Intraguild Predation of an American Kestrel Fledgling by Crested Caracaras in Northern Patagonia, Argentina

Abstract

Reports on hunting behaviors, with details on tactics and strategies applied for prey acquisiton, are uncommon for raptor species living in Patagonia, where most diet information comes from pellet studies (Trejo and Ojeda 2002, 2015). Here we detail a successful predation event involving an adult Crested Caracara (Caracara plancus) hunting a fledgling American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) in northwestern Argentinean Patagonia. These falconid species rank among the most widely distributed diurnal raptors in the western hemisphere, where they are considered generalist open-habitat species (including urbanized land) and co-occur extensively (Smallwood and Bird 2020, Morrison and Dwyer 2021)...