Medium-sized sparrowhawk that is normally gray, but there is a rare black morph. In all plumages, shows diagnostic white streaks along the central part of the tail, but these are hard to see. The legs and the base of the bill are yellow to reddish. On the typical gray birds, there is gray barring below which is finer and denser on the chest and throat than in other gray sparrowhawks. Generally rare in thick woodland, savanna, plantations, and gallery forest. Call is a repeated “chyek.”