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Sister species of A. gentilis. Fills the niche of large bird hunting raptor in the Afrotropics. Marked morphological differences on feet and bill compared to A. gentilis (Wattel 1973).

The dark chanting goshawk is a bulky hawk, often seen in full view, perched upright on long, orange-red legs (4) (5). The head, chest and upperparts are essentially dark grey, while the abdomen, thighs and rump are all finely barred with black over white (4). The wing primaries are black, and the tail is broadly barred black and white (2) (4). Like the legs, the bare patch of skin at the base of the bill, called the cere, is orange-red. The female is, on average, larger than the male, but both sexes are very similar in appearance, while juveniles tend to have browner plumage (4). Five subspecies are recognised that occupy different parts of the species' overall range and exhibit slight differences in size and appearance (2) (4).

Sister species to A. gentilis from the Nearctic and Palearctic (Breman et al. 2013).

Has recently been DNA barcoded (Breman et al. unpublished).

May form a superspecies with A. gentilis, A. henstii and A. meyerianus (Global Raptor Information Network 2011).

The distribution of the dark chanting-goshawk includes much of sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal across to Sudan and western Ethiopia, and south as far as northeast South Africa, excluding arid and forested regions. In addition this species is known from the southwest Arabian Peninsula and southwest Morocco (2) (4) (6).