Bat Falcon

Falco rufigularis 

eBird gives this description for the Bat Falcon:  Dashing small falcon of tropical lowlands and foothills. Prefers forest edge, adjacent semi-open areas with tall trees, buildings. Found at several Maya ruins in Mexico and northern Central America, also locally in towns. Looks dark overall with a contrasting white or buffy-orange throat, and in flight can be confused with White-collared Swift. With a good view, note the rusty belly and ‘trousers.’ Hunts bats at dusk, but main food is small birds caught in flight.

The Birds of the World website introduces the Bat Falcon with this description:  The Bat Falcon is a widespread small falcon of forest and clearings in the Neotropics. It occurs from Mexico south to northwestern Peru and, east of the Andes, northern Argentina. It is dark slate gray above, with an obvious white throat, black-and-white barred breast, and orange lower belly and thighs.  Bat Falcons can be distinguished from the similar and sympatric (but much rarer) Orange-breasted Falcon (Falco deiroleucus) by their smaller size, more compact structure, narrower white barring on the lower breast, and more restricted orange on the upper breast. Bat Falcons generally hunt around dawn and dusk at forest edge or over the canopy, often along rivers or road cuts, or at the edges of small crop fields. As the name implies, they feed on bats, but also prey on birds and insects (mostly aerial). They nest in adopted cavities, on cliffs, or on man-made structures and defend their territory aggressively.

I saw my first Bat Falcon early on the morning of February 7, 2023 at La Selva as part of my Costa Rican birding trip.  The bird was perched hit atop a bare tree far from the road we were walking on.  Our tour group leader was able to put his scope on the Bat Falcon so we could get a decent look at it.  The picture below is the best I could do at that distance in the early morning light.  Look here to see my blog about my Costa Rican birding trip.  I was familiar with this bird because early in 2023 one strayed across the Mexico/Texas border and spent a couple of weeks in the Rio Grande Valley.  I didn’t make it down there, but saw plenty of photos posted on eBird. 

I was delighted to see my second Bat Falcon on the morning of August 19, 2023 on the Juruena River in the Amazon Basion region of Brazil.  This time the bird was close enough to get some decent photos, as you can see below.  Look here for my blog about my Brazilian trip– it has all the details about the boat ride where I saw this Bat Falcon.  Here are some the photos of the Bat Falcon that I took that morning.