This is a common raptor in open land and cultivated areas above 1000m. Its diet consists mainly of lizards, snakes, rodents and insects as well as carrion. Prey is normally identified from a perch although it will also hunt while in flight. It is a very distinctive bird particularly in flight where its short, rufous tail easily identifies it. The sexes are very similar with the females being distinguished by having a black chin and throat However dark morphs are quite common (they may make up 10% of the Kenyan population) and in these birds the underside is wholly black with the sexes showing similar colouration

Definition Augur (spåmann/sannsiger)

An augur was originally a priest who used birds for divination (spådom/sannsigelse). The art of the augur was called ius augurium (augury) or auspicium. Plutarch says the augur was originally called an auspex.

The job of the augur was to interpret divine will by means of signs in nature and to predict the future by means of interpreting animal entrails.

Romulus, king and also an augur, (or Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome) established an initial college of three augurs. The collegium of augurs increased in number to 9 by 300 B.C. and to 15 under Sulla, c. 81 B.C. The augurs handed down the rules of their art to new members whom they elected for life. In 103 B.C. the augurs had their right to self-elect taken away.

The importance of the augur was that it was his job to determine whether the gods approved military and political acts. He also marked sacred areas (templa).