Barred Forest Falcon - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Lcverissimo
Londrina, PR, Brazil, July 2015

Micrastur ruficollis

Identification

31–39 cm (12¼-15¼ in). Small with usual Micrastur shape

• Yellow Cere, lore, and orbital area
• Yellow legs
• Yellowish-ochre to brown eyes
  

Occurs in rufous and gray morphs, but one or the other is lacking in some subspecies.
Immature: dark brown above, buffy white below with widely spaced narrow black bars (sometimes very inconspicious and essentially restricted to a few marks on the flanks), usually with whitish nuchal collar.

Distribution

To 2500m. Southern Mexico south to western Ecuador, northwest Argentina, and southern Brazil.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Juvenile
Photo by Robert_Scanlon
Panama, January 2004

There are 6 subspecies^[1]:

• M. r. guerilla:

• Humid forests of southern Mexico to Nicaragua

• M. r. interstes:

• Costa Rica and Panama to western Colombia and western Ecuador

• M. r. zonothorax:

• Eastern Andean foothills of Colombia and Venezuela to Bolivia

• M. r. concentricus:

• Southern Venezuela to the Guianas and Amazonian Brazil

• M. r. ruficollis:

• Southern Brazil to Paraguay and northern Argentina

• M. r. olrogi:

• Subtropical forests of north-western Argentina

An additional subspecies pelzelni, is not recognised by all authorities^[2]

Habitat

Humid and wet tropical forests in central America high maturer forests further south and in Amazonia..

Behaviour

Diet

The diet consists primarily of lizards, with birds such as Brown Tinamou and Plumbeous Pigeon also taken.

Breeding

They nest in tree cavities and 2-3 white eggs are laid. They are incubated for 33-35 days, and the young fledge 35-44 days later.

Vocalisation

The call consists of one or more barking sounds, keyak.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved February 2017)
3. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Barred Forest Falcon. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 2 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Barred_Forest_Falcon

External Links

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