Herpetotheres cachinnans

Geographic Range

Laughing falcons are found in the neotropical region. They are most common in Central America and tropical South America.

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical neotropical
  • native native

Habitat

Laughing falcon habitat includes open parts of tall forests as well as deforested country with scattered trees. Laughing falcons can also be found around forest clearings and edges. They can be found from sea level to elevations of 2500 m.

• Habitat Regions
• tropical tropical
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest forest
• rainforest rainforest

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural agricultural

Physical Description

Herpetotheres cachinnans typically has a large creamy yellow or whitish head with black coloring around its large owl-sized eyes creating what looks like a mask. It has a thick yellow bill. Its wings are short and only reach to the base of its tail. The cream colored tail is striped with black. Adults weigh between 400 and 800 g, are 40 to 47 cm in length and have wingspans of 25 to 31 cm. There is little size difference between the sexes, however, the female has a slightly longer tail and is slightly heavier.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic endothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

Reproduction

There is little information about mating systems for laughing falcons. Most falcons (family Falconidae ) are monogamous and they usually nest as solitary pairs. Laughing falcons use vocal performances to attract mates. Often pairs will sing in duets for minutes at a time near dusk and dawn.

The breeding season for laughing falcons varies with latitude. They usually lay one to two eggs per clutch. No information was available about the time to hatching for laughing falcons, however, for falcons in general hatching occurs after 45 to 50 days and the chicks fledge in about 57 days.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous iteroparous
• seasonal breeding seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual sexual
• fertilization fertilization
• oviparous oviparous

The parents share the incubation duties, although toward the time of hatching the female is reluctant to move from the nest. After the egg has hatched (45 to 50 days) the male assumes the role of hunter and the female tends to the young. It is extremely rare for a male laughing falcon to feed the young. No information was available regarding when parents stop feeding the young. However, in general, birds of prey decrease feeding slowly over time until the young are forced to fly from the nest and find food.

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• altricial altricial
• pre-hatching/birth
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female

Lifespan/Longevity

There was no information available regarding the lifespan of laughing falcons in the wild. The longest recorded lifespan in captivty is 14 years.

Behavior

Laughing falcons are generally solitary birds except during mating. They are crepuscular (active at dusk and dawn) and defend territories. Their most distinguishable behavior is the "laughing" call. They call in duets with the opposite sex for several minutes producing loud sounds that resemble laughter.

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• glides
• crepuscular crepuscular
• motile motile
• territorial territorial

Home Range

We do not have information on home range for this species at this time.

Communication and Perception

Laughing falcons communicate with a "laughing" call. They call in duets with the opposite sex for several minutes producing loud sounds that resemble laughter.

• Communication Channels
• acoustic acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

The primary diet of laughing falcons consists of small snakes. The birds hunt from an open perch and then pounce on the snake. It is possible hear a thud as the bird kills its prey. Laughing falcons grip the snake behind the head, sometimes breaking it off. They have been known to occasionally eat lizards, bats, rodents and fish.

• Primary Diet
• carnivore carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates

• Animal Foods
• mammals
• reptiles
• fish

Predation

We do not have information on predation for this species at this time.

Ecosystem Roles

Because of their feeding habits, laughing falcons have an impact on the populations of the prey they eat.

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

There is a rare practice called falconry in which a bird is trained to seek and kill prey for humans. Although there is no information stating that this particular species of falcon is used in falconry, it is a possibility that they were used in the past.

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade pet trade

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

The negative impact that laughing falcons have on humans has been greatly exaggerated. Many farmers dislike birds of prey in general because they claim that the birds kill their livestock. For this reason they have been persecuted for years, sometimes to the point of extinction.

Conservation Status

Laughing falcons are listed as Appendix II by CITES.

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Alaine Camfield (editor), Animal Diversity Web.

Anna Bobinsky (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (editor), Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

References

Brown, L., D. Amadon. 1968. Eagles, Hawks, and Falcons of the World . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Ferguson-Lees, J., D. Christie. 2001. Raptors of the World . London: Christopher Helm.

Skutch, F. 1999. Trogons, Laughing Falcons and other Neotropical Birds . College Station, Texas: Texas A & M University Press.

del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, J. Sargatal. 1994. Handbook of Birds of the World . Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.