that time I've seen more ospreys. They are found almost worldwide and there are four subspecies, although there are not large differences in the subspecies. The nominate subspecies, Pandion haliaetus haliaetus is known as the European osprey, which I saw recently in Uganda in Murchison Falls NP on a boat ride on the Victorian Nile from Paraa to Murchison Falls. 

 

Illustration of a male Eurasian osprey from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of a female Eurasian osprey from Birds of the World.

It has a brown back and upperwing coverts, a mostly white breast (with some speckling) and belly, a white crown and forehead and a dark line through the eye. The iris is yellow, the cere and legs are pale blue-gray and the female (and some males) have a speckled brown necklace on the breast. Females are 15% to 20% larger than males, have fuller and darker breast bands (speckling). 

The American osprey is larger, darker bodied and has a paler breast than the Eurasian osprey.  

Illustration of male American osprey from Birds of the World. 

At Aransas NWR near Corpus Christi, Texas. 

At Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve near Huntington Beach, California.

At Irvine Ranch Water District in Irvine, California. 

At Sabine NWR near Cameron, Louisiana.

Near Sonny Bono NWR in Imperial County, Califonira.

Western Banded Snake-Eagle

In July 2025 I got a poor photo of the backside of a western banded snake-eagle on a boat ride on the Victorian Nile between Paraa and Murchison Falls in Murchison Falls NP. As of my writing of this post, two individuals on iNaturalist have confirmed the conclusion which honestly was determined by what the iNaturalist algorithms concluded it was. I can't really tell you why it is this identification, verses some other.  

It is gray-brown with a short tail and a large head. The head, neck and breast are dark-streaked and the underparts are white white with pale brown streaks, mainly on the belly and thighs. The eyes, ears and legs are yellow and they have crested chests. It is uncommon and often difficult to spot. Its distribution is patchy and it is vulnerable to loss of its riverine habitat. 

Western banded snake-eagle illustration from Birds of the World. 

It mainly eats small snakes which are crushed by neck and then swallowed whole. It also eats also small monitor lizards, small tortoises, rodents, amphibians and some fish and insects. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Lizard Buzzard

In July 2025 we'd spent the night at the Nkima Forest Lodge and were being driven down to the Mabamba Swamp off Lake Victoria near Entebbe, Uganda when I noticed a hawk standing on a telephone line. I asked the driver to stop so I could get a photo. The light was bad and the bird was bathed in shadow, but later I was happy to have the photo. I love the name.

The upperparts, head and breast are gray. It has a white throat with a vertical black line that is unique from all other raptors. It has a white belly with fine dark barring, the tail is black with a white tip and a single white band. The cere and legs are red to orange-red. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Contrary to the name, they eat lots of grasshoppers and termites and rodents provide the greatest bulk of their diet. They also eat frogs, snakes, and yes, lizards. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Dark Chanting Goshawk

We saw these dark chanting goshawks near Kidepo Valley NP in northeastern Uganda. Because it looked much like goshawks I'd seen earlier in Kenya (eastern chanting goshawk) and Namibia (pale chanting goshawk), I assumed they were the same species (even though these prior birds were each a different species - but I did not remember that as it was years ago) and did not take the photos of them as seriously as I would have otherwise. I'm learning with time and experience that birds I think are the same as something I've already seen are different, because of subtle differences or faulty memory (and geographical separation should also be a big clue).  

We were driving outside Kidepo Valley NP to the visit of a native village where the villagers still live in mud and stick huts. Our guide, William, spotted this goshawk off the road some distance. 

The head, breast and upperparts are dark gray, while the underparts, other than the breast, are white, finely barred with black (best seen on the illustration below). The tail has broad black and white bars. The cere and legs are orange-red. 

Further down the road we encountered another large hawk which was brown. I thought I was told by William and/or Zachary, our ranger, that it was a female. But I may have misheard or misremembered as it appears to be a juvenile. It was on the road, but then took flight before I could get a photo, and landed in some trees. 

Juveniles have a browner plumage reminiscent in color and pattern to a buzzard. See the photo of the juvenile below from Wikipedia. 

Dark chanting goshawk illustration from Birds of the World.

Photo of juvenile dark chanting goshawk from Wikipedia. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Per Wikipedia, "The dark chanting goshawk breeds in sub-Saharan Africa, but avoids the rainforests of the Congo Basin and the far south, where it is replaced by the pale chanting goshawk [which I saw in Etosha NP in Namibia] and east Africa where the eastern chanting goshawk seems to replace it [which I saw in Buffalo Spring NR in Kenya]." There are five subspecies and this appears to be the nominate subspecies metabates which is found from Senegambia east to Eritrea and Ethiopia, south to northeastern DRC and northern Tanzania.