page_title: Taita falcon
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Taita falcon / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Doug Newman, photographed at Strydom Tunnel, South Africa
context_page_description: The Taita falcon is a small falcon found in central and eastern Africa. It was first described from the Taita Hills of Kenya from which it derives its name.
context_section_description: This small falcon is fairly distinctive, but may offer some confusion with a few other species. The rufous belly causes resemblance with African hobby, but important features to look for are a white throat and the obvious rufous patches on the nape. Alsom the underwing coverts are uniform rufous, whereas the African hobby has more streaking. The most obvious underwing feature, though, is the flight feathers are barred black and white. whereas there is much more rufous color is in the flight feathers of the African hobby. The robust, long-winged Taita falcons have a short tail. Their flight is fast and somewhat heavy looking, but they are adept at aerial hunting.
  The wingspan of males is 202–208 mm (8.0–8.2 in), and that of females is 229–240 mm (9.0–9.4 in). Males weigh 212–233 g (7.5–8.2 oz) and females 297–346 g (10.5–12.2 oz).
caption: Taita falcon photographed at Strydom Tunnel, South Africa
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-P93A", "Image DateTime": "2005:03:05 07:50:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "194", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/8", "EXIF FNumber": "26/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:03:05 07:50:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:03:05 07:50:15", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "237/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}