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Abstract
We describe new fossil records of three diurnal birds of prey and an owl from four Miocene sites in western Kenya. All four new records are very similar to recent species present today in Kenya and include a vulture (cf. Aegypius monachus), a Goshawk (cf. Accipter tachiro) and a Chanting Goshawk (cf. Melierax metabates/canorus) as well as a small owl (cf. Otus senegalensis). All four new fossil taxa may represent the earliest known records for these genera.
Acknowledgements
CAW thanks Richard Leakey (formerly director of the Kenyan National Museum) and Meave Leakey (KNM) for allowing access to Miocene bird remains in 1980 and for the subsequent loan of specimens to London. He also thanks Martin Pickford for his help and encouragement during visits to Nairobi and for long geological discussions. We thank the Natural History Museum, London's Photographic Unit (especially Tim Parmenter and Phil Crab) for producing the plate and two reviewers for comments on the manuscript; this study was partly funded by the Boise Fund, Oxford.