SPECIES

Orange-breasted Falcon Falco deiroleucus Scientific name definitions

Robert Berry, Christopher L. Wood, and Brian L. Sullivan
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated September 1, 2009

Behavior

Introduction

Perches high in a dead tree or cliff, then dives on birds or bats from above or chases birds on the horizon, accelerating in long direct or climbing pursuit, often punctuated by a short stoop from above. Also hunts by stooping from tremendous heights, as Peregrine Falcons do, clutching or striking a disabling blow to its victim, then scooping it up in its net-like feet before the quarry disappears into the canopy below. It also uses a stealth strategy for capturing migrating songbirds, shorebirds, and bats, by silhouetting them against the sky at dusk and dawn. Orange-breasted Falcon is unusual in hunting primarily above the canopy (23).

Spacing

Little information. Territories are occupied year-round (23). Adults are highly associated with the home eyrie throughout the year. There is no information on the dispersal of wild young but presumably it parallels that of hacked immatures, with dispersal and independence between mid-September and mid-November. No information on range at dispersal except that one hacked youngster moved 60 km from Belize into Guatemala, after which time the transmitter attached to be bird failed, and so no further information could be obtained. Hacked youngsters have mated with wild females at and 6 km from the hack site, and we have recorded several more captive-bred hacked birds that returned to the hack site the following year.

Sexual Behavior

Orange-breasted Falcon is monogamous.

Social and Interspecific Behavior

Orange-breasted Falcon is solitary or in pairs.

Predation

Most information comes from Belize. At this site, Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle (Spizaetus melanoleucus) is a major predator of released, captive bred falcons, and also has been documented to prey on wild bred birds (23, 24). Stygian Owl (Asio stygius) is another bird predator that occurs with Orange-breasted Falcon (23). Note that both of these species are rare or absent in the Guatemalan range of Orange-breasted Falcon. Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) occurs throughout the range of the falcon, but depredation by the vulture is subtle. These vultures have occupied nesting ledges previously used by Orange-breasted Falcons, in one case taking over a site just after large fledgling falcons disappeared (23). Furthermore, the highest breeding success in Guatemala comes from nests that are protected (naturally or through the aid of wire exclosure) from Black Vultures (23).

Africanized bees also occur on many cliff sites where Orange-breasted Falcons breed; direct effects on the falcon have not been documented, but the bees are known to affect large cavity-nesting birds in the region, such as Scarlet Macaws (Ara macao) (23).

Recommended Citation

Berry, R., C. L. Wood, and B. L. Sullivan (2020). Orange-breasted Falcon (Falco deiroleucus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.orbfal1.01