Bat falcon

Bat falcon
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Falconiformes
Family:	Falconidae
Genus:	Falco
Species:	F. rufigularis
Binomial name
	Falco rufigularis; Daudin, 1800
Synonyms
	Falco albigularis; Daudin, 1800; Falco fuscocaerulescens; Vieillot, 1817 (modern spelling); Falco fusco-coerulescens; Vieillot, 1817 (original spelling);

The bat falcon (Falco rufigularis) is a falcon that is a resident breeder in tropical Mexico, Central and South America and Trinidad. It was long known as Falco albigularis; the name Falco fusco-coerulescens or Falco fuscocaerulescens, long used for the aplomado falcon, are now believed to refer to the present species.^[2]

The female bat falcon, at 30.5 cm length, is much larger than the 23 cm long male. Adults have a black back, head and tail. The throat, upper breast and neck sides are creamy white, the lower breast and belly are black, finely barred white, and the thighs and lower belly are orange. Young birds are similar but with a buffy throat. The call of this species is a high pitched ke-ke-ke like American kestrel.

It is probably closely related to and looks like a small version of the orange-breasted falcon. These two, in turn, are probably closest to the aplomado falcon and constitute a rather old American lineage of Falcos.^[3]

This small dark bird of prey inhabits open woodlands and forest clearings. Bat falcons perch conspicuously on high open snags, from which they launch aerial attacks on their prey. They hunt bats, birds and large insects such as dragonflies. The smaller male takes more insects, and the female more birds and bats. The flight is direct and powerful. This falcon is partly crepuscular, as the bats in its diet suggest. It lays 2–3 brown eggs in an unlined tree hole nest.

Notes

^ Template:IUCN
^ American Ornithologists' Union (1948). "Twenty-third supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union check-list of North American birds" (PDF). Auk. 65 (3): 438–443. doi:10.2307/4080493.
^ Probably diverging from their relatives some 8-5 million years ago, during the Late Miocene. See Birregard (1994), Helbig et al. (1994), Wink et al. (1998), Griffiths (1999), Groombridge et al. (2002), Griffiths et al. (2004)

References

Beebe, C. William (1950): The home life of the bat falcon, Falco albigularis Daudin. Zoologica (New York) 35(4): 69–86.
Birregard, Richard O. (1994): 45. Bat Falcon. In: del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (editors): Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 2 (New World Vultures to Guineafowl): 267–268, plate 27. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-15-6
ffrench, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton & Eckelberry, Don R. (1991): A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y.. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2
Hilty, Steven L. (2003): Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
Helbig, A.J.; Seibold, I.; Bednarek, W.; Brüning, H.; Gaucher, P.; Ristow, D.; Scharlau, W.; Schmidl, D. & Wink, Michael (1994): Phylogenetic relationships among falcon species (genus Falco) according to DNA sequence variation of the cytochrome b gene. In: Meyburg, B.-U. & Chancellor, R.D. (editors): Raptor conservation today: 593–599. PDF fulltext
Griffiths, Carole S. (1999): Phylogeny of the Falconidae inferred from molecular and morphological data. Auk 116(1): 116–130. PDF fulltext
Griffiths, Carole S.; Barrowclough, George F.; Groth, Jeff G.; Mertz, Lisa (2004). "Phylogeny of the Falconidae (Aves): a comparison of the efficacy of morphological, mitochondrial, and nuclear data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 32 (1): 101–9. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.11.019. PMID 15186800. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
Groombridge, Jim J.; Jones, Carl G.; Bayes, Michelle K.; van Zyl, Anthony J.; Carrillo, José; Nichols, Richard A.; Bruford, Michael W. (2002). "A molecular phylogeny of African kestrels with reference to divergence across the Indian Ocean". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 25 (2): 267–77. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(02)00254-3. PMID 12414309. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
Wink, Michael; Seibold, I.; Lotfikhah, F. & Bednarek, W. (1998): Molecular systematics of holarctic raptors (Order Falconiformes). In: Chancellor, R.D., Meyburg, B.-U. & Ferrero, J.J. (editors): Holarctic Birds of Prey: 29–48. Adenex & WWGBP. PDF fulltext

External links

Bat Falcon videos on the Internet Bird Collection
Stamps (for Suriname) with RangeMap
Bat Falcon photo gallery VIREO Photo-High Res
Photo-Medium Res; Article oiseaux

[1] Template:IUCN

[AOU1948-2] American Ornithologists' Union (1948). "Twenty-third supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union check-list of North American birds" (PDF). Auk. 65 (3): 438–443. doi:10.2307/4080493.

[3] Probably diverging from their relatives some 8-5 million years ago, during the Late Miocene. See Birregard (1994), Helbig et al. (1994), Wink et al. (1998), Griffiths (1999), Groombridge et al. (2002), Griffiths et al. (2004)

[1]

[2]

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