Fledermausfalke

Bestimmung

The bat falcon is 23 to 30 cm (9.1 to 12 in) long. Males weigh 108 to 150 g (3.8 to 5.3 oz) and have a wingspan of 51 to 58 cm (20 to 23 in). Females weigh 177 to 242 g (6.2 to 8.5 oz) and have a wingspan of 65 to 67 cm (26 to 26 in). 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.

Taxonomie

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.<p>The bat falcon has these three subspecies:<p>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.<p>The bat falcon and the orange-breasted falcon (F. deiroleucus) share plumage and vocal characteristics and may be sister species. Those two appear to be closely related to the aplomado falcon (F. femoralis).

Wissenschaftlicher Name

Falco rufigularis

Autorität

Daudin, 1800

Ordnung

Falconiformes

Familie

Falconidae

Gattung

Falco

Verbreitung und Lebensraum

The subspecies of the bat falcon are found thus:<p>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.<p>F. r. rufigularis is resident on Trinidad and has been recorded as a vagrant on Tobago.<p>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 1,700 m (5,600 ft) with a single record in Bolivia at about 3,250 m (10,700 ft).

Zugverhalten

Standvogel

Verhalten

Zugverhalten: Standvogel.

Schutzstatus

Bestandstrend: rückläufig.

Bestandstrend

rückläufig