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Aplomado Falcon | Falco femoralis
Aplomadovalk | Halcón aplomado
The Aplomado Falcon is a slim, long-tailed falcon of open grassland and savanna in Central and South America. It does not breed in the region, but on Trinidad it is seen fairly regularly outside the breeding season, mainly in the wet savannas and rice fields of the lowlands. Elsewhere there are only a few records.
Voice
Usually silent outside the breeding season; when alarmed a rapid series kee-kee-kee.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
30–40 cm, with long wings and a long tail. The upperparts are dark slate grey. A white to buff supercilium runs from above the eye to the nape, and a narrow black moustache separates the white cheek from a black stripe behind the eye. Throat and upper breast are white or buff, below which a broad blackish belly band almost meets in the middle. Belly, thighs and undertail coverts are cinnamon. The tail is black with narrow white bars and a white tip; in flight a white trailing edge to the wing shows. Juveniles are brownish black above with a streaked, buffy breast.
Confusion species
Bat Falcon Falco rufigularis is smaller and more compact, with a shorter tail, an all-dark head without a supercilium and a rufous rather than cinnamon belly. Merlin Falco columbarius has a shorter tail and streaked underparts without a belly band. Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus is heavier, with a shorter tail, a broad moustache and barred underparts.
Habitat
Open, flat country: wet and dry savanna, grassland, rice fields, waste ground and airfields. It hunts from a post, wire or low tree, or in fast, low pursuit, for small and medium-sized birds, bats and large insects; pairs sometimes hunt together. It also follows fires and mowers to catch flushed prey.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
On Trinidad a rare but regular visitor to the open lowlands, mainly around the rice fields and savannas in the north-west of the central lowlands and at the marshes of the east coast; most records fall between August and January. Elsewhere a vagrant, with records from Puerto Rico, Curaçao, Aruba and Grenada among others. Outside the region from northern Mexico through Central America to Tierra del Fuego, with a reintroduced population in Texas.
How and when to look
Best on Trinidad in late summer and autumn, by scanning posts and low trees around the Caroni rice fields and the open ground near Piarco. A slim falcon with a long, narrowly barred tail and a cinnamon belly is almost certainly an Aplomado.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Widespread in South America; in the north of its range the species has declined sharply through the loss of grassland and through pesticides.
Scientific name
Falco femoralis | Temminck, 1822
Temminck described the species in 1822 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Falco was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Falco is Late Latin for 'falcon', from falx, falcis 'sickle', after the sickle-shaped claws of the bird. femoralis is Latin, from femur 'thigh': 'of the thighs', after the rufous thighs and lower belly. The specimen the first description was based on came from Brazil.