Yellow-headed caracara

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Yellow-headed caracara
Adult at Serra da Canastra National Park, Brazil

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
CITES Appendix II (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Falconiformes
Family: Falconidae
Genus: Milvago
Species:
M. chimachima
Binomial name
Milvago chimachima
(Vieillot, 1816)
Synonyms
  • Daptrius chimachima[3]
  • Polyborus chimachima (Vieillot, 1816)
  • Falco readei (Brodkorb, 1959)
  • Milvago readei (Brodkorb, 1959)

The yellow-headed caracara (Daptrius chimachima) is new-world bird of prey in the family Falconidae, of the Falconiformes order (true falcons, caracaras and their kin).[4] It is found as far north as Nicaragua, south to Costa Rica andPanamá, every mainland South American country (except Chile), and on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, and Trinidad and Tobago.[5][6][7]

Taxonomy and systematics

Louis Pierre Vieillot described the yellow-headed caracara as Polyborus chimachima, putting it in the same genus as the crested caracaras.[8] In 1824, German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix created the genus Milvago for this species and the closely-related chimango caracara.[9]

The taxonomy of the caracaras has not been settled. The

Clements taxonomy places the yellow-headed, chimango and four other species in the genus Daptrius;[13][3] the other systems place only the black caracara in Daptrius.[11][4][12]

Worldwide systems agree that the yellow-headed caracara has two subspecies, the

nominate M. c. chimachima, and M. c. cordata.[4][12][3]

A larger, stouter paleosubspecies, M. c. readei, occurred in Florida, and possibly elsewhere, some tens of thousands of years ago, during the Late Pleistocene.[14]

Description

The yellow-headed caracara is 40 to 45 cm (16 to 18 in) long. Males weigh 277 to 335 g (9.8 to 12 oz) and females 307 to 364 g (11 to 13 oz). Their wingspan is 74 to 95 cm (29 to 37 in). The sexes' plumages are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have buff to creamy yellowish white heads, necks, and underparts with a thin dark streak through the eyes. Their back and wings are blackish brown with a whitish patch at the base of the

primaries that shows in flight. Their uppertail coverts and tail are buff with dusky bars and the tail has a black band near the end. Their iris is reddish brown surrounded by bare bright yellow skin and their legs and feet are pea green. Immature birds have browner upperparts than adults and their underparts have brown streaks. Subspecies M. c. cordata is a darker buff on the head and underparts than the nominate and has narrower bars on the tail.[15][16]

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies M. c. cordata is found in southwestern Nicaragua, western Costa Rica, and most of Panama, and in mainland South America from Colombia east through Venezuela and the Guianas, south through Ecuador and Peru east of the Andes, and across Brazil north of the Amazon River. The Nicaragua records are only since 2008, and there are also scattered eBird records as far north as Guatemala and Belize. Off the north coast of the South American mainland, it occurs on Aruba, Trinidad, and Tobago, and has visited Bonaire and Curaçao as a vagrant. The nominate M. c. chimachima is found from eastern Bolivia south through Paraguay into northern Argentina and east through northern Uruguay and Brazil south of the Amazon River. Its range overlaps with that of the chimango caracara in southern Brazil, northern Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.[16][5][17][7]

The yellow-headed caracara is a bird of lightly-treed open landscapes, like savannas with palms and scattered trees, ranchlands and pastures, gallery forests, and the edges of denser forests. In elevation, it mostly ranges from sea level to 1,000 m (3,300 ft), though it has been recorded at about 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in Colombia's Cauca River valley.[16][15]

Behavior

Movement

The yellow-headed caracara is generally sedentary, but records from northern Central America and islands off the north coast of South America indicate that individuals do wander. Within its usual range, it colonizes cleared areas.[16][15]

Feeding

The yellow-headed caracara is

Mixed-species feeding flocks apparently do not regard it as a threat, not making alarm calls during encounters.[22]

Breeding

Juvenile seen in June in Santa Catarina, Brazil

The yellow-headed caracara's nesting season varies geographically. It spans from December to April in

southern Brazil. It usually builds a stick nest up to 15 m (50 ft) high in a tree or palm but has also nested in a tree cavity, and in the absence of trees on mounds in marshy areas, on the ground, and even in buckets and cans on the wall of a house. The clutch size has been reported as one or two eggs and also as four. The incubation period is about 22 days, fledging occurs 17 to 20 days after hatch, and young are dependent on the parents for about three more weeks. The female does most of the incubating but both parents provide the young.[15][16]

Dickcissel male perched on a metal pole singing, with neck stretched and beak open.

Songs and calls
Listen to yellow-headed caracara on xeno-canto

Vocalization

The yellow-headed caracara is vocal mostly during the breeding season and also when quarreling over food. Its most common calls are a "scratchy wailing keeeah or a more drawn-out keeeeeeeee"; the calls are sometimes made singly but more often repeated. Other calls are a "more growling kraaa-kraaa-kraaa or krrrr-krrrr-krrrr; [a] piercing chay; and [a] thin hissing whistle, ksyeh, ksyeh."[15]

Status

The

IUCN has assessed the yellow-headed caracara as being of Least Concern. It has an extremely large range and an estimated population of at least five million mature individuals that is believed to be increasing. No immediate threats have been identified.[1] It "will certainly move into lowland areas as they are converted from forest to cattle ranches or to small- or to medium-scale farming."[16]

Gallery

  • Adult in Panama
    Adult in Panama
  • Juvenile in Panama
    Juvenile in Panama
  • Adult on capybara (Hydrochoeris hydrochaeris), the Pantanal, Brazil
    Adult on capybara (Hydrochoeris hydrochaeris), the Pantanal, Brazil
  • Among the most commonly seen birds of prey in Latin American cities
    Among the most commonly seen birds of prey in Latin American cities
  • In Costa Rica
    In Costa Rica

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22696261A163573161.en
    . Retrieved 13 February 2023.
  2. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022
  4. ^ a b c d Gill, F.; Donsker, D.; Rasmussen, P., eds. (January 2023). "Seriemas, falcons". IOC World Bird List. v 13.1. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  5. ^ a b McCrary, J.K.; Young, D.P. Jr. (2008). "New and noteworthy observations of raptors in southward migration in Nicaragua". Ornitología Neotropical. 19 (4): 573–580.
  6. ^ Check-list of North American Birds (7th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Ornithologists' Union. 1998.
  7. ^ a b Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. 30 January 2023. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved January 30, 2023
  8. ^ Drapiez, Auguste (1838). Dictionnaire classique des sciences naturelles, présentant la définition, l'analyse et l'histoire de tous les êtres qui composent les trois règnes (in French). Vol. 4. Brussels, Belgium: Meline et Cans. p. 350.
  9. ^ Godwin, Frederick Ducane; Salvin, Osbert (1904). Biologia centrali-americana. Vol. 3. R.H. Porter. p. 127.
  10. ^ Chesser, R. T., S. M. Billerman, K. J. Burns, C. Cicero, J. L. Dunn, B. E. Hernández-Baños, R. A. Jiménez, A. W. Kratter, N. A. Mason, P. C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., D. F. Stotz, and K. Winker. 2022. Check-list of North American Birds (online). American Ornithological Society. https://checklist.aou.org/taxa
  11. ^ a b Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 30, 2023
  12. ^ a b c HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved December 13, 2022
  13. ISSN 0019-1019
    .
  14. JSTOR 40166707
    .
  15. ^
    ISBN 0-618-12762-3
    .
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Bierregaard, R. O., G. M. Kirwan, P. F. D. Boesman, and J. S. Marks (2022). Yellow-headed Caracara (Daptrius chimachima), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (N. D. Sly, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.yehcar1.01.1 retrieved February 13, 2023
  17. ^ "Yellow-headed Caracara species map". Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  18. ^ Ferguson-Lees, J. & Christie, D.A. & Franklin, K. & Mead, D. & Burton, P.. (2001). Raptors of the world. Helm Identification Guides.
  19. ^ https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Milvago_chimachima%20-%20Yellow-headed%20Caracara.pdf
  20. S2CID 91157180
    .
  21. ^ Krakauer, A.H.; Krakauer, T.H. (1999). "Foraging of Yellow-headed Caracaras in the Fur of a Three-toed Sloth" (PDF). Journal of Raptor Research. 33 (3): 270.
  22. PMID 11188872
    . Retrieved 2011-07-15.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Milvago chimachima.
Wikispecies has information related to Milvago chimachima.
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