Nombre en español: Cacao Avispero

Nombre en ingles: Red-throated Caracara

Nombre científico: Ibycter americanus

Familia: Falconidae

Foto: Carlos Mario Bran

Audio: Jorge Gabriel Campos (xeno-canto)

El caracara gorgirrojo (Ibycter americanus) es una especie de ave falconiforme de la familia Falconidaepropia de América Central y del Sur. Es el único miembro del género monotípico Ibycter.

Nombres comunes

Es también conocido como chupacacao de vientre blanco, cacao avispero, caracara comecacao, caracara de vientre blanco, caracara ventriblanco, chupacacao ventriblanco.

Distribución

Su distribución se extiende al norte hasta el sur de México, con una población aislada y local al sur de Costa Rica y norte de Panamá. Su distribución geográfica al sur incluye la mayor parte del norte y centro de América del Sur; Colombia, Venezuela, las Guayanas, este y noroeste de Ecuador, la región Amazónica al oriente de Perú, la región Amazónica al norte de Bolivia y casi todo Brasil.

Características

Las hembras, como es normal en el orden Falconiformes, son más grandes que los machos, pesando de 560 a 770 gramos. Los machos pesan entre 510 a 570 g. La longitud total es de 43 a 57 cm.

Historia natural

Es común en buena parte de su distribución geográfica. Es sedentaria. Social, se lo ve en grupos de 3 a 6 individuos, hasta una decena de ellos. Suele andar en parejas, o en forma solitaria también. Hace el nido en los árboles, pone dos o tres huevos blancos con manchas castañas.

Habita márgenes de las selvas húmedas, claros de la selva, y bordes de la misma en los cursos de agua, en zonas arboladas, con vegetación secundaria. También en bosques secos. Ocupando un piso altitudinal entre el nivel del mar y los 1.500 metros de altura.

La alimentación consiste en larvas de las avispas. Va al nido de estos himenópteros lo rompe con el pico, atrapando las larvas. Las avispas adultas, que son tan belicosas, no lo atacan. Revolotean a su alrededor y se van. También se alimenta de frutas, semillas, invertebrados, artrópodos y huevos de tortuga.

Subespecies

No se rereconocen subespecies.

Los ejemplares que habitan al sur de Brasil demuestran ser algo más grandes y se le consideraban una subespecie. Los que habitaban al sur de México y América Central también presentan ciertas diferencias en el tamaño y también se les consideró ser una subespecie. Ambos casos por ahora se tratan como variaciones geográficas, tal vez razas, pero no lo suficiente definidas para ser subespecies.

Red-throated caracara

The red-throated caracara (Ibycter americanus) is a social species of bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is placed in the monotypic genus Ibycter, or sometimes united in Daptrius with the black caracara. Unique among caracaras, it mainly feeds on the larvae of bees and wasps, but also takes the adult insects and fruits and berries.

It is found from Mexico south to Venezuela in most of Central and South America. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Diet

The red-throated caracara’s diet consists mainly of wasp and bee larvae, though it will eat mature insects and also forage on fruits and berries found in the humid subtropical and tropical lowlands, and mountainous regions of its Central and South American habitat. Biodiversity of the forest ecosystem is paramount for the birds’ special diet, since wasps and bees often make their nests in hollows or amongst branches of mature trees found in old-growth forests. Deforestation and intensive agriculture practices severely hamper the red-throated caracara’s population, likely accounting for its rare sightings today. After the 1950s, both its population and range rapidly declined in Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Ecuador, and French Guiana, causing the species to be placed on the World Wildlife endangered list. Until 2013, very little was known of the red-throated caracara’s feeding behavior until a team of Canadian biologists from the University of Simon Fraser spent months researching the birds using camera surveillance at the Nouragues Field Station in French Guiana. The scientific footage shows the birds using a rapid-fire “fly-by” aerial-diving attack strategy to knock nests down onto the forest floor, while skillfully evading most wasp stings. The birds use air squadron precision, repeatedly diving then scooping upward, to drive off or confuse angry defender swarms around the hive. Researchers also found that neotropical defender wasps eventually abandon their damaged hives and retreat, alongside smaller worker wasps, to rebuild a new nest site. All predators evolve ways of hunting or trapping prey. Biologist Sean McCann observed that these intelligent birds have a highly specialized predation trait in response the wasps’ behavior to cut losses and rebuild elsewhere. The predation impact on the numbers of prey populations is undetermined. Furthermore, it is not clear how much the red-throated caracara’s primary food source, wasp larvae, places constraints on the birds’ ability to survive since their complex predation is interlinked with neotropical wasp behavior. Knowledge of the birds’ chemical resistance to stings is also unknown. Chemical traces found on the birds’ feet are similar to those secreted from Azteca ants, likely contacted along tree branches and nest sites which both species inhabit.

Description

Males average 20.1 in (51 cm) long, while females average 22.1 in (56 cm); they are distinguished from the black caracara by larger size and plumage that is mainly black, with the belly, tibal feathers, and undertail feathers being white. Both their faces and throats are bare with a few black feathers scattered on the throat; the exposed skin is red. Both male and female red-throated caracaras are similar in appearance. Males have a wing length of 35.55 cm, a tail length of 24.96 cm, a bill length of 2.5 cm, and a tarsus length of 5.41 cm. Females have a wing length of 35.93 cm, a tail length of 25.31 cm, a bill length of 2.58 cm, and a tarsus length of 5.62 cm.

Habitat

This species inhabits the humid lowland forests of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. The slow flight of the red-throated caracara makes it suited it to fly in the understory of the forest where the vegetation is thin. The sparse vegetation gives the red-throated caracara greater visibility to spot food and predators. The ornate hawk-eagle and the black-and-white hawk-eagle are predators of the red-throated caracara.

Behavior

The red-throated caracara hunts in the canopies and the understory of the lowland jungle, foraging mainly for insect nests. Most red-throated caracaras hunt silently, but occasionally make soft caws and sometimes hunt in groups. When hunting in groups, one or two individuals scout for predators in the canopy, while the remaining flock hunts in the understory. The red-throated caracara is highly territorial, with four to eight individuals in a group.

Wikipedia/eBird