3/1/2023 0 Comments Carrion birds![]() ![]() Why are the crested caracaras expanding their range northward? Like so many changes in the Texas wild, it might have something to do with the double wallop of climate change and habitat loss. “He’s really built to go after roadkill and is actually more like a vulture than anything.” “They’re not a big, strong-footed predator that’s gonna grab the chickens and the dogs and, ‘Oh my gosh, my cat’s missing’-that’s not the case,” Shackelford says. Caracaras don’t pose a threat to people, livestock, or pets. Never mind the birds’ fearsome appearance. And despite perpetual yet unfounded fears to the contrary, Shackelford adds, caracaras do not dive-bomb calves or lambs or even yippy Chihuahuas. outside of Texas were in South Florida and the Phoenix area.įrom a distance, he notes, people often misidentify caracaras as bald eagles because they have white throats and white patches on their tail feathers. Until the turn of the century, the only caracara strongholds in the U.S. These days, it’s not unheard of for birders to spot caracaras just north of the Red River. They’ve also taken up residence in the countryside around Austin and the Hill Country, and north of Waco through the Dallas–Fort Worth area. In the past two decades, the opportunistic birds have swept up the coast to Houston and into Louisiana. The caracara’s typical range in Texas used to peter out by San Antonio. Folks in South Texas are no strangers to caracaras, which often perch on power lines or fence posts and glide above dusty fields and roadways in search of dead hogs, armadillos, and other tasty carcasses. Caracaras like to strut around on their unusually long legs, scratching for bugs or clawing at carrion, a favorite snack. (They were sacred to the Aztecs, and one school of thought holds that the bird depicted on the Mexican national flag may even have been based on a caracara, not a golden eagle.) They have a flat, dark head with a scruffy crest in the back, and an ostentatious orange beak that hooks down to a sharp, blue point. The caracara is a beautiful and fierce-looking falcon that ranges throughout Latin America and into the southern tip of the United States. ![]() The crested caracaras are coming for your roadkill. ![]()
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