Mark Calhoun was at the Ontario Field Ornithologists Convention in Temiskaming Shores, Ont., when he heard about the crested caracara. It was online chatter. Friends posting about it on Facebook, birders discussing it on discords. Somehow, a tropical falcon had wandered over 2,000 kilometres north of its natural habitat and was hanging around the community of Foleyet, a three-and-a-half-hour drive northwest of Calhoun’s location.
A nature guide and life-long birder based out of Parry Sound, Ont., Calhoun decided the drive was worth catching a glimpse. He packed his bags and left Temiskaming Shores on the morning of Sunday, September 21, before the sun had risen. He arrived in Foleyet by dawn.
To track the crested caracara, he followed tips other birders had left online. His first stop was the community’s railroad tracks. “Apparently, that’s where it’s been hanging out since July,” he says. He scanned the sky, the trees, the ground, but no crested caracara. So, he moved on to the second recommendation: the local schoolyard, where birders have spotted the crested caracara hunting in the grass in the mornings. When Calhoun arrived, it was just he and another birder. Small numbers compared to the 20-plus birders who’d made the trek to Foleyet the weekend before.
“One of them was an older couple who came from London, Ont., which is like a 10-hour drive one way,” he says.
Calhoun stood by the schoolyard looking for signs of the crested caracara. The process of spotting a bird depends on the type of bird, he explains. With a crested caracara, he knew it was a bird of prey that liked to hunt crickets on the ground. He also knew that crows mob other birds of prey. “As soon as I heard the mobbing crows,” he says, “I knew that I was on to something.”
Calhoun spotted the crested caracara within five minutes of arriving at the schoolyard. The crested caracara itself isn’t a rare bird. It’s common in its natural habitat of South and Central America, drifting as far north as Florida and Texas. In fact, the crested caracara is sometimes referred to as the “Mexican eagle,” despite being a species of falcon. What’s rare is to spot this bird in Northern Ontario.
The crested caracara is a large, tropical black-and-white falcon that forages for food on the ground, often eating carrion. Researchers have observed that the skin around the crested caracara’s beak changes colour from yellow to red depending on its moods. Although, it’s still unclear what each colour indicates. Typically, these birds stick close to their natural habitat.
“Nobody really understands how migration works,” says Calhoun. “We have some theories, but sometimes birds just get lost, or they get blown off track by a storm.”
For example, a spotted redshank, a bird only found in Europe, Africa, and Asia, was spotted in Cambridge, Ont., this spring. And in April, birders recorded a crested caracara in Essex County, Ont. It’s unclear whether this is the same crested caracara now in Foleyet.
For Calhoun, seeing the crested caracara was well worth the drive. “It’s hard to describe,” he says. “Often, when we go looking for these rare birds, you can wait hour after hour—sometimes in inclement weather—and there’s no guarantee. But I found it right away, so there was this great sense of accomplishment and a sense of awe.”
The crested caracara has stuck around Foleyet for several months now, but Calhoun isn’t optimistic about its chances over the winter. “It eats crickets and things like that, so once you get three feet of snow, it will either have to move or it’ll die,” he says. “Either its instinct will be to head back home—although, it’s not really a migratory bird—or it’ll succumb to the weather.”
Related Story This racing pigeon got lost in Spain and was found in…Nova Scotia?
Related Story Is it okay to feed wildlife? Here’s when to jump in and when to step back
Related Story If cormorants aren’t actually bad for the ecosystem, can we bear to let them exist?