[2] The long-tailed hawk is a distinctively shaped raptor with a very noticeable long, barred tail and is dark grey on its upperparts and chestnut on its underparts with a contrasting white throat and undertail coverts.

[3] The long-tailed hawk occurs in the tropical rainforests of western and central Africa, from Guinea in the west, along the Gulf of Guinea coast south to northern Angola, east to the southern Central African Republic, northern Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and western Uganda.

The mating season occurs in July and August, when the pair build a nest on a high tree.

Little is known regarding nesting and breeding the young,[4] an adult was seen feeding a fledged juvenile in Sierra Leone in August.

[5] The generic name Urotriorchis was coined by Richard Bowdler Sharpe in 1874 and combines "Uro-", from the Greek "tail",[6] and "triorchis", a kind of hawk thought to have three testicles—for further details see Eutriorchis.