Stats

Lifespan: 10-15 yrs
Size: Medium
Diet: Omnivore
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Flock
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: South America
Movement: Flight
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Speed
Status: Uncommon

About

The Chimango Caracara is the most abundant raptor in Chile and Argentina, thriving from Patagonian steppes to city outskirts through sheer dietary opportunism — scavenging carrion, raiding gull catches mid-air, and picking insects from cattle dung. Despite belonging to the falcon family, it rarely hunts live prey.

Life cycle

1.
egg
One or two eggs are incubated on a high stick nest or cliff ledge, guarded closely by the pair.
2.
hatchling
A downy hatchling is fed torn meat by its parents and grows quickly in a high nest.
3.
juvenile
A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest, learning to soar and to make its first kills.
4.
adult
Fully grown, hunting on its own with adult plumage.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Falconiformes
Family: Falconidae
Genus: Daptrius
Species: Daptrius chimango