Belize Biodiversity Information System NAME - Laughing Falcon FAMILY - Falconidae SCIENTIFIC NAME - Herpetotheres cachinnans SYNONYMS - Falco cachinnans (Rolander MS) Linnaeus, 1758 REFERENCES - 1 and 38 National abundance, Conservation or Economic Status Reference Resident, species present all year. 39 Resident, species present all year. 37 Apparently secure in Belize 36 Common: high density, likely to be seen in many places 36 District Reference Belize 5 Cayo 7 Corozal 12 Orange Walk 7 Stann Creek 6 Toledo 4 Administrative Unit Occurrence Temporal Reference Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve Dry season 12 Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve 25 Chiquibul Forest Reserve 24 Shipstern Nature Reserve 16 Rio Bravo Conservation Area Sighting Wet season 21 Rio Bravo Conservation Area 31 Gallon Jug Sighting Wet season 7 Gallon Jug Dry season 19 Gallon Jug 20 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Permanent 23 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Sighting 28 Tapir Mtn. Nature Reserve 26 Chiquibul National Park 24 Chiquibul National Park 25 Bladen Nature Reserve Dry season 13 Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary 6 Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary 30 Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (Privat Dry season 14 Community Baboon Sanctuary Wet season 22 Community Baboon Sanctuary 27 Lamanai Archaeological Reserve Heard Wet season 15 Altun Ha Archaeological Reserve Collected as voucher 33 Caracol Archaeological Reserve Wet season 10 Mussel Creek Drainage (Proposed) Wet season 11 Mussel Creek Drainage (Proposed) 5 Northern Lagoon/Southern Lagoon (Prop 19 Placencia Peninsula & Lagoon (Propose Heard Dry season 19 Private land, see comments Sighting 28 Private land, see comments Sighting Dry season 19 Private land, see comments Sighting Dry season 8 Private land, see comments Sighting Dry season 9 Private land, see comments Permanent 17 Private land, see comments 23 Private land, see comments 25 Private land, see comments 4 Private land, see comments Collected as voucher 34 Private land, see comments Sighting 28 Government land Dry season 18 Government land Collected as voucher 34 Monkey River Special Development Area Dry season 29 Hydrologic Association Reference New River Lagoon 31 Belize River 27 Roaring Creek 26 Macal River 24 Cox's Lagoon 5 Belize River 8 Macal River 9 Bladen Branch 13 Mussel Creek 11 Sibun River 14 New River 15 Elevation Reference 1-200 m 28 1-200 m 31 1-200 m 32 1-200 m 33 1-200 m 34 201-400 m 28 1:50,000 Quadrangle Reference 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 15 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 15' to 88 30' 23 17 30' to 17 45'; 89 00' to 89 15' 33 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 45' to 89 00' 19 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 32 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 7 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 45' to 89 00' 32 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 30' to 88 45' 22 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 10' to 88 30' 25 17 00' to 17 15'; 89 00' to 89 15' 27 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 28 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 31 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 00' to 88 30' 32 16 45' to 17 00'; 89 00' to 89 15' 7 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 45' to 89 00' 28 18 15' to 18 30'; 88 00' to 88 15' 8 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 23 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 15' to 88 30' 32 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 00' to 88 10' 5 16 30' to 16 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 18 16 30' to 16 45'; 88 15' to 88 30' 9 16 15' to 16 30'; 88 15' to 88 30' 26 16 00' to 16 15'; 89 00' to 89 15' 32 16 00' to 16 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 7 15 50' to 16 00'; 88 50' to 89 15' 32 18 00' to 18 15'; 88 15' to 88 30' 7 17 45' to 18 00'; 89 00' to 89 15' 19 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 45' to 89 00' 28 34 10 24 25 30 19 28 34 6 19 13 30 19 16 29 25 28 19 4 12 21 17 28 Holdridge Life Zone Reference Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 34 Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 32 Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 28 Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 26 Subtropical wet 30 Subtropical wet 28 Subtropical moist 33 Subtropical moist 31 Subtropical moist 28 Subtropical moist 27 General Distribution Comments 39* Common northern semideciduous moist forest. Common southern moist-wet evergreen broadleaf forests. Uncommon Mtn. Pine Ridge/savannas on poor soil. Common coastal/low-lands savannas, inc. marshy areas. 37* Common in northern hardwood forests, common in southern hardwood forests,rare in the Mountain Pine Ridge,common in coastal savannahs. 26* NE portion TMNR, base camp Pook's Hill 25* Big Falls Rice Farm; Blue Creek 24* Guacamallo Bridge 23* Big Falls 19* Stann Crk; Freetown; Toledo Settlement, 4 mi. W of Punta Gorda 18* Boom-Hattie Road 17* Gold Button Ranch 13* Forest Hill 9* Sighted at or within 5 mile radius of Chaa Creek Cottages 8* Banana Bank Ranch References 1 A.O.U. 1983. Checklist of North American Birds. 6th Ed. 2 A.O.U. 1985, 1987, 1989. 35th-37th Supplements. 3 Howard, R. and A. Moore. 1980. A Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Oxford. 4 Matola, S., 1990. The Dolores Expedition, January 27 - February 3, 1990. Unpublished report. 5 Hunt, H. R., J. Tamarack. 1992. Cox Lagoon Crocodile Preserve. Unpub. report. pp.4-8 6 Matola, S., ed. 1990. The Cockscomb Basin Expedition Report June 11-18. Unpublished report. 7 Miller, B. W., 1994. Belize Christmas Bird Counts, Twenty Year Summary. in prep. 8 Duncan, M., W. Duncan. 1993. Banana Bank, Nov. 1, Checklist provided in lit. 9 Carnegie Ornithological Group and Mass Audubon Ornithological Group, compilers. 1993. Chaa Creek Bird List. Unpublished list. 10 Miller, B. W., C. M. Miller. 1994, Birds of Caracol, 1988 - 1993. in prep. 11 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1987. Conservation of a Critical Marsh and Lowland habitat, Mussel Creek drainage system, Belize, C.A. Report to NYZS/Wildlife Conservation Society. 12 Miller, C., B. Miller. 1994. Avian Surveys: Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve 1-10 March. Unpublished Report to the Forestry Dept. 13 Brokaw, N. L. V., T. L. Lloyd-Evans. 1987. The Bladen Branch Wilderness. p.38-42. Unpublished report. 14 Anon. 1994. Monkey Bay Checklist of Birds. Unpublished list. 15 Noble, B., B. Stewart, J. Dillon. 1994. Lamanai Bird List, Mid-October 1993 - 16 March 1994. 16 Meerman, J. 1993. Checklist of the Birds of the Shipstern Nature Reserve, Occasional Papers of the Belize Natural History Society. 2(10). pp. 71-81. 17 Platt, S. 1993. Wildlife Survey of Gold Button Ranch, Belize. Unpublished report. 18 McDuffie, P. 1993. Personal Bird List for Belize: September 1, 1989 - December 15, 1993. Unpublished list. 19 Russell, S. M. 1964. A Distributional Study of the Birds of British Honduras. Ornithological Monographs No. 1, A.O.U. 20 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1994. A working checklist of the birds of Gallon Jug. Unpublished list. 21 Anon. 1994 (August). Working Checklist, Birds of Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area. Unpublished list. 22 O'Connell, S. 1987. in Horwich, R. H. and J. Lyon. The Community Baboon Sanctuary, A Guide Book. Orangu-tan Press, Gays Mills, WI. pp. 113. 23 Counsell, D.J.R., B. Etheridge. 1986. RAFOS Expedition to Belize. Unpub- lished report. 24 Barlow, S. C., G. B. Caddick. 1989. Report on the Status of the Scarlet Macaw, Ara macao, in Belize, Central America. Unpublished report. 25 Hallchurch, T.T., compiler. 1982. Exercise King Vulture Belize 23 Feb.- 16 March. Unpub. report for the British Army Bird Watching Society. 26 Miller, C.M., B.W. Miller. 1994. Preliminary Faunal Surveys at Tapir Mt. Nature Reserve, 27 Nov.-5 Dec., 1994. Unpublished report for BAS. 27 James, D., J. Bider. 1993. Bird List: Community Baboon Sanctuary, 1989- 1993 (derived from banding & census data, field notes). Unpublished data. 28 Robbins, Chandler. 1996. U.S.F.& Wildlife Service Wintering Bird Surveys for Belize. Unpublished data provided by C. Robbins. 29 Meerman, J.C. ed. 1995. Monkey River Special Development Area Stann Creek District, Belize. Belize Tropical Forest Studies Publication #5. Appendix: Bird List. Unpublished Technical report for B.E.S.T. 30 Kamstra, J. May 1987. An Ecological Survey of the Cockscomb Basin, Belize. Masters Thesis. York University, Ontario, Canada 31 Vallely, A. C., A. A. Whitman. 1996. The birds of Hill Bank, northern Belize. Unpublished report for Programme for Belize. 32 Miller, B. W. 1997. Belize Christmas Bird Count Summary 1970-1995. Data from American Birds Vol. 28-50 including 1973-1996. 33 ROM. 1997. Royal Ontario Museum, Division of Birds, Holdings of Belize specimens through Jan. 1, 1997. Provided by Brad Millen. 34 Panza, R. 1997. Carnegie Museum, Division of Birds, Holdings of Belize specimens through Jun. 1, 1997. 35 Howell, S. N. G., S. Webb. 1995. A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. New York. Oxford University Press. 36 Miller, B.W., C.M. Miller. 1997. Avian Risk Assessment for Belize, Species at Risk and of Conservation Concern. Report to Programme for Belize/TNC Wings of America Program. 37 Wood, D.S.,R. C. Leberman, and D. Weyer. 1986. Checklist of Birds of Belize. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 12. 38 A.O.U. 1997. Forty-first Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. The Auk. 114 (3):542-552. 39 Garcia, J., S. Matola, M. Meadows, and C. Wright. 1994. A Checklist of the Birds of Belize. WWF-US. 35p.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Ministry of Natural Resources' Land Information Centre
01/19/98