FAMILY FALCON ID AE 267 



Many museum specimens have the sex wrongly marked, so that the 

 differences in size that exist between male and female are obscured. 



Resident. Not common, in forested areas of the tropical zone; 

 found less often to 1600 meters in subtropical woodlands in Chiriqui 

 (Quiel, Finca Lerida). Not recorded to date, though probably present, 

 in Code, Los Santos, and Colon. 



This is a hunting falcon of the forests, where it lives under cover and 

 is little seen. My main observations of it have been when calling to 

 attract small birds, as occasionally a forest-falcon has come swiftly 

 through the undergrowth to alight near at hand. Their savage hunt- 

 ing spirit was illustrated especially by one on the Rio Tuira that was 

 carrying a bird and that flew ahead of me several times, until finally 

 I lost it in dense undergrowth. A short time later as I called to attract 

 hummingbirds the hawk came dashing in to perch a few feet distant 

 where a charge of shot soon put it in my hand. I was interested to 

 find the crop crammed with bits of bird flesh to the amount of a good- 

 sized cupful, but still it had come precipitately at the prospect of an- 

 other kill. 



The principal food appears to be lizards and birds. The hawk 

 seems usually to tear off the flesh, as I have found only flesh and 

 internal organs without bones or feathers in the crop and stomach of 

 the dozen or so that I have handled in the field. Once, at La Jagua, 

 in late afternoon, one rested for some time on a stub at the border 

 of forest, my only observation of this falcon in the open. A pair of 

 Wagler's woodpeckers that had a nest hole on the underside of a 

 slanting limb lower down were much excited but took care to remain on 

 perches where, though near, they were safe. Occasionally I have seen 

 one of these hawks in swift pursuit of small parrots or other birds 

 in the forest, or engaged in hunting faisanas (chachalacas) through 

 the tree tops in early morning. The latter bird is recognized as a 

 favored quarry throughout the range of the falcon, an indication of 

 its fierce strength, as such prey is as large and heavy as the hawk 

 itself. On one occasion in northern Herrera while stalking faisanas 

 that were moving rapidly through the branches I made right and 

 left kills with a double-barreled gun, to find that one bird was a 

 chachalaca and the other a forest- falcon that also was hunting the 

 other species. 



Van Rossem (Dickey and van Rossem, Birds El Salvador, 1938, 

 pp. 133-134) describes the voice as a series of loud calls, hah hah hah, 

 uttered deliberately, in tone like the laughing falcon but without the 

 change to rapid tempo common with that species. I have heard this 

 in Panama, but have not actually seen the bird calling. 



