eagle, about the weight of a peregrine falcon albeit with a slightly greater length and wingspan more akin to a common buzzard, with a total length of and has a wingspan of . A small sample of males have been known to weigh from and females weigh from . The average weight of four adult males was while that of 10 adult females was , juvenile Ayres's being some 5% lighter in spite of slightly greater wing sizes. The wing chord is and from in males and females, respectively. The tail and tarsus length is from and from in males and and from in females. The species thus manifests quite strong sexual dimorphism in favor of the female, which does not overlap in standard measurements with the smaller male. Bill length is from , averaging in males and in females. The enlarged hallux claw on the rear toe is from , averaging in males and in females, quite large for the small size of the eagle. Distribution and habitat Ayres's hawk-eagle has a patchy sub-Saharan distribution ranging from Sierra Leone east to Somalia, and south to northern Namibia and northeast South Africa. Its central range is from the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo and southern Uganda down almost throughout Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique as well as much of Angola to northeastern Namibia, northern Botswana and northern Zimbabwe. In the rainy season moves out of denser and taller deciduous woodlands of central Africa into more open albeit treed savanna habitat further south, and probably into coastal East Africa; as the rains cause the leaves to emerge turning woodland into forests and tree savanna into woodland. It may then enter towns in South Africa to prey mainly on doves and feral pigeons. A similar north to south movement is expected in west Africa, where species has been recorded as a vagrant west to Senegal and Gambia, albeit unconfirmed. It tends to occur around woodlands of Brachystegia and Baikiaea in the core south-central African part of their distribution. It is not typically a forest dwelling species and prefers mature woodland among often irregular, rocky terrain. Occasionally but not regularly they may habituate to Acacia plantations and riparian zones. Ayres's hawk-eagles tend to be rare in hyper arid and, of course, treeless areas. Biology Ayres's hawk-eagle is a bird hunter, almost to the exclusion of any other type of prey, especially doves