Abstract

Populations of Red-throated Caracaras ( Ibycter americanus ) have been extirpated or are in serious decline throughout Middle America. We describe the first nest outside South America and provide only the third nest description for the species. We observed four adults and one immature Red-throated Caracara provide cooperative care to a single nestling at a nest in a region dominated by pine-oak forest in departamento (dpto.) de Olancho, Honduras. The nest was a bowl-shaped structure of branches and pine needles located at the mid-canopy level of a pine tree ( Pinus oocarpa ), and is the first nest described in an ecosystem other than humid broadleaf forest. We report the first observation of adult Red-throated Caracaras using a nest as a short-term food cache, as well as the first observation of Red-throated Caracara taking fledgling birds as prey. Although Red-throated Caracaras are considered a resident of humid broadleaf forest, we suggest that pine-oak forests may be an important habitat for the species in the northern portion of its range.