Scientific Name : Milvago
chimachima
INTRODUCTION:
The Yellow-headed Caracara, Milmachima, is a bird of prey in
the family Falconidae. It is found in tropical and
subtropical South America and the southern portion of Central
America. Unlike the Falco falcons in the same family,
the caracaras are not fast-flying aerial hunters, but are rather
sluggish and often scavengers.
DESCRIPTION:
A fairly small bird of prey commonly seen sitting on the back of cattle or other mammals and taking ticks from them.
Yellow-headed Caracara has dark brown to blackish upperparts. Back and wings
are blackish brown. Long wings show large whitish patch at base of outer
primaries, very conspicuous in flight.
Buff tail is fairly long and rounded. Uppertail coverts are buff with numerous narrow wavy dusky bars, broad blackish subterminal bar and fine whitish terminal band.
Underparts are pale buff to creamy-white. Underwing shows buffy to
creamy-white coverts and blackish-brown flight feathers. Undertail has similar
pattern as uppertail.
Head and neck are pale buff to creamy-white, with blackish stripe behind the
eye. Lores, base of the bill and eye-ring are bare and yellow, but sometimes
they are paler.
Hooked strong bill is horn-coloured. Eyes are reddish-brown. Legs and feet are pale greenish-grey.
Both sexes are similar, with female slightly larger than male.
This is a bird
of savannah, swamps and forest edges. The
Yellow-headed Caracara is a resident bird from Costa
Rica south through Trinidad and Tobago to
northern Argentina (the provinces
of Misiones, Chaco, Formosa, Corrientes and Santa
Fe). It is typically found from sea level to 1,800 m (5,900 ft),
occasionally to 2,600 m (8,500 ft) ASL. In southern South America, it
is replaced by a close relative, the Chimango Caracara (Milvago
chimango), whose range overlaps with that of the Yellow-headed Caracara in
southern Brazil, northern Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
A larger and stouterpaleosubspecies, Milvago chimachima readei,
occurred in Florida and possibly elsewhere during the Late
Pleistocene, some tens of thousand years ago. According to
the Peregrine Fund database, the Yellow-headed Caracara is expanding
its range into Nicaragua.
FACT FILE :
Length : 40-46 cm
Wingspan : 75 cm
Weight : M : 280-330 g – F : 310-360 g
Identification : The head, neck, and
entire underparts of the yellow-headed caracara are buff white to sandy, with
heavy black lines behind the eyes. The back and wings are dark brown, with
sandy feather edging. The tail is sandy barred with a thick band of brown at
the tip. The beak of the yellow-headed caracara is pale blue. In flight the
underside of the wing has a white patch at the tip.
Geographic
Range : Southern
North
America;
Western
South
America
Habitat : Savannas,
grasslands,
timbered
scrub,
open
woodlands,
and farms
Diet : carrion
(dead
things),
insects,
frogs,
vegetable
matter,
nestling
birds
and fish
Reproduction : Two to four eggs, but
usually three eggs are laid by the yellow-headed caracara.
Social
Structure : Large
communal roosts are used outside of the breeding season. Yellow-headed
caracaras nest in separate nests close together during the breeding season.
Behavior : The yellow-headed caracara is very
social especially around food.
Status : lower risk
Interesting
Facts : Yellow-headed
caracaras search out and feed on ticks found on cattle.
Keyword : hawk-like
bird,
raptor
Other
Names : Northern
Carrion Falcon, Chimachima Caracara.
ABSTRACT:
Although the Yellow-headed Caracara (Milvago chimachima) is widely distributed,
common birds in South America, little is known concerning their breeding
biology. Bierregaard conducted an excellent review of
known data, but details are based on fragmented observations, are incomplete,
and often inferential . It is known that
Yellow-headed Caracaras typically lay 1-2 eggs per nest, and they use of stick
nests, as well as hills as nesting sites . While information on nest placement and structure is well known (greater
than 15 reported), information on the breeding behavior to be almost completely
unknown (Bierregaard 1995).
Scientific classification
# Kingdom : Animalia
# Phylum : Chordata
# Class : Aves
# Order : Falconiformes
# Family : Falconidae
# Subfamily : Polyborinae
# Genus : Milvago
# Species : M. chimachima
Subspecies:
2 races.
M.
c. cordatus: COSTA RICA and PANAMA (including Pearl Islands) through
COLOMBIA to the GUIANAS south through eastern BRAZIL to the Amazon River;
TRINIDAD; absent from the heavily forested portions of Amazonia;
M. c.
chimachima: Eastern ECUADOR, eastern BOLIVIA and BRAZIL south of the
Amazon River to PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, and northern ARGENTINA.
Taxonomy:
This species
and the Chimango Caracara were formerly included in Ibycter with all
other caracara species (Sharpe 1874). They were first separated into Milvago
by Kirke Swann (1922). Peters (1931) recognized four caracara genera, and this
treatment was followed by Brown and Amadon (1968), who commented, however, on
the close relationship of Polyborus, Phalacoboenus, and Milvago.
Vuilleumier (1970) recommended that these three genera be merged into a a
single genus, Polyborus (now Caracara), and Griffiths (1994)
could find no difference between Milvago and Phalcoboenus on the basis
of syringeal characters. Most recent authorities have recognized Milvago
as a valid genus, but the relationships of the caracaras clearly need further
study. This species forms a superspecies with M. chimango, although they
may be sympatric in some areas. Most recent authors recognize the northern race
cordatus, but not a purported form, paludivagus, from Surinam and
Cayenne. Treated as monotypic by Brown and Amadon (1968).
Habitat and Habits:
The Yellow-headed Caracara has benefited from forest
clearing for cattle ranching. Its status in Trinidad has
changed from rare to fairly common, and it was first seen on Tobago in 1987. It
adapts readily to urban areas and, together with species such as the American Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus),
it is among the most commonly seen bird of prey in Latin
American cities. Consequently, this wide-ranging species has been assigned
a risk level of Least Concern category on the IUCN
Red List.
In Panama
City for example, as a result of the increased urban sprawl, Yellow-headed
Caracara pairs are frequently seen along the rooftops in suburban
neighborhoods.
Occurs in lowlands and middle elevations, frequenting
open country, including savannas, cattle pastures, agricultural lands, low
second-growth, and riparian areas, where it perches conspicuously on tops of
trees or on the ground.
The Yellow-headed Caracara is omnivorous, and
will eat reptiles,
amphibians
and other small animals as well as carrion. Birds are rarely if
ever taken, and this species will not elicit warning calls from mixed-species feeding flocks that cross
its path even in open cerrado habitat. It will also take ticks from cattle, and is
locally called "tickbird". It has been observed also to forage
for small invertebrates in the fur of brown-throated three-toed sloths.
In addition, at least younger birds are fond of certain fruits, such as those
of the Oil
palm (Elaeis guineensis) and Pequi (Caryocar brasiliense).
It lays from five to seven brown-marked buff eggs
in a stick nest
in a tree.
Breeding:
The nest is a
fairly substantial platform of sticks placed in the top of a tree or in a palm
tree, the old nest of another species is used. Clutch size is 2 eggs, which
have a white ground color and are almost completely suffused with buffy to
reddish-brown pigment.
Feeding Behavior :
A dietary opportunist, feeding on carrion, garbage,
feces, and small live animals, including mammals, snakes, lizards, fish, crabs,
large insects, caterpillars, young chickens, and the contents of bird nests.
Sometimes stoops at prey from flight, but more often hunts on the ground, often
among cattle, making dashes after small prey. Eats ticks off the backs of
cattle and attends grass fires to capture feeling animals.
Here’s some photo of YELLOW-HEADED CARACARA:
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That's it about Yellow-headed caracara!!!!!!!!!!!
