Erythrotriorchis buergersi Reichenow, 1914

Red goshawks are solid-bodied birds with long, thick yellow legs and feet with a very long middle toe and large talons. When perched, red goshawks have an upright stance, with long broad wings reaching just short of the tail tip, a short spiky head crest and high, broad shoulders. The back and upper wings are a rich rufous colour with a darker bold scalloping pattern. Chest and undercarriage colouring in males and juveniles is a light rufous with heavy dark vertical streaks on the head and throat. In females these parts are much paler in colour. Adults have rufous plumage on the upper legs (“trousers”) without markings. Tail feathers are grey to silver-white with seven or eight dark narrow horizontal bars. Their tails are square in shape when closed and a rounded shape when fanned during soaring. The bill is black, fading to grey at its base, and the eyes are generally yellow to yellow-brown but can be brown to hazel in males. Juveniles are distinguishable from adults by their rufous head and cream to pale grey legs. In the field, red goshawks are often misidentified as other raptors, especially those that have reddish plumage as adults or juveniles (for example the square-tailed kite Lophoictinia isura, black-breasted buzzard Hamirostra melanosternon, little eagle Hieraaetus morphnoides and brown falcon Falco berigora). The red goshawk can be distinguished from these other raptors by their very large yellow legs and feet, long tail, conspicuous dark barred primary feathers, secondary feathers and tail, and long wings with six outer primary wing feathers (“fingers”) — other goshawks have shorter fivefingered wings. In addition, wings are held at a slight dihedral angle when soaring and flat to slightly bowed when gliding.