The laughing falcon (''Herpetotheres cachinnans''), also called the snake hawk (erroneously, since it is not a
hawk), is a medium-sized
bird of prey
Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...
in the falcon family (
Falconidae), the
only member of the genus ''Herpetotheres''. This
Neotropical
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Definition
In bioge ...
species is a
specialist snake-eater
Firefly is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline, comic books and animated series. He is a mercenary who works for the Cobra Organization as a saboteur. He is portrayed by Ray Stevenson in the 2013 film '' G.I. J ...
. Its common and
scientific names both refer to its distinctive voice.
Taxonomy
Its English name comes from its loud voice, as does the
specific name ''cachinnans'',
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for "laughing aloud" or "laughing immoderately". The
generic name ''Herpetotheres'' refers to its preferred food; it is Latinized
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
, derived from ''
rpeton'' (ἑρπετόν, "
reptile") + ''therizein'' (θερίζειν, "to mow down").
Its relationships with other members of the Falconidae are unclear. Traditionally it has been placed in the
subfamily Polyborinae
Caracaras are birds of prey in the family Falconidae. They are traditionally placed in subfamily Polyborinae with the forest falcons, but are sometimes considered to constitute their own subfamily, Caracarinae, or classified as members of t ...
with the caracaras and
forest falcon
Forest falcons are members of the genus ''Micrastur'', part of the family Falconidae. They are endemic to the Americas, found from Mexico in the north, south through Central America and large parts of South America, and as far south as northern A ...
s, but the
American Ornithologists' Union's North American Check-list Committee now places it in the same subfamily as the
true falcons, while the South American Check-list Committee places it with the forest falcons but not the caracaras, and it has also been considered a subfamily of its own.
[Channing & HCT (1996)]
Description
The laughing falcon is long
[Jiménez & Jiménez (2003)] and has a wingspan of . As usual among
birds of prey
Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...
, the females are bigger, weighing compared to the males' .
Adults have a pale buff head, changeable between a more brownish and an almost white hue according to feather wear and individual variation. The broad black face mask stretches across the neck as a narrow collar, bordered with white. On the crown, the feather shafts are dark, producing a somewhat streaked effect. The upper wings and back are blackish brown. The uppertail coverts are whitish buff again, and the
rectrice
Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tail ...
s are barred black and whitish, ending in white. The underside is uniformly pale buff; there may be a bit of dark speckling on the thighs, however. The underside of the wing is pale rufous-buff, sometimes with some dark spotting on the underwing coverts. The tips of the primary
remiges
Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tai ...
are barred with pale grey below, their bases are quite rufous. The
iris
Iris most often refers to:
*Iris (anatomy), part of the eye
*Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess
* ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
* Iris (color), an ambiguous color term
Iris or IRIS may also refer to:
Arts and media
Fictional ent ...
is dark brown, the bill is black with a pale yellow
cere
The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food ...
; the feet are also pale yellow.
Immature birds differ little from adults; they have lighter margins to the back feathers, producing a scalloped effect. The light parts of the plumage are almost white, paler than in adults; the unfeathered parts are also paler. Nestlings are covered in peculiarly dense
down, reminiscent of a
duckling
Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...
's; they are generally brownish buff, darker above, and already show the blackish facial marks of the adults.
With its big white (immature) or pale buff (adult) head having a dark brown mask from the eyes around to the nape, it is unmistakable.
In flight it shows a rufous patch near each wingtip (formed by the basal parts of the primaries) and a shape more like an ''
Accipiter
''Accipiter'' is a genus of birds of prey in the family Accipitridae. With 51 recognized species it is the most diverse genus in its family. Most species are called goshawks or sparrowhawks, although almost all New World species (excepting th ...
''
hawk than most of its
falcon
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene.
Adult falcons ...
relatives, with short, rounded wings and a long tail.
Voice
The namesake call is a long series of separate, rather human-like cries, each one often rising sharply in pitch in the middle and sometimes falling sharply at the very end, changing from a "joyful" to a "sad" sound, and rendered as ''ha-ha-ha har-her-her'' or ''haww harr herrer''. The series may be introduced by faster ''hahahahahaha'' calls suggestive of maniacal laughter, particularly when the bird is startled. Sometimes two birds call together at different pitches and tempos, producing a striking off-beat effect.
The laughing falcon has another call, typically given at
dusk
Dusk occurs at the darkest stage of twilight, or at the very end of astronomical twilight after sunset and just before nightfall.''The Random House College Dictionary'', "dusk". At predusk, during early to intermediate stages of twilight, enou ...
. This two-note call is preceded by a series of ''gwa'' notes given every half-second or so. They become more emphatic and after some time change to a sequence of the ''gwa co'' call proper, with the first syllable higher in pitch than the second, but not differing in emphasis or volume. The ''gwa co'' call may be repeated 50 times or more. Sometimes, the initial calls are a ''oo oo-oo cow-cow-cow'', sometimes a descending ''gwaaaaaaa....''. On occasion, the two-syllable
call
Call or Calls may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Call, a type of betting in poker
* Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage
Music and dance
* Call (band), from Lahore, Paki ...
is not given, and instead the simple ''gwa'' is repeated as often as the full call.
The familiarity of these sounds in the American tropics is attested to by such common names as ''acauã'' (
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
), ''halcón macagua'', ''guaco'', ''halcón guaco'', and ''guaicurú'' (
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
), and ''guaycurú'' (
Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to
Ethnography
* Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia)
* Guaraní language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay
* ...
).
Distribution and habitat
It is found from both coastal slopes of
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
through
Central and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
south to the
Peruvian Amazon
Peruvian Amazonia ( es, Amazonía del Perú) is the area of the Amazon rainforest included within the country of Peru, from east of the Andes to the borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia. This region comprises 60% of the country ...
and
Bolivian
Amazon region
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
, practically all 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 ...
, and northern
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, th ...
and
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 ...
,
at altitudes up to (rarely to in
Colombia), though it is often absent from mountainous regions. It occupies varied habitats, usually including at least scattered trees; it prefers
humid regions to
arid
A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...
ones and tends to avoid closed forest.
It is generally not
migratory, though in some areas it may make seasonal movements.
Behavior
The flight is slow, with quick, shallow wingbeats interspersed with glides; the bird rarely if ever
soars. When it lands, it will jerk the tail forcefully just like a
wagtail
Wagtails are a group of passerine birds that form the genus ''Motacilla'' in the family Motacillidae. The forest wagtail belongs to the monotypic genus ''Dendronanthus'' which is closely related to ''Motacilla'' and sometimes included therein. ...
. A laughing falcon frequently and often conspicuously stays on a
perch
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...
for hours, sitting upright and observing the ground alertly, sometimes flicking its tail or nodding, or moving around a bit on its perch with slow, cautious little steps. It is generally peaceful and unlike other
falcon
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene.
Adult falcons ...
s will not harm smaller birds.
Feeding
It catches mainly
snake
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...
s, including venomous ones such as
coral snake
Coral snakes are a large group of elapid snakes that can be divided into two distinct groups, the Old World coral snakes and New World coral snakes. There are 16 species of Old World coral snakes, in three genera (''Calliophis'', '' Hemibungar ...
s, and also
lizards, and, to a lesser extent, small
rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...
s,
bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...
s
and
centipedes. The laughing falcon pounces on its
prey
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...
from flight, often with an audible thud, and then biting it just behind the head, sometimes removing the head in the process. It carries the food to a perch to eat. It may carry small snakes in its bill and swallow them tail-first; big snakes may be carried head-forward in its claws, as an
osprey
The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...
carries a fish, and then torn to pieces.
Breeding
The laughing falcon breeds in rock crevices, tree cavities, or occasionally in abandoned nests of a ''
Buteo
''Buteo'' is a genus of medium to fairly large, wide-ranging raptors with a robust body and broad wings. In the Old World, members of this genus are called "buzzards", but " hawk" is used in the New World (Etymology: ''Buteo'' is the Latin na ...
'' hawk or
caracara; in general however it does not even gather nesting material in significant quantities. It lays one or two eggs according to some sources, but according to others always just one. The eggs have heavy dark brown markings on a brown or whitish or pale buff background. The young are thought to leave the nest eight weeks after hatching. The breeding season has been given as April and May, though it may well vary across the large range of this
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
.
Culture
The Ch'ol Maya of
Chiapas, Mexico, believe that the laughing falcon can kill poisonous snakes because the birds are healers that can cure themselves if they are bitten. Tzotzil healers imitate the call of a laughing falcon in order to cure a snake bite.
[Bassie-Sweet (2015)]
Footnotes
References
*Bassie-Sweet, Karen (2015): "The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas"; University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
* Channing, Keith & Hawk Conservancy Trust (HCT) (1996).
* Cuervo, Andrés M.; Hernández-Jaramillo, Alejandro; Cortés-Herrera, José Oswaldo & Laverde, Oscar (2007): Nuevos registros de aves en la parte alta de la Serranía de las Quinchas, Magdalena medio, Colombia
ew bird records from the highlands of Serranía de las Quinchas, middle Magdalena valley, Colombia]. ''Ornitología Colombiana'' 5: 94-98 [Spanish with English abstract]
PDF fulltext* Howell, Steven N.G. & Webb, Sophie (1995): ''A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America''. Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York.
* Jiménez, Mariano II & Jiménez, Mariano G. (2003): El Zoológico Electrónico &ndash
Version of 2003-AUG-01. Retrieved 2007-FEB-22.
* Lewis, Charlton T. & Short, Charles (1879): ''căchinno. In:
A Latin Dictionary
''A Latin Dictionary'' (or ''Harpers' Latin Dictionary'', often referred to as Lewis and Short or L&S) is a popular English-language lexicographical work of the Latin language, published by Harper and Brothers of New York in 1879 and printed si ...
''. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
HTML fulltext* Stiles, F. Gary & Skutch, Alexander Frank (1989): ''A guide to the birds of Costa Rica''. Comistock, Ithaca.
* Remsen, J. V., Jr.; Cadena, C. D.; Jaramillo, A.; Nores, M.; Pacheco, J. F.; Robbins, M. B.; Schulenberg, T. S.; Stiles, F. G.; Stotz, D. F.; and Zimmer, K. J. Version (2008-12-22). A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithologists' Union
HTML fulltext* Woodhouse, S.C. (1910): English-Greek Dictionary – A Vocabulary of the Attic Language. George Routledge & Sons Ltd., Broadway House, Ludgate Hill, E.C
Searchable JPEG fulltext
External links
*
Photos, videos and observationsat
Cornell Lab of Ornithologys Birds of the World
Laughing falcon videos, photos & soundson the Internet Bird Collection
{{Taxonbar, from=Q903642
Falconidae
Birds described in 1758
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Birds of Mexico
Birds of Central America
Birds of South America