Laughing Falcon

Taxobox
name = Laughing Falcon
status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1

---

image_width = 300px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Falconiformes
familia = Falconidae
genus = "Herpetotheres"
genus_authority = Vieillot 1817
species = "H. cachinnans"
binomial = "Herpetotheres cachinnans"
binomial_authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)The Laughing Falcon, "Herpetotheres cachinnans", also called the Snake Hawk, is a medium-sized bird of prey in the falcon family, the only member of the genus "Herpetotheres". It is a specialist snake-eater.

It is found from both coastal slopes of Mexico through Central and South America south to Amazonian Peru and Bolivia, practically all of Brazil, and northern Argentina, at altitudes up to 1500 m (rarely to 2400 m in Colombia). It occupies varied habitats, usually including at least scattered trees. It is generally not migratory, though in some areas it may make seasonal movements.

This species is 46 to 56 cm (18 to 22 in) long and has a wingspan of 79 to 94 cm (31 to 37 in). As usual among birds of prey, the females are bigger, weighing 600 to 800 g compared to the males' 410 to 680 g. 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. The pale color of the head continues onto the underparts. The upperparts are dark brown, and the tail is dark brown with bold pale bands.

The flight is slow, with quick, shallow wingbeats interspersed with glides; the bird seldomcite web | title = The Hawk Conservancy Trust - Laughing Falcon | year = 1996–2007 | last = Channing | first = Keith | url = http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/priors/laughingfalcon.shtml | accessdate = 2007-02-22] or nevercite book | author=Howell, Steve N. G., and Sophie Webb | title=A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1995 | id=ISBN 0-19-854012-4] soars. 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 than its falcon relatives, with short, rounded wings and a long tail.

A Laughing Falcon often stays for hours on a perch (which is frequently conspicuous). It catches snakes, including venomous ones, by pouncing on them from flight with a thud and then biting them just behind the head, sometimes removing it. It carries them to a perch to eat them. 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 carries a fish, and then torn to pieces. It supplements its diet with lizards, small rodents, and also batscite web | title = Halcón Guaicurú | last = Jiménez | first = Mariano G. | coauthors = Mariano Jiménez II | work = El Zoológico Electrónico | url = http://www.damisela.com/zoo/ave/otros/falcon/falconidae/herpetotheres/cachinnans/index.htm | accessdate = 2007-02-22] and centipedes.

Its English name comes from its loud voice (as does the Latin epithet "cachinnans", laughing aloud or immoderately ^{[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%235947]} ). The most common 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. The series may be introduced by faster calls suggesting maniacal laughter. Sometimes two birds call together at different pitches and tempos. The familiarity of these sounds in the American tropics is attested to by such common names as "Acauã" (Portuguese); "Halcón Guaco", "Halcón Macagua", and "Guaicurú" (Spanish); and "Guaycurú" (Guaraní).

The Laughing Falcon nests in rock crevices, tree cavities, or occasionally in abandoned nests of other raptors. It lays one or two eggs according to some sources or always just one according to another;cite book | last=Stiles | first = Gary | coauthors = Alexander Skutch| title=A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica | publisher=Cornell University Press | year=1989 | id=ISBN 0-8014-9600-4] the eggs have heavy dark brown markings on a brown or whitish or pale buff background. The young are thought to leave the nest at eight weeks.

Its relationships with other members of the Falconidae are unclear. Traditionally it has been placed in a subfamily with the caracaras and forest falcons, but the American Ornithologists' Union now places it in the same subfamily as the true falcons, and it has also been considered a subfamily of its own.

References

* Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

External links

* [http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/priors/laughingfalcon.shtml Page on the Laughing Falcon from the Hawk Conservancy] accessed March 18, 2005
* [http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/spec/spec32-11.html Ditto from Mangoverde with photographs and sound recordings] accessed March 17, 2005
* [http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/especie.phtml?idEspecie=816 Laughing Falcon videos on the Internet Bird Collection] accessed October 18, 2005