20 January 2016
This week I blogged about a caracara on a capybara but I didn’t tell you much about the bird. Why was the bird standing on the mammal? Hint: The falcon’s nickname is “tickbird.”
Yellow-headed caracaras (Milvago chimachima) are omnivorous members of the falcon family who live in south-Central and South America. They eat almost anything — carrion, frogs, fish, eggs, palm fruit, corn, horse dung — but when it comes to feeding their young they focus a lot on insects. 90% of the nestlings’ diet consists of beetles, grasshoppers and crickets.
They earned their nickname “tickbirds” because they also glean ticks off of cattle and other mammals, including capybaras. Above, a juvenile yellow-faced caracara cleans a cow. The cattle don’t mind, even when the caracaras pick at open wounds.
Yellow-headed caracaras have adapted well as the forest is converted to ranches and cities. You’d never guess from this video that their nickname is The Tickbird.
(videos from YouTube)