caracara

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several large, carrion-eating or predatory hawks of the subfamily Caracarinae, native to South and Central America and the southern United States.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The popular name of the hawks of the subfamily Polyborinæ and genera Polyborus, Phalcobænus, Senex, Milvago, Ibycter, and Daptrius, all of which are confined to America. The name is specially applicable to the species of Polyborus, of which there are several, as P. cherivay, P. auduboni, and P. lutosus, of the southern United States and warmer parts of America. These are large, vulture-like hawks, of terrestrial, ambulatory, not saltatory, habits, preying chiefly upon carrion. The head and neck are extensively denuded; the legs and wings are comparatively long; the beak is toothless, with the cere ending vertically, the nostrils high up, linear, and oblique, with concealed tubercle. Though vulturine in general aspect and economy, the caracaras approach the typical falcons in some anatomical characters, as in the peculiar structure of the shoulder-joint, the extensively ossified nasal bones with central nasal tubercle, and the anterior keel of the palate. The common caracara is much varied with white and black barring of the plumage, and is about 22 inches long. Also called carcara and carrancha.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of several South American and Central American birds of prey in the family Falconidae.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A south American bird of several species and genera, resembling both the eagles and the vultures. The caracaras act as scavengers, and are also called carrion buzzards.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of various long-legged carrion-eating hawks of South America and Central America