Crested Caracaras Appear as April Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar

Summary: Crested caracaras appear as April birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar whereby the National Audubon Society assists 12 vulnerable birds in the United States.

Crested caracaras of the southernmost United States abide southward in Caribbean America and from Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Mexico, "United Mexican States" literally) southward through Central America and into South America as far south as northern Brazil and northern Peru. John James Audubon (April 26, 1785-Jan. 27, 1851) added a Brazilian crested caracara as plate 161 to his The Birds of America From Original Drawings (1827-1830), vol. 2: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Crested caracara appear as April birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar, National Audubon Society alert to North America’s vulnerable birds that abide in, or access from Canada and Mexico, the United States.

Wintertime through springtime backyard bee, bird, butterfly, chipmunk and squirrel feeders bring in the Falconiformes (from Latin falco, “falcon” and -fōrmēs, “-shaped”) bird-of-prey, raptor order member. The vulture-like scavenger, called Mexican buzzard as national bird of Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Mexico, “United Mexican States”) colonizes open, semiarid brushland, desert, grassland, prairie, savannah habitats. Crested caracaras dwell in central and southern Arizona, Florida and Texas and in southwestern Louisiana and southward onto Caribbean islands and through Mexico into American tropics.

Long, run- and walk-friendly legs explain the Falconidae (from Latin falco, “falcon” and Greek –ειδής, “-like”) caracara, falcon, falconet, kestrel family member sometimes establishing ground-level nests.

The Caracarinae (onomatopoeic from Tupi via Portuguese carcará and Spanish caracara and Latin –īnae, “-ine”), Falconinae true-falcon or Polyborinae forest-falcon subfamily member otherwise favors aerial nests.

Physically and sexually mature crested caracara females gestate one 2- to 4-egg brood and, if first-brood eggs and hatchlings go dead or missing, another, second clutch. Crested caracara fathers-to-be and mothers-to-be hone their nests at 8- to 80-foot (2.44- to 24.38-meter) heights above the soil-surface bases of rock faces and woody plants. They incubate for 28 days brown- or purple-blotched, mottled, splotched, spotted, non-glossy to semi-glossy, short sub-elliptical to elliptical, smooth, white to pink-white, buff or orange-buff eggs.

Crested caracaras join the 2022 Audbon calendar as April birds that journey in flocked pairs through breeding-season months between December and August or January and September.

Twenty-two-year lifespans kindle 42- to 56-day fledglings from 59- by 46-millimeter (2.32- by 1.81-inch) eggs in leaf- and moss-lined briar-, grass-, stem-, twig-, vine-, weed-kept nests.

Semi-altricial (semi-helpless, from Latin altrix, “nourisher”) nestlings lodge among cabbage palm fronds, cactus pads, live oak or mesquite branches; in natural cavities; or on rocky ledges. They manifest, before fledging, feathers; a buff-pink, first downy coat; and then a second downy coast with black-brown patches on upper heads, shoulders, rumps and thighs. Both parents nourish nestlings through two months old with eggs, insects and torn fragments of such animal carcasses and live prey as birds, mammals and reptiles.

The 2022 Audubon calendar offers mature crested caracaras as April birds, without their black-crested, yellow-cheeked, pale-legged juvenile occurrences, whose immaturity occasions barred tails and streaked breasts.

Physically and sexually mature crested caracaras possess 19- to 23-inch- (48- to 58-centimeter-) long bodies, 4-foot (1.2-meter) wingspans and 2.5- to 2.75-pound (1- to 1.3-kilogram) weights.

Adult caracaras qualify as quintessential flying birds with black-banded white tails and powerful, white-patched wings for flapping, soaring flights on thermal updrafts and over tree tops. They reveal black crows, crests, backs; orange-yellow faces and legs; blue-white, thick bills; white cheeks; dark-, thin-barred, white breasts and napes; and cream, cream-whitish under-tail feathers. They sustain from their deep-cupped nests high-pitched screams, like their nestlings, who also sound raspy swee-swee calls, and, unlike their nestlings, harsh cackles and hollow rattles.

Crested caracaras turn up on the 2022 Audubon calendar as April birds, as falcon-, hawk-, vulture-like raptors with powerful hooked bills, sharp talons and strong feet.

Crested caracaras, acknowledged commonly as northern caracaras and scientifically as Caracara cheriway and Caracara plancus cheriway and analyzed taxonomically by Leiden, Netherlands-born Austrian biologist, botanist, doctor Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (Feb. 16, 1727-Oct. 26, 1817) and by Bremen-born German herpetologist, mathematician, naturalist, ornithologist and zoologist Blasius Merrem (Feb. 4, 1761- Feb. 23, 1824), are falcon-, hawk-, vulture-like avians abiding in Caribbean, Central and South America and in Mexican and Unitedstatesian North America; Aug. 23, 2012, Distribution Map of Caracara cheriway: MPF, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Crested caracaras of the southernmost United States abide southward in Caribbean America and from Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Mexico, "United Mexican States" literally) southward through Central America and into South America as far south as northern Brazil and northern Peru. John James Audubon (April 26, 1785-Jan. 27, 1851) added a Brazilian crested caracara as plate 161 to his The Birds of America From Original Drawings (1827-1830), vol. 2: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:161_Brasilian_Caracara_Eagle.jpg; No copyright, via Cincinnati Public Library @ https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll33/search/searchterm/V.02/field/source/mode/all/conn/and/order/file/page/2 (main page); No copyright, via Cincinnati Public Library @ https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll33/id/165/rec/63 (specific image URL)

Crested caracaras, acknowledged commonly as northern caracaras and scientifically as Caracara cheriway and Caracara plancus cheriway and analyzed taxonomically by Leiden, Netherlands-born Austrian biologist, botanist, doctor Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (Feb. 16, 1727-Oct. 26, 1817) and by Bremen-born German herpetologist, mathematician, naturalist, ornithologist and zoologist Blasius Merrem (Feb. 4, 1761- Feb. 23, 1824), are falcon-, hawk-, vulture-like avians abiding in Caribbean, Central and South America and in Mexican and Unitedstatesian North America; Aug. 23, 2012, Distribution Map of Caracara cheriway: MPF, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caracara_cheriway_map.png

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J. O. Harrison. 2005. "Crested Caracara (Caracara plancus)." Pages 102-103. In: Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ; and Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England: Princeton University Press.

Bull, John; and John Farrand, Jr. 1997. "Crested Caracara (Caracara plancus)." Pages 436-437. In: National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region. Revised by John Farrand, Jr. Second edition. A Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; and Toronto [Ontario, Canada]: Random House of Canada Limited.

Bull, John; John Farrand, Jr.; and Miklos D. F. Udvardy. "Crested Caracara Polyborus plancus." Pages 532-533. In. Lauren Brown. Grasslands. The Audubon Society Nature Guides. Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Clark, William S.; and Brian K. Wheeler. 2001. "Crested Caracara." Pages 248-251. In: A Field Guide to Hawks of North America. Second Edition. The Peterson Field Guide Series. Boston MA; and New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

"Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway." Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission > How Can We Help You? > Discover Wildlife > Wildlife Viewing > Additional Wildlife Viewing Resources > Species Profiles > Showing All 406 Species.
Available @ https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/birds/raptors-and-vultures/crested-caracara/

Howell, Catherine Herbert (Writer); and Mary B. Dickinson (Editor). 1999. "Crested Caracara Caracara plancus." Pages 120-121. Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Third Edition. Washington DC: National Geographic Society.

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 March 2022. "Cerulean Warblers Are March Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/03/cerulean-warblers-are-march-birds-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 February 2022. "Northern Bobwhites Are February Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/02/northern-bobwhites-are-february-birds.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 January 2022. "Florida Scrub-Jays Are January Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/01/florida-scrub-jays-are-january-birds-on.html

Olsen, Penny. 2002. "Crested caracara Polyborus plancus." Page 354. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 8, Birds I, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group.

Peterson, Roger Tory. 2010. "Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway." Pages 88-89, 112-113. In: Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America. With contributions from Michael Di Giorgio, Paul Lehman, Michael O'Brien and Jeffrey A. Gordon, Larry Rosche, [and] Bill Thompson. Sixth Edition. Boston MA; and New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Peterson, Roger Tory. 1947. "Audubon's Caracara. Polyborus cheriway auduboni." Page 49. In: A Field Guide to the Birds Giving Field Marks of all Species Found East of the Rockies. The Peterson Field Guide Series. Second Revised and Enlarged Edition. Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Robbins, Chandler S.; Bertel Bruun; and Herbert S. Zim. 2001. "Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway." Pages 78-79. In: Birds of North America. Revised by Jonathan P. Latimer and Karen Stray Nolting and James Coe. New York NY: St. Martin's Press.

Robbins, Chandler S., Bertel Bruun, with Herbert S. Zim. 1983. "Crested Caracara Polybórus pláncus." Page 78. In: Birds of North America. A Guide to Field Identification. New York NY: Golden Press; and Racine WI: Western Publishing Company.

Stokes, Donald and Lillian. 1996. "Crested Caracara Caracara plancus." Page 115. In: Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region. Boston [MA]; New York [NY]; Toronto [Ontario, Canada]; and London [England UK]: Little, Brown and Company.

Udvardy, Miklos D. F. 1985. "Crested Caracara Polyborus plancus." Pages 581. In: James A. MacMahon. Deserts. The Audubon Society Nature Guides. Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Udvardy, Miklos D. F. 1977. "Caracara (Caracara cheriway)." Pages 507-508. In: The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Region. A Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; and Toronto [Ontario, Canada]: Random House of Canada Limited.

Walters, Michael. 1994. "Cheriway Caracara." Page 67. In: Birds' Eggs. Eyewitness Handbooks. New York [NY USA]: Dorling Kindersley, Inc.

Wheeler, Brian K.; and William S. Clark. 2003. "Crested Caracara (Caracara plancus)." Pages 127-129. In: A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors. Princeton NJ; and Oxford, Oxfordshire, England UK: Princeton University Press.

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