Juveniles tend to have browner plumage reminiscent in colour and pattern to a buzzard Buteo spp but with the broad winged, long tailed silhouette of an accipiter.

They have been recorded following honey badgers (Mellivora capensis), Southern ground-hornbills, dogs or people, catching the small animals disturbed by their passage.

The nest is constructed in a tree by both sexes and is a flattish platform of sticks, slightly lower in the centre than at the edges and decorated with spider webs and sometimes cemented with mud.

The one to two, occasionally three, eggs are laid from July–November, with a peak from August–October, and they are incubated by the female for around 36–38 days, while the male brings food to her at the nest.

However, the two isolated subspecies occurring in Morocco and the Arabian Peninsula, are highly vulnerable to the clearance of woodland.

In particular the subspecies Melierax metabates theresae, is confined to a small area of south western Morocco, where it is thought to be nearly extinct as a result of deforestation and hunting.