Crested Caracaras — At the Nest (Part II)

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Nestling Crested Caracaras grow at a pace that is so fast that they seem to enlarge and mature even as one watches them. At birth, they are tiny balls of fluff. Just a bit more than a month later and they’re ready to leave the nest. The trio of hatchlings that the nesting pair produced this year progressed into boisterous nestlings that constantly demanded to be fed and fed again.

The three youngsters depicted above are less than a month old but they already display the beige and brown plumage of juvenile Crested Caracaras. It will take them more than three years to acquire the plumage of adult birds.

Caracaras are extraordinarily devoted to their offspring. It can be very misleading to attribute human or even mammalian motivation to bird behavior but there were times when the adults seemed to display affectionate if not playful attitudes towards their offspring.

The parents spent less and less time with their offspring as they matured. The adult birds made periodic trips to the nest, on average, once or twice per hour, to deliver food to the young birds. They would linger for a couple of minutes, then quickly fly off to resume hunting. Typically, a departing adult bird would make a short hop one of the nest cactus’ arms, pose there momentarily, then take flight again. The youngsters often were still begging to be fed when a parent left.

The young Caracaras at this nest have now fledged and are beginning to learn the difficult lessons of survival in our desert. Juvenile Caracaras stay with their parents for weeks or months after they fledge. By autumn, however, they will enter into a nomadic phase of life, ranging dozens or even a hundred miles or more from their birthplace. The adult birds seem to be more territorial: it is possible, perhaps likely, that the adult pair that occupies this nest will return next year to raise a fifth family.

Images made with a Canon R5, Canon EF 400 mm DO II lens+Canon EF 1.4x telextender, supported by monopod, M setting (auto ISO). First image, f5.6 @ 1/4000, remaining images, f5.6 @ 1/3200. ISOs varied.

birds crested-caracara nature photography wildlife