"Their Facial Skin Can Change Colors In Seconds"

The distinctive Crested Caracara “combines the raptorial instincts of the eagle with the base carrion-feeding habits of the vulture”. Called ignoble, miserable, and aggressive, yet also dashing, stately, and noble, this medium-sized raptor, with its bold black-and-white plumage and bright yellow-orange face and legs, is easily recognizable as it perches conspicuously on a high point in the landscape. In flight it can be distinguished by its regular, powerful wing-beats as it cruises low across the ground or just above the treetops. Known locally in some areas as the “Mexican buzzard”, the Crested Caracara is an opportunist and is commonly seen walking about open fields, pastures, and road edges, feeding on a variety of invertebrate and vertebrate prey, as well as on carrion, often in the company of other avian scavengers. The name “caracara” is said to be of Guarani Indian origin, traro-traro, derived from the unusual rattling vocalization that the bird utters when agitated.

 

While the Crested Caracara ranges from northern Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, in the United States it occurs only along the southern border, primarily in Texas and Arizona and occasionally in coastal areas of other Gulf states, and in Florida, where there is an isolated population in the south-central peninsula.

 

I found this one along Canoe Creek Road in Osceola County, Florida.

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