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    Caracara

    Their scavenging habit has earned them the nickname "the vulture-eagle"

    Imagine a bird with a proud, sharp-curved beak and piercing yellow eyes. This isn’t your average feathered friend. It’s a caracara, a fascinating bird of prey found in the Americas, with one species even reaching the southern US. They belong to the falcon family, but unlike their sleek, high-speed cousins, caracaras are more relaxed and spend a lot of time on the ground.

    The most recognizable caracara is the crested caracara. Picture a black and white hawk with a surprising splash of yellow-orange. Their legs are long and powerful, supporting their impressive height as they strut across grasslands or perch on fence posts. Their crowning glory is a distinctive black cap that stands out against their white neck and yellow-orange face. They have a broad wingspan, but their flight style is more deliberate than a falcon’s; they often soar with flat wings, making them easy to distinguish from vultures circling above.

    Caracaras are opportunistic eaters, which means they’re not picky. They’ll hunt small animals like lizards and rodents, but they’re also happy to scavenge for scraps left behind by other predators. They’re quite intelligent and have been known to follow ranchers, hoping to snatch a tasty morsel from cattle carcasses. They’re even known to team up with other caracaras to chase small prey or steal food from other birds.

    Despite their scavenging ways, caracaras are also skilled hunters. They have excellent eyesight and can spot prey from a distance. Once they’ve locked onto their target, they’ll swoop down with surprising agility for their size. Their strong beaks and talons make them efficient predators, capable of taking down creatures much larger than themselves.

    Here’s a fun fact: caracaras are one of the few falcons that actually build nests! Unlike other falcons who lay eggs in scrapes on the ground or take over abandoned nests, caracaras gather sticks and twigs to create a sturdy platform high up in a tree. This nest-building behavior is more common among eagles and hawks, making caracaras a bit of an oddity in the falcon family.