A small hawk found mainly in forests of West and Central Africa; adult males have a white throat and rump and reddish thighs.
The nominate adult male is dark slate-blue above, with a white rump and broken white tail bars. It has a white throat, gray underparts with pink-washed flanks and thighs, red eyes, and orange cere and legs. Females of form zenkeri are blacker above and deep vinous below.
It uses lowland evergreen forest and adjacent secondary growth, especially riverine forest and edges. In Sierra Leone it is also recorded in savanna with thick tree clumps, and seldom in open ground.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.