The chimango caracara (''Milvago chimango'') is a species of bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

and south of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The chimango is found as far south as

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...

and is a vagrant to the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubou ...

Habitat

Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, high-altitude shrubland, temperate

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

, Patagonian steppe, and heavily degraded former forest. This bird is typically found at edges of water and near towns and fields, the latter especially if they are newly ploughed. It is the most common raptor in the Argentinean Patagonia and Chile.

Species description

This species is from 37 to 40 cm long. A typical chimango caracara has a mantle and back edged with cinnamon brown feathers and white. Neck, chest,

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the tors ...

and belly light brown. Head dark brown. It is the smallest variety of caracara. Wings have a dark brown stripe with white in the basal half of the primaries. The tail is light brown with a dark brown terminal band. Eyes are brown. Legs are yellow in the male and light gray in the female and hatchlings.

Behaviour

The chimango is an intelligent bird and has high problem solving abilities compared to other birds. It eats insects, small vertebrates and carrion. The chimango is also known to catch living fish from the surface of the water.

Images

File:Chimango.jpg, Chimango caracara. Seen in Tierra del Fuego Image:Chimango Caracara Stevage.jpg, In Torres del Paine National Park, Chile File:Milvago chimango Dichato Chile Flickr.jpg, Probably southern subspecies ''M. c. temucoensis'', Dichato near Concepcion, Chile

References

External links

Image of ''Chimango Caracara''

{{Taxonbar, from=Q934445 chimango caracara chimango caracara Birds of Argentina Birds of Brazil Birds of Chile Birds of Paraguay Birds of Uruguay chimango caracara Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN