Caracara plancus plancus

The Southern Crested Caracara is a versatile and opportunistic raptor found across South America, from Colombia to Tierra del Fuego. Unlike many raptors, caracaras are equally comfortable hunting from the ground or in flight, feeding on small vertebrates, carrion, and insects. In the windswept steppe and subpolar forests of Torres del Paine, caracaras are year-round residents, well adapted to the region's harsh winters and extreme weather. The subspecies C. p. plancus ranges through southern Chile and Argentina, where it hunts and scavenges across open grasslands and shrublands at the edge of the Magellanic forests.