from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun Any of several large carrion-eating or predatory birds in the family Falconidae, native to South and Central America and the southern United States.
from The Century Dictionary.
noun The popular name of the hawks of the subfamily Polyborinæ and genera Polyborus, Phalcobænus, Senex, Milvago, Ibycter, and Daptrius, all of which are confined to America.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun (Zoöl.) A south American bird of several species and genera, resembling both the eagles and the vultures. The caracaras act as scavengers, and are also called carrion buzzards.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun Any of several South American and Central Americanbirds of prey in the family Falconidae.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun any of various long-legged carrion-eating hawks of South America and Central America
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Spanish and Portuguese caracará, both from Tupí caracara.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Spanish or Portuguese, from Tupian, probably imitative.
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Examples
Sometimes seen feeding alongside vultures at carcasses is the longer-necked and larger-headed crested caracara (Polyborus plancus), a hawk with distinctive markings.
Sometimes seen feeding alongside vultures at carcasses is the longer-necked and larger-headed crested caracara (Polyborus plancus), a hawk with distinctive markings.
There seem to be, however, a few near endemics such as two geese (Chloephaga hybrida and C. rubiceps), blackish cinclodes (Cinclodes antarcticus), black throated finch (Melanodera melanodera) and striated caracara (Phalcoboenus australis).
One of these EBAs, Guadalupe Island, is the native range of the Guadalupe junco (Junco insularis, CR) and the now extinct Guadalupe caracara (Polyborus lutosus) and Guadalupe storm-petrel, the latter last recorded in 1912.
"Hawks and larks dart past tamaracks, as jackdaws and mallards flap past catalpas and land athwart a larch (sparhawks and caracaras scrawk at blackcaps and avadavats)."
chained_bear commented on the word caracara
"'I have seen a little flock of white-winged finches and a bird I took to be a mountain caracara.'"
--P. O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 210
March 16, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word caracara
"Hawks and larks dart past tamaracks, as jackdaws and mallards flap past catalpas and land athwart a larch (sparhawks and caracaras scrawk at blackcaps and avadavats)."
Eunoia by Christian Bök (upgraded edition), p 27
May 20, 2010