Yellow-headed Caracara

The yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima) is a bird of prey in the family Falconidae, the falcons and caracaras. It is found in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, every mainland South American country except Chile, and on Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, and Trinidad and Tobago. The yellow-headed caracara is 40 to 45 cm long. Males weigh 277 to 335 g and females 307 to 364 g. Their wingspan is 74 to 95 cm. The sexes' plumages are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have buff to creamy yellowish white head, neck, and underparts with a thin dark streak through the eye. Their back and wings are blackish brown with a whitish patch at the base of the primaries that shows in flight. Their uppertail coverts and tail are buff with dusky bars and the tail has a black band near the end. Their iris is reddish brown surrounded by bare bright yellow skin and their legs and feet are pea green. Immature birds have browner upperparts than adults and their underparts have brown streaks. Subspecies M. c. cordata is a darker buff on the head and underparts than the nominate and has narrower bars on the tail.