Bat Hawk (Macheiramphus alcinus)
About the Bat Hawk
The bat hawk (Macheiramphus alcinus) is a raptor found in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia to New Guinea. It is named for its diet, which consists mainly of bats. It requires open space in which to hunt, but will live anywhere from dense rainforest to semi-arid veld. The bat hawk is a slender, medium-sized bird of prey, 45 cm long and weighing 600–650 grams. It has long wings and a falcon-like silhouette while in flight. Adults are dark brown or black, with a white patch on the throat and chest, and have a white streak above and below each eye. Juveniles are mottled brown and have more white plumage than adults.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 10 recordings for this species: 2 CC BY-NC-SA. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Other birds you can hear here
- Barn SwallowHirundo rusticarecording
- Black-crowned Night HeronNycticorax nycticoraxrecording
- Black-winged KiteElanus caeruleusrecording
- Black-winged StiltHimantopus himantopusrecording
- Common GreenshankTringa nebulariarecording
- Common MoorhenGallinula chloropusrecording
These are the birds recorded alongside it, not close relatives — the site holds no other member of its genus or family yet.