Yellow-headed Caracara

About the Yellow-headed Caracara

A buffy-headed tropical falcon of Central and South American ranchland, far more scavenger than hunter - it walks the ground for insects and carrion and famously rides on cattle and capybaras, picking off ticks. Yellow-headed Caracaras are expanding northward with deforestation and ranching, but the species remains an extreme rarity in the United States, with only a handful of accepted Texas records. The bird photographed here was part of that tiny group of Texas occurrences, a remarkable find for the state and a hint of the species' slow push north.