Aplomado Falcon

Halcón Aplomado

Falco femoralis

Length: 375mm (male), 430mm (female). Sexes alike. Bill yellow in upper part and cere, remainder bluish grey with black apex; eyelids yellow; iris very dark brown; upper part of forehead whitish, rest of forehead and crown lead grey; eyebrow reddish buff, extending from central upper part of supraocular region to nape, covering it on both sides; centre of occipital zone dark brown; blackish moustachial stripe; postocular band dark brown; cheeks buff stained with cinnamon; chin and throat white. Upper hind neck dark brown; remainder of hind neck, back, scapulars and rump plumbeous grey; greater scapulars show whitish terminal band; rest of scapulars and back feathers fringed with smudged whitish grey; uppertail coverts grey with white margin and white terminal band; rectrices dark grey with whitish buff terminal band and eight narrow whitish grey bands; underside of rectrices dark grey with white transversal bands. Breast buff with black striation; flanks blackish with fine undulating whitish barring; upper abdomen crossed by a blackish band with whitish barring and mixed with cinnamon reddish feathers; rest of abdomen, thighs and undertail coverts cinnamon reddish. Wing coverts plumbeous grey with faint whitish margins; bend of wing buffy; secondaries plumbeous grey with narrow white terminal band; primaries dark grey with fine white margin on outer vexillum and white apex; lesser underwing coverts buff; median and greater coverts white with broad dark grey barring; axillaries dark grey with thin white bands; ventrally secondaries and primaries are grey with alternating white bands well differentiated in the primaries and less marked in secondaries. Legs yellow. Juvenile plumage as adult, but cap, back, scapulars and wings are brownish grey with ochraceous margins; rectrices are brownish grey with ochraceous barring; eyebrow and cheeks pale ochraceous, breast ochraceous with broad dark brown streaking; flanks dark brown; abdomen, thighs and undertail coverts pale ochraceous. Bill is slate grey with blackish tip; cere and eyelids greenish; legs likewise.

Habitat and behaviour: unmistakably identifiable by coloration and intermediate size between the Peregrine Falcon and the American Kestrel, the Aplomado Falcon is fairly common; adults are usually found in pairs, whereas immature are solitary during their first fledgling years. Found in all types of open areas, it perches on telephone or fence posts, logs, branches, and exposed places. Adults tend to perch close to each other and team up to hunt; flight is speedy at low to medium altitude. Preys on birds, small mammals and insects striking both from air and on the ground. Nests are built in trees or shrubs; uses intertwined twigs to build a platform lined with grasses where females lay up to three ochraceous eggs heavily mottled chestnut brown. Range: broadly distributed in America, it ranges from the south of the United States to the southern tip of Argentina. In Argentina the race Falco femoralis femoralis is found. Individuals that occur in Patagonia are somewhat different in coloration than those in the north, although the only race different from the typical one (Falco femoralis pichinchæ) is found exclusively in small valleys and high plains in the hills of the northwest in Jujuy, Salta and Tucumán; it also occurs in Chile, Bolivia and Peru.