The Caracara cheriway, or also known by its common name Northern Crested Caracara is a bird of prey. How many fast-flying birds do you know? For a fact the caracara is not one of those bird, they are slow and sometimes hunt on foot. The caracara lives in many different places such as parts of North America, most of South America, and many more. They are carnivorous scavengers, which means they have an appetite for meat. Also it means they like to pick at the dead animal that a different animal ate from; they like injured animals too. Caracaras are considered “going extinct” because humans keep tearing up the habitats.

 

If you ever went hunting for them (which is illegal) you would find them in a group of 3-5 or they will just be by themselves. There are also two types of similar birds the Northern Crested Caracara has and that is an adult and an immature bird.

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The Caracara has two very similar birds, an adult one and an immature one. Adult Caracaras have dark black wings, body, crest, and crown (which is the head). Their wings can be up to 4 feet long. Yet they grow up to be about 1 to 2 feet tall. Most of their body may be black but their chest, beak, legs, tail, and skin are different colors. Their chest is white, as well as their tail. However their beak is a greyish blue with a hook at the end of it. Their legs are yellow and where their skin shows it is and reddish-orange. Since the immature is quiet similar the only difference is parts of their fur. The immature bird fur is brown. Since both adult and immature Caracara aren’t big they live to about 18 to 26 years old.

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Have you ever noticed that where you live right now is probably where a different small or big animal has lived before you? Caracaras homes are taken away from them every day by humans. This is the main reason to why they are going extinct. This is called habitat loss. Caracaras live in an open-semi country. Like ranches, cattle farms, prairies, scattered trees, and beach dunes. The live in parts of North America like Florida and Texas, in most of South America, and all over Mexico. They like to live far away as possible from humans. They like to live at the beach so they can eat crabs, fish, mammals, etc. They like to live at the ranches so they can eat the rodents. It is hardest to find the birds when they are nesting. They like to hide high up in the trees so you can’t see them. They make them out of small twigs. However they look really bulky but are really loosely made.

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Every animal eats food, but the Northern Crested Caracara is known for eating carrion. Carrion is dead flesh of animals, which is a major part in the caracaras food web. The Caracara eats many other food too. Such as reptile, amphibians, birds, small mammals, insects, dead animals, and if they are really hungry they will eat fruit and seeds. Caracaras don’t really compete with other animals because they are scavengers. However they hunt in many ways to get their food. Also, they will either hunt on foot, hunt in the sky while they fly and they will sometimes steal other bird’s food too. They don’t really have any predators, but when they see an intruder they will snap twigs to imitate them and to warn the other birds. Caracaras eat the food by cutting open the prey with a special hook on its beak.

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Writing an essay about this bird I have learned a lot about all the different kinds of caracaras there are. I also learned a lot of interesting facts. Like since this bird is mostly found near the Mexico area it is known as the “Mexican Eagle”. Also, I think it is amusing how they steal foods from other birds. Clearly, my favorite thing learning about them is that they aren’t fast flying birds. The caracara is also on the “threatened” list. The rattling sound that the caracaras make is also known as there mating call.

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Author: Sydny F.

Date published: 02/2013

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Sources: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Crested_Carcara/

http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Crested_Caracara

http://www.google.com/#q=caracara+cheriway

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Caracara_cheriway/

www.avianweb.com/crestedcaracaras.html

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English: Northern Caracara (also called Northern Crested Caracara) at Brevard Zoo, Florida, USA. Date

10 December 2008, 10:24:37 Source

originally posted to Flickr as He looks so important Author

MAULI Permission (Reusing this file) This image, which was originally posted to Flickr.com, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 18:31, 20 June 2009 (UTC) by Snowmanradio (talk). 

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