Jonathan Meiburg. A Most Remarkable Creature. Knopf, 2021.

A Most Remarkable Creature is another new book about a special group of birds, in this case, the caracaras. Caracaras are predators found in Latin America. In the United States they are normally only found in Texas and Florida, although there are some indications their range may be expanding northward.

While there are a number of species in this family, much of the book is taken up with perhaps the most distinctive or remarkable member of this group, the Striated Caracara. This species is found at the southern end of South America and on the islands to its south, notably the Falklands.

Here we discover two things that distinguish caracaras from nearly all other species of predatory birds, be they hawks, kites, owls, or falcons. They are social. Not just that they flock together as we sometimes see vultures because they have found a bounty of food. They interact with each other and with other creatures in their environment.

They observe and learn new things. They also are generalists when it comes to food. They hunt as other hawks do. They eat carrion as do vultures. They also eat other things that provide nutrition. One species of caracara specializes in wasp larvae—it was long a mystery how they could raid a wasp nest and not get stung. If a human had tried to dislodge a five-foot wasp nest, he probably would have died from the stings unless he were dressed like a beekeeper.

We also learn a lot about William H. Hudson, a writer from the early twentieth century who was one of the first to admire caracaras rather than find them repellent. He is best known today for a couple of novels including Green Mansions. I have never read that novel, but I recall my father owning a copy of it when I was a boy. It is set in South America, where Hudson grew up and observed the wildlife there.

If anyone has been to South America, one may notice that there are no crows there. Indeed, the only South American jays are rarely seen jungle birds. In the cities forests, plains, and beaches of South America, the Black Vulture and Caracara fill the crows’ niche. In Brazil or Argentina, for example, one sees vultures and caracaras picking through garbage and roadkill not far from people .

While a portion of Meiburg’s book includes some evolutionary speculation as to why this is so, most of it simply describes some of the fascinating behavior of caracaras. He tells, for example, how a couple of the smaller, uninhabited Falkland Islands were purchased by a British millionaire who had an aviary in England that included a Striated Caracara. Now they are a wildlife preserve, not only for these hawks but for many seabirds, penguins, seals, and even a few Peregrine Falcons.

After reading this book, one comes away thinking that these birds may be among some of the most intelligent birds on the planet. The only bird that the author thinks might compete for the title is the African Grey Parrot. Most predatory birds specialize in habitat, food, hunting style, or some combination. Many of the caracara species are generalists, though different species tend to be found in varying habitats. Sometimes they hunt, sometimes they scavenge, and most of them are simply curious.

We are introduced to the Striated Caracara from the story of a British falconer who obtained one. Usually falcons and hawks are not really “trained,” they simply are taught to rely on a human trainer for obtaining food, even if it is hunting in the instinctive manner of the species. The first thing that happened with the caracara was that the bird stole the falconer’s keyring! It was clowning around. Perhaps a tamed crow or parrot might do something similar, but here was a new hawk with a stranger. We know right away that this kind of bird is going to be different.

This, along with with the writing of Hudson and a visit to the Falklands, got the author interested in these unique birds. We are taken from the Falklands to islands in Drake’s Passage, Argentina, Guiana, and even Florida to discover these avian characters. If nothing else, A Most Remarkable Creature should give most of us a new appreciation for a type of bird that is often overlooked, not to mention author Hudson, also mostly overlooked these days.