Aerospiza

Aerospiza
Female African goshawk (Aerospiza tachiro)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Subfamily:	Accipitrinae
Genus:	Aerospiza Roberts, 1922
Type species
Falco tachio Daudin, 1800

Aerospiza is a genus a goshawk and sparrowhawk in the family Accipitridae that are found in Africa. The two species in the genus were formerly placed in the genus Accipiter .

Taxonomy

The genus Aerospiza was introduced in 1922 by the South African zoologist Austin Roberts with Falco tachio, Daudin, 1800 (the African goshawk) as the type species. ^{[1] [2]} The name combines the Ancient Greek αηρ (aēr), αερος (aeros) meaning "air" with σπιζιας (spizias) meaning "hawk". ^[3] Species now placed in this genus were formerly assigned to the genus Accipiter . Molecular phylogenetic studies found that Accipiter was polyphyletic and in the subsequent rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, the genus Aerospiza was resurrected to contain two species that were previously placed in Accipiter. ^{[4] [5]}

The genus contains 2 species: ^[5]

Genus Aerospiza – Roberts, 1922 – two species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
African goshawk	Aerospiza tachiro (Daudin, 1800) Eight subspecies A. t. macroscelides (Hartlaub, 1855) A. t. lopezi (Alexander, 1903) A. t. toussenelii (Verreaux, J & Verreaux, É & des Murs, 1855) A. t. canescens (Chapin, 1921) A. t. unduliventer (Rüppell, 1836) A. t. sparsimfasciata (Reichenow, 1895) A. t. pembaensis (Benson & Elliott, HFI, 1975) A. t. tachiro (Daudin, 1800)	widespread across Africa	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Chestnut-flanked sparrowhawk	Aerospiza castanilius (Bonaparte, 1853) Two subspecies A. c. castanilius - (Bonaparte, 1853) A. c. beniensis - (Lönnberg, 1917)	west-central Africa	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC

References

1. Roberts, Austin (1922). "Review of the nomenclature of South African birds". Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 8 (4): 187–272 [208].
2. Sangster, G.; Kirwan, G.M.; Fuchs, J.; Dickinson, E.C.; Elliott, A.; Gregory, S.M.S. (2021). "A new genus for the tiny hawk Accipiter superciliosus and semicollared hawk A. collaris (Aves: Accipitridae), with comments on the generic name for the crested goshawk A. trivirgatus and Sulawesi goshawk A. griseiceps". Vertebrate Zoology. 71: 419–424. doi: 10.3897/vz.71.e67501 .
3. Jobling, James A. "Aerospiza". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
4. Catanach, T.A.; Halley, M.R.; Pirro, S. (2024). "Enigmas no longer: using ultraconserved elements to place several unusual hawk taxa and address the non-monophyly of the genus Accipiter (Accipitriformes: Accipitridae)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 144 (2) blae028. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blae028.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Hoatzin, New World vultures, Secretarybird, raptors". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 9 March 2025.