Caribbean caracara
| Caribbean caracara | ||||||||||
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Caracara cheriway cheriway |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Caracara cheriway | ||||||||||
| ( Jacquin , 1784) |
The Caribbean caracara ( Caracara cheriway ) is a hawk-like bird native to southern North America , Central America, and northern South America . The species is divided into two subspecies, in the north Caracara cheriway auduboni , in the south Caracara cheriway cheriway .
features
The Caribbean caracara becomes 51 to 60 cm long, and reaches a wingspan of 107 to 132 cm. The tail length is 22 to 25 cm. Males stay smaller, they reach about 97% the size of the females (calculated from the mean values of the wingspan). The head is large and flat, the beak large and narrow. the parting is black, the face naked and red. Feet and legs are yellow, those of juveniles are gray.
At C. c. auduboni , the upper side is black-brown, the neck and chest are cream-colored and banded with black-brown. C. c. cheriway is blacker at the top, cheek and throat are white, neck and chest are banded white and black. The dark bands are wider.
Young birds are more brown, less contrasting in color, the breast is more dashed than banded.
Occurrence
The northern subspecies of the Caribbean caracara ( C. c. Auduboni ) lives in Cuba , with the exception of Peténes , Belize , and eastern Panama in all of Central America and in Mexico , with the exception of the eastern Yucatan , central northern Mexico and northern Baja California . In the United States, he lives on the Texas coast and in a small area in central Florida. C. c. cheriway , the southern subspecies, lives from northern Costa Rica via Venezuela to the three Guayanas , as well as in western, Pacific Colombia and Ecuador , on the Netherlands Antilles and on Trinidad . The Caribbean caracara prefers open landscapes such as savannahs, cattle ranches and goes in mountains at altitudes of up to 2500 meters, up to a maximum of 3800 meters.
behavior
The Caribbean caracara lives individually, but in some areas in groups of up to 50 animals. He runs well and spends a lot of time on the ground. It feeds mainly on carrion, which it also looks for on roadsides. Sometimes it can be found together with vultures on larger carcasses, where it also picks maggots . In addition, it prey on young birds, eggs, sick animals and hunts birds of prey. He is mostly quiet, utters a high-pitched "kiiier" during disputes in the air, makes rattling noises during courtship and calls out a single or double dry "chak" at the nest.
literature
- Ferguson-Lees & Christie: The birds of prey of the world (German by Volker Dierschke and Jochen Dierschke). Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-440-11509-1
Web links
- Caracara cheriway inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2013.