Yellow-headed caracara ~ ZOOworld!!!

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: