Incubatory behaviour of the bat hawk

A bat hawks’Macheiramphus alcinus nest was watched for six days during November 1981 in Zimbabwe. Both sexes incubated. The male did not feed the female. Two different calls were recorded and their contexts discussed. Although both birds flew off in the same direction every evening, presumably to hunt, no large bat roosts were located in the vicinity of the nest and it appeared that the bat hawks were foraging opportunistically in the surrounding woodland.