bat falcon

The bat falcon (''Falco rufigularis'') is a falcon that is a resident breeder in tropical Mexico, Central and South America, Trinidad. It was long known as ''Falco albigularis''; the names ''Falco fusco-coerulescens'' or ''Falco fuscocaerulescens'', long used for the aplomado falcon, are now believed to refer to the present species.

It is probably closely related to and looks like a small version of the orange-breasted falcon with which it has been misidentified. These two, in turn, are probably closest to the aplomado falcon and constitute a rather old American lineage of ''Falco'' species.

The female bat falcon, at 30.5 cm length, is much larger than the 23-cm-long male. Adults have a black back, head, and tail. The throat, upper breast, and neck sides are creamy white, the lower breast and belly are black, finely barred white, and the thighs and lower belly are orange. Young birds are similar, but with a buffy throat. The call of this species is a high pitched ''ke-ke-ke'' like the American kestrel.

This small, dark bird of prey inhabits open woodlands and forest clearings. Bat falcons perch conspicuously on high, open snags, from which they launch aerial attacks on their prey. They hunt bats, birds (such as swifts, swallows, hummingbirds, parakeets and small water birds), small rodents, snakes, lizards, frogshttps://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Falco_rufigularis%20-%20Bat%20Falcon.pdf and large insects such as dragonflies, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, true bugs and hymenopterans. The smaller male takes more insects, and the female more birds and bats. The flight is direct and powerful. This falcon is partly crepuscular, as the bats in its diet suggest. It lays two or three brown eggs in an unlined treehole nest.

Vagrancy

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) the first recorded bat falcon sighting in the U.S. occurred in December 2021 in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo, Texas. Wildlife officials determined that the bird sighted was a juvenile male based on its buff-cinnamon throat and crest bars, and the thickness of the tarsus and beak.

Notes

References

* Beebe, C. William (1950): The home life of the bat falcon, ''Falco albigularis'' Daudin. ''Zoologica (New York)'' 35(4): 69–86.
* Birregard, Richard O. (1994): 45. Bat Falcon. ''In:'' del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (editors): '' Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 2 (New World Vultures to Guineafowl)'': 267–268, plate 27. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
* ffrench, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton & Eckelberry, Don R. (1991): ''A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago'' (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y..
* Hilty, Steven L. (2003): ''Birds of Venezuela''. Christopher Helm, London.
* Helbig, A.J.; Seibold, I.; Bednarek, W.; Brüning, H.; Gaucher, P.; Ristow, D.; Scharlau, W.; Schmidl, D. & Wink, Michael (1994): Phylogenetic relationships among falcon species (genus Falco) according to DNA sequence variation of the cytochrome b gene. ''In:'' Meyburg, B.-U. & Chancellor, R.D. (editors): ''Raptor conservation today'': 593–599
PDF fulltext
* Griffiths, Carole S. (1999): Phylogeny of the Falconidae inferred from molecular and morphological data. '' Auk'' 116(1): 116–130
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* Wink, Michael; Seibold, I.; Lotfikhah, F. & Bednarek, W. (1998): Molecular systematics of holarctic raptors (Order Falconiformes). ''In:'' Chancellor, R.D., Meyburg, B.-U. & Ferrero, J.J. (editors): ''Holarctic Birds of Prey'': 29–48. Adenex & WWGBP
PDF fulltext

External links

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(for Suriname) with RangeMap
Bat Falcon photo gallery
VIRE
Photo-High Res
oiseaux

{{Taxonbar, from=Q844220

Falco (genus)
Birds of Central America
Birds of Mexico
Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula
Birds of South America
Birds of the Amazon Basin
Birds of the Guianas
Birds described in 1800