Pygmy Falcon.

The African Pygmy Falcon may look friendly, but trust me, they're not! They'll eat small insects (as opposed to large ones?), small reptiles and sometimes even small mammals. At only 20 cm long, that's a pretty impressive catch. Sometimes when desperate, they'll eat the chicks of other birds and when even more desperate, they'll go for adult sociable weavers (a bird about the same size).

They are often polyandrous (several males, 1 female). This is to keep warmth and sometimes a way for the females to ensure plenty of resources for the chicks -- if each copulated with the female, each might stay with the female and bring food to the chicks with the chance that the chicks are theirs -- no falcon paternity tests available for them!

Also, they don't build their own nests. They typically take over buffalo weaver nests -- the white-headed species in E. Africa and the red-headed species in S. Africa. In S. Africa you can also find them in sociable weaver nests -- which live in a large nest colony. So sometimes they will take over a chamber and live amongst other sociable weavers. Remember: They sometimes eat sociable weavers. As long as the weavers live in a place with a lot of food, they are safe. If not; doomsday pending.

Although, no matter how tough they are relative to their size, I can't really get over how cute they are. Sometimes they puff out their wings to look intimidating -- but compared to other birds of prey, it just looks like its trying to hard.