English - Orange-breasted Falcon 

 Portuguese - Falcão-de-peito-laranja 

 Latin - Falco deiroleucus  

The Orange-breasted Falcon is a smallish raptor  whose range historically stretched from southern Mexico through to northern Argentina. 

The Orange-breasted Falcon female is nearly twice the size of her mate – a greater size difference than that of all other 39 falcon species. The face, sides of head and upper parts in the adult are black; the feathers margined with slate-colour; and the tail with four narrow, white bars. The throat is white, the breast, lower abdomen and thighs orange brown. Across the mid-ventral region there is a broad band of black; its feathers barred or tipped with buff to white. The eyes are dark brown; the cere yellowish green; the bill slate black, becoming greenish leaden towards the base on the lower mandible. The feet are bright yellow.
Immatures are similar, but the chest is paler, the lower abdomen and thighs are black barred like the mid-section with buff or white.

Orange-breasted Falcons have probably always been rare because of their specialized habitat. They nest on large cliffs near large areas of unbroken tropical forest. Little is known about the species’ density in South America other that it is rare but widely dispersed geographically. Some biologists estimate that their total population may have never been more than a few thousand individuals – and there are even fewer today.  

Like most other falcons, Orange-breasted Falcons do not build their own nests. Instead, they often make small depressions in the substrate of ledges or in crevices of cliffs or sink holes.  When the female is ready, she typically lays three relatively large reddish-brown eggs over a six-day period. More than most other birds of prey, the female does most of the incubation for about 30 days and brooding of the chicks for about two weeks. While she is busy keeping the eggs and young at just the right temperature, the male works hard to provide all of her and the nestlings’ food. Should he perish, the chicks are not likely to survive, as the female seldom leaves the nest unprotected. This is hard work for the male and after the chicks hatch, he must be diligent in finding enough for his family to eat. Several times a day, he returns to the nest site with prey – often a bird that he has prepared by removing all the feathers, wings and legs. He and the female will often exchange food in mid-air and the female will carry it back to the nest where she will delicately feed tidbits to her young. At around 40 days after hatching, the young fly for the first time. However, they stay in their parents’ territory for many months while they learn to hunt and live independently.  Orange-breasted Falcons usually reach breeding age at around 2-3 years old.

Orange-breasted Falcons are primarily bird hunters. They prey on small- to medium-sized birds, particularly doves, parakeets, and swifts. However, they also take large insects and, during dusk and pre-dawn hours, bats. They are aerial hunters, so they take all of their prey while in flight. These falcons are extremely fast flyers and though no study has been done to measure their speed, biologists who have observed these birds in fast pursuit believe they could even be faster than the Peregrine Falcon, one of the fastest animals on Earth! 

It is suspected that the total population of the Orange-breasted Falcon is undergoing ongoing declines at the rate of 25-30% over three generations, and it has therefore been uplisted to a Near Threatened species.

Photos of the Orange-breasted Falcon were taken in a location north of Vitoria ES

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