Inactive Account Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia |
Sorry, but you missed my point, Mexico's National Bird is not a Vulture:
Mexico Site
Les Shulman
BellaOnline's Mexico Editor
What is Mexico's National Bird?
What is the national bird of Mexico? The question initially appears to be quite straightforward but the answer turns out to be not so clear. While many sources definitively maintain that the golden eagle is Mexico’s national bird, others state with just as much certainty that it is the crested caracara, and at least one other claims that both of those raptors deserve that designation. Pretty confusing, isn’t it?
It seems that the confusion has to do with the image that is on Mexico’s emblem/coat-of-arms and its flag, created in 1821, which symbolizes the nation’s Aztec heritage; the one that depicts a bird perched on a nopal/prickly pear cactus devouring a serpent while grasping it with one of its claws. Most sources (though not all!) contend that on the current flag, which has in its history been revised four times, the last revision occurring in 1968, the bird depicted is a golden eagle. However, many believe that the flag in its original form represented none other than the crested caracara. Given the nature and characteristics of the crested caracara, oftentimes referred to as the Mexican eagle or as the Northern caracara, such confusion is not that surprising because that anomalous bird is one confusing sentient being.
Was I ever confused the first time that I saw that bird! While birding in San Blas, Nayarit, in a nearby field, I saw about fifteen black vultures and turkey vultures feeding on some carrion. About 30 feet from those scavenger birds, I had a very “good look” at another bird doing the same; yet, although I was a novice birder, I definitely could tell that this bird was not a vulture or buzzard. Although I was certain that it was not any scavenger that I was familiar with, I had absolutely no idea what type of bird it was. So, I made a notation in my bird notepad to research what species was that “confidant and regal-looking bird with an eccentric flattop hairstyle.” After already mind-bogglingly seeing over 200 species of birds in that famous “birders paradise” in only four days, confusion was becoming pretty normal for me, anyways.
Eventually, I determined that it was a crested caracara, a bird that is truly confusingly unique. You see, although the caracara, based on it internal structural characteristics, is classified as being a member of the falcon family, its external appearance is more like that of an eagle while its behaviors are very often similar to those of vultures. Physically, it is a medium-sized falcon, about 22 inches long with a 4 foot wingspan, weighing 1.8-2.8 pounds, and is mostly black with a highly distinctive flat black crest, an unfeathered red face, bluish eagle-like hooked beak, grey throat and neck, white base of tail,and long legs that are bare from the knees down. Certainly, not falcon-like in appearance at all!
As for its behaviors, this caracara bears little resemblance to those of any other falcons. While falcons are known to be airborne often, soaring high and then suddenly and swiftly diving to attack their live prey, the caracara is primarily terrestrial, hardly ever flies high or for long periods of time, and quite often, as it is extremely agile afoot, runs down its prey in fields or shallow wetlands. Known to eat pretty much anything manageable it comes upon, living or dead, its diet is quite dissimilar than that of the typical non-scavanging falcon. With a range from the southern parts of Texas, Arizona, and Florida (rarely in southwestern Louisiana), throughout most of Mexico, through Central America and South America down to Tierra Del Fuego, little wonder then that this largely ground dwelling falcon has been called “a tropical falcon version of a vulture.” Moreover, they are the only member of the falcon family that builds nests rather than laying its eggs in holes in the ground or in rock crevices.
Getting back to the now not so simple, confusing question of what is the national bird of Mexico, both the crested caracara and the golden eagle, one of the largest raptors in North America, had an important place in the mythology, folklore, symbolism, and imagery of the Mayans and Aztecs. Highly esteemed by these indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica, their plumage was used for capes and headdresses for royalty and their claws for royal jewelry. Both species, either rightfully or wrongfully, have been construed as being the bird that was originally on the nation’s emblem/coat-of-arms and flag.
Consequently, perhaps both birds deserve to have equal billing as Mexico’s national bird. After all, aren’t the exceedingly idiosyncratic crested caracaras commonly referred to as the “Mexican eagle” and never as the “Mexican vulture!” A vulture as a national symbol, probably not, but a doing-its-own-thing falcon look-alike eagle, why not?
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