Bat falcon

{{Speciesbox | image = OFalco rufigularis Bat Falcon.jpg | image_caption = | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name=IUCN>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2020 |title=Bat Falcon ''Falco rufigularis'' |volume=2020 |article-number=e.T22696457A140949181 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22696457A140949181.en |access-date=15 February 2023}}</ref> | genus = Falco | species = rufigularis | authority = Daudin, 1800 | synonyms = *''Falco albigularis'' Daudin, 1800 *''Falco fuscocaerulescens'' Vieillot, 1817 (modern spelling) *''Falco fusco-coerulescens'' Vieillot, 1817 (original spelling) *''Odontorhynchus rufigularis'' | range_map = Falco rufigularis map.svg }} [[File:Bat falcon (Falco rufigularis petoensis) in flight Orange Walk.jpg|thumb|''F.r. petoensis'' Orange Walk District, Belize]] The '''bat falcon''' ('''''Falco rufigularis''''') is a bird of prey in the family Falconidae, the falcons and caracaras.<ref name=IOC13.1>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/bow/falcons/ |title=Seriemas, falcons |website=IOC World Bird List |version =v 13.1 |editor-last1=Gill |editor-first1= F. |editor-last2=Donsker|editor-first2=D.|editor-last3=Rasmussen |editor-first3=P. |date=January 2023 |access-date=11 February 2023 }}</ref> It is found in Mexico, Central America, Trinidad, and every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.<ref name=AOU1998>{{cite book | last = | first = | title =Check-list of North American Birds | publisher =American Ornithologists' Union |edition =7th | date =1998 | location =Washington, D.C. | pages = }}</ref><ref name=SACCcountries>Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. 30 January 2023. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved 30 January 2023</ref>

==Taxonomy and systematics==

The bat falcon was long known as ''Falco albigularis''; the names ''Falco fusco-coerulescens'' or ''Falco fuscocaerulescens'', long used for the aplomado falcon (''F. femoralis''), are now believed to refer to the present species.<ref name=AOU1948>{{cite journal|author=American Ornithologists' Union|year=1948|title= Twenty-third supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union check-list of North American birds|journal=Auk|volume=65|issue=3|pages= 438–443|url=http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v065n03/p0438-p0443.pdf|doi=10.2307/4080493|jstor=4080493}}</ref>

The bat falcon has these three subspecies:<ref name=IOC13.1/>

*''F. r. petoensis'' Chubb, 1918 *''F. r. rufigularis'' Daudin, 1800 *''F. r. ophryophanes'' (Salvadori, 1895)

Some authors maintain that ''F. r. petoensis'' and ''F. r. ophryophanes'' are not subspecies but clinal variations in plumage. Others add a fourth subspecies ''F. r. petrophilus'' that is usually included in ''petoensis''. Yet others assign only two subspecies, the nominate ''F. r. rufigularis'' and ''F. r. petrophilus''.<ref name=BAFA-BOW>Bierregaard, R. O. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Bat Falcon (''Falco rufigularis''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.batfal1.01 retrieved 15 February 2023</ref>

The bat falcon is closely related to and looks like a small version of the orange-breasted falcon (''F. deiroleucus''), with which it has often been misidentified.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-15 |title=Orange-breasted Falcon {{!}} Neotropical Falcon |url=https://www.whitehawkbirding.com/orange-breasted-falcon/ |website=www.whitehawkbirding.com}}</ref> They share plumage and vocal characteristics and are sister species.<ref name="Fuchs">{{cite journal | last1=Fuchs | first1=Jérôme | last2=Johnson | first2=Jeff A. | last3=Mindell | first3=David P. | title=Rapid diversification of falcons (Aves: Falconidae) due to expansion of open habitats in the Late Miocene | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume=82 | date=2015 | doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2014.08.010 | pages=166–182 | url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1055790314002772 | access-date=2026-02-03| url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=SACClist>Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved 30 January 2023</ref> These two had been thought to be closely related to the aplomado falcon (''F. femoralis''),<ref>{{cite journal |last=Griffiths |first=Carole S. |date=1999 |title=Phylogeny of the Falconidae inferred from molecular and morphological data |url=https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v116n01/p0116-p0130.pdf |journal=The Auk |volume=116 |issue=1 |pages=116–130 |doi=10.2307/4089459 |jstor=4089459 |access-date=15 February 2023}}</ref> but more recent genetic evidence shows they are more closely related to the Old World hobbies than to any other New World falcon.<ref name="Fuchs"/>

==Description==

The bat falcon is {{convert|23|to|30|cm|in|sigfig=2|abbr=on}} long. Males weigh {{convert|108|to|150|g|oz|sigfig=2|abbr=on}} and have a wingspan of {{convert|51|to|58|cm|in|abbr=on}}. Females weigh {{convert|177|to|242|g|oz|sigfig=2|abbr=on}} and have a wingspan of {{convert|65|to|67|cm|in|abbr=on}}. They have long wings and a longish tail with a square tip. The sexes have similar plumage. Adults have blue-black head and upperparts with grayish edges on the feathers from the upper back to the uppertail coverts. Their throat, upper breast, and sides of the neck are white to buff, sometimes with some cinnamon; the rest of their breast is black with fine white bars. Their belly, thighs, and undertail coverts are chestnut-rufous. Their tail is blackish with thin white or grayish bars and a white or buff tip. The underside of their wings is black with fine white bars. Their cere and bare skin around the eye are bright yellow, their iris black-brown, and their legs and feet orange-yellow. Juveniles are duller and browner than adults, with a buffier throat, a tawny tinge to the breast's barring, and black bars or spots on the undertail coverts. The three subspecies are similar, differing mainly in the tone of their plumage colors.<ref name=Ferguson>{{cite book | last1 =Ferguson-Lees | first1 =James | last2 =Christie | first2 =David A. | author-link =James Ferguson-Lees | title =Raptors of the World | publisher =Houghton Mifflin | date =2001 | location =New York | pages =889–891 | language =en | isbn =0-618-12762-3 }}</ref><ref name=BAFA-BOW/>

==Distribution and habitat==

The subspecies of the bat falcon are found thus:<ref name=IOC13.1/><ref name=BAFA-BOW/>

*''F. r. petoensis'', from northern Mexico south through all of Central America and west of the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, and extreme northwestern Peru *''F. r. rufigularis'', Trinidad and from eastern Colombia east through Venezuela and the Guianas and south through eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, northern and eastern Bolivia, southern Brazil, and northern Argentina *''F. r. ophryophanes'', central Brazil and adjacent eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina

A juvenile male of subspecies ''F. r. petoensis'' wandered to Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo, Texas, in December 2021, for the only U.S. record of the species. It stayed in the area into early March.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.southernliving.com/culture/activities-and-entertainment/outdoor-recreation/animals-and-wildlife/bat-falcon-texas-santa-ana-national-wildlife-refuge|title=Bird of Prey Spotted in U.S. For the First Time, Drawing Crowds to Texas}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://ebird.org/map/batfal1?neg=true&env.minX=&env.minY=&env.maxX=&env.maxY=&zh=false&gp=false&ev=Z&excludeExX=false&excludeExAll=false&mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=all&byr=1900&eyr=2023 |title=Bat Falcon eBird species map |author= |publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology |access-date=15 February 2023 }}</ref>

''F. r. rufigularis'' is resident on Trinidad and has been recorded as a vagrant on Tobago.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm |title=Species lists of birds for South American countries and territories: Trinidad and Tobago|last=Kenefick |first=Martyn |date=22 September 2020 |publisher=South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society |access-date=15 February 2023 }}</ref>

The bat falcon inhabits tropical forest. It favors unbroken mature forest but also occurs at the forest edge, in gallery forest, on wooded savanna, on cleared land with some remaining trees, and even in suburban and urban areas. In elevation it mostly ranges from sea level to about {{convert|1700|m|ft|abbr=on}} with a single record in Bolivia at about {{convert|3250|m|ft|-2|abbr=on}}.<ref name=Ferguson/><ref name=BAFA-BOW/>

==Behavior== ===Movement===

The bat falcon is apparently mostly sedentary. However, the records in Texas, at high elevation in Bolivia, on Tobago, and on islands off the Yucatán Peninsula, Honduras, and Panama show a pattern of wandering.<ref name=BAFA-BOW/>

===Feeding===

Bat falcons perch conspicuously on high, open snags, from which they launch aerial attacks on their prey. They also hunt in sustained flight. Most hunting is around dawn or dusk and often continues well past sunset. Their diet is eclectic; they hunt bats, birds (such as swifts, swallows, hummingbirds, parakeets, tanagers and small water birds), small rodents, snakes, lizards, frogs, and large insects such as dragonflies, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, true bugs, beetles, and hymenopterans. In most areas vertebrates contribute the most to biomass consumed, varying from 66% to 96% in various studies, and birds made up between 32% and 85% of the vertebrates. Invertebrates dominate numerically, and young are fed large numbers of them. Bats generally contribute less than 14% of prey biomass but some pairs seem to specialize in them.<ref name=Ferguson/><ref name=BAFA-BOW/><ref>{{cite web|last=Pacheco |first=Mark |url=https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Falco_rufigularis/ |title=ADW: Falco rufigularis: INFORMATION |publisher=Animaldiversity.org |access-date=23 August 2022}}</ref>

===Breeding===

The bat falcon's breeding season varies geographically. It spans from February to June in Mexico and northern Central America. It nests in February on Trinidad and probably between October and February in Argentina. Eggs have been noted in March in Venezuela, in April in Guyana, and in August near Manaus, Brazil. Most nests are in tree cavities, either natural or excavated by parrots, and between {{convert|10|and|50|m|ft|round=5|abbr=on}} above the ground. Others have been noted in abandoned trogon nest cavities in arboreal termite nests, on cliffs, and on pre-Columbian ruins. The clutch size is two to four eggs. The incubation period is thought to be about 30 days, fledging occurs about 35 to 40 days after hatch, and young are dependent on the parents for at least 12 weeks after fledging. Both sexes incubate the eggs with the female doing at least 75% of the effort and in some areas all of it. Males provide food for incubating females and also most of the food for nestlings.<ref name=Ferguson/><ref name=BAFA-BOW/>

{{birdsong|url=https://xeno-canto.org/species/Falco-rufigularis |species=bat falcon}}

===Vocalization===

The bat falcon is vocal "in breeding season, especially near nest, in contacts with other raptors, and even when attacking prey." Its main call is a "rapid shrill screaming" ''kee-kee-kee..'' or ''kew-kew-kew..''; the male's is higher pitched than the female's.<ref name=Ferguson/> Other calls include "an even higher and thinner "tsee-tsee-tsee..."", a "low-intensity "chit" given in contact", and by the female, "a whining or high-pitched wailing call with a wavering quality".<ref name=Ferguson/><ref name=BAFA-BOW/>

==Status==

The IUCN has assessed the bat falcon as being of Least Concern. It has an extremely large range and an estimated population of at least a half million mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.<ref name=IUCN/> It is "[w]idespread and generally not uncommon in appropriate habitat, it being one of the most widely distributed New World falcons." But it "no longer breeds in several areas where forest extensively transformed to agriculture" and "pesticides [have] unquestionably affected breeding success" in Mexico and Central America.<ref name=BAFA-BOW/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20001026112600/http://www.bird-stamps.org/cspecies/3204500.htm Stamps]}} (for Suriname) with RangeMap *[http://vireo.acnatsci.org/search.html?Form=Search&SEARCHBY=Common&KEYWORDS=bat+falcon&showwhat=images&AGE=All&SEX=All&ACT=All&Search=Search&VIEW=All&ORIENTATION=All&RESULTS=24 Bat Falcon photo gallery] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516112009/http://vireo.acnatsci.org/search.html?Form=Search&SEARCHBY=Common&KEYWORDS=bat%20falcon&showwhat=images&AGE=All&SEX=All&ACT=All&Search=Search&VIEW=All&ORIENTATION=All&RESULTS=24 |date=2011-05-16 }} VIREO *[http://www.oiseaux.net/photos/louis.s.hegedus/faucon.des.chauves-souris.1.html Article] oiseaux

Category:Falco (genus) Category:Birds of Central America Category:Birds of Mexico Category:Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula Category:Birds of South America Category:Birds of the Amazon rainforest Category:Birds of the Guiana Shield Category:Birds described in 1800