First nesting of Northern Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway in Belize, Central America

摘要

Northern Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway is common throughout most of its range from the extreme southern USA to northern South America, but is rare or absent in much of Guatemala, southern Mexico and Belize (Howell & Webb 1995, Morrison 1996, Ferguson-Lees & Christie 2001). There is one record from Peten, Guatemala, and a few from south-east Guatemala (Eisermann & Avendano 2007) but none in Quintana Roo, Mexico, in the southernmost Yucatan Peninsula, although there are four records in the state of Yucatan within 15 km of the Quintana Roo border (Chable-Santos et al. 2007; B. MacKinnon pers. comm.). In Belize, there have been nine confirmed records in four districts (Orange Walk, Belize, Cayo and Toledo) but no breeding records (Jones et al. 2002, Jones 2005). The nearest known breeding is in the north-west Yucatan Peninsula and the Pacific lowlands of Guatemala, which are both >400 km away (Howell & Webb 1995). Here we present the first nesting record of Northern Crested Caracara in Belize (Jones & Komar 2009).