• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Caracara plancus was previously split as C. plancus and C. cheriway (del Hoyo and Collar 2014), following Dove and Banks (1999), who noted that cheriway has breast with “dark spots or wedge-shaped bars, heavier posteriorly” vs “dark and light bars over entire breast area” (2); pale wedge-shaped patch with broad black bars on upper back, scapulars always black vs upper back and scapulars finely barred with no wedge-shaped patch (2); barred upper back, black lower back, white uppertail-coverts and barred tail vs upper back to tail barred (2); vent area pale vs dark (ns1); narrow hybrid zone (2). However, both AOS-SACC and AOS-NACC have re-evaluated the case made by Dove and Banks (1999) for splitting the two taxa and considered that the two forms ‘share a broad number of indiscriminately mixed plumage characters in their area of overlap, a large and broad swathe of Amazonia. Furthermore, their mitochondrial DNA hardly differs despite a distance of 4300 km between the nearest samples.’ The taxon cheriway is therefore returned to a subspecies of plancus. Has often been treated as conspecific with †C. lutosa. Northern birds have sometimes been separated as subspecies audubonii (described from Florida), those of Sonora (NW Mexico) as ammophilus, and those of Tres Marías Is (off W Mexico) as pallida, but claimed differences in plumage tone appear to be due to wear and those of size to clinal variation (Dove and Banks 1999). Two subspecies recognised.

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2023. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 8. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v8_Dec23.zip.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2023	Least Concern
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	does not normally occur in forest
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	40,700,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	2500000-4999999 mature individuals	poor	inferred	2023
Population trend	stable	-	suspected	-
Generation length	10.41 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	2	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	1-89%	-	-	-

Population justification: The species is common and widespread (Stotz et al. 1996, eBird 2023). Subspecies cheriway is estimated at 2,200,000 mature individuals (Partners in Flight 2022); the total population is consequently extremely large. It is here tentatively placed in the band 2,500,000-4,999,999 mature individuals.

Trend justification: Despite local variations in the population trend, the species is overall suspected to be stable or increasing due to its preference for open areas and tolerance of converted and disturbed habitats.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Argentina	extant	native	yes
Aruba (to Netherlands)	extant	native	yes
Belize	extant	native	yes
Bolivia	extant	native	yes
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (to Netherlands)	extant	native	yes
Brazil	extant	native	yes
Chile	extant	native	yes
Colombia	extant	native	yes
Costa Rica	extant	native	yes
Cuba	extant	native	yes
Curaçao (to Netherlands)	extant	native	yes
Ecuador	extant	native	yes
El Salvador	extant	native	yes
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	extant	native	yes
French Guiana	extant	native	yes
Guatemala	extant	native	yes
Guyana	extant	native	yes
Honduras	extant	native	yes
Mexico	extant	native	yes
Nicaragua	extant	native	yes
Panama	extant	native	yes
Paraguay	extant	native	yes
Peru	extant	native	yes
Suriname	extant	native	yes
Trinidad and Tobago	extant	native	yes
Uruguay	extant	native	yes
USA	extant	native	yes
Venezuela	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Plantations	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	resident
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Seasonally Wet/Flooded	suitable	resident
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude	suitable	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 2600 m	Occasional altitudinal limits	(max) 3800 m

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Species mortality
Pollution	Agricultural & forestry effluents - Herbicides and pesticides	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Species mortality
Transportation & service corridors	Roads & railroads	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Species mortality

Purpose	Scale
Pets/display animals, horticulture	subsistence, national

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Crested Caracara Caracara plancus. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/crested-caracara-caracara-plancus on 26/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 26/12/2024.