Herpetotheres cachinnans
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) is a medium-sized bird of prey in subfamily Herpetotherinae of family Falconidae, the falcons and caracaras. It is found from Mexico south through Central America and in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.
The laughing falcon was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the falcons and eagles in the genus Falco and coined the binomial name Falco cachinnans. Linnaeus based his account on information from one of his students, Daniel Rolander, who had visited the Dutch colony of Surinam in South America. The laughing falcon is now the only species placed in the genus Herpetotheres that was introduced in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot. A 2015 molecular phylogenetic study by Jérôme Fuchs and collaborators found that the laughing falcon was sister to the forest falcons in the genus Micrastur.
Major taxonomic systems place the laughing falcon in the subfamily Herpetotherinae with the forest falcons. Earlier it had been placed in the subfamily Falconinae with the "true" falcons. Though... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Santos | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 5 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 6 | Maceió | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 9 | Guayaquil | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 10 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joya Grande | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 2 | UMA "El Palapo" | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 3 | Zoo Park da Montanha | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Parque Cóndor | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Laughing Falcon sighting in Carara National Park on a given day, based on 677 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 183rd most-seen of the 414 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Laughing Falcon in Carara National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June and October, the lowest months. That is one of Carara National Park's wettest months, with about 590 mm of rain against 35 mm in February.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Laughing Falcon sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
25th of 65
Of the 65 parks where we can rate Laughing Falcon sightings, Carara National Park ranks 25th at about 10%. The best odds are in Palo Verde National Park (Costa Rica, about 20%), Emas National Park (Brazil, about 20%) and Piedras Blancas National Park (Costa Rica, about 20%).
Same family: Falconidae
The closest relatives of the Laughing Falcon that you can see in Carara National Park (family Falconidae, Falcons and Caracaras) are Crested Caracara (about 30%), Collared Forest Falcon (about 10%) and Bat Falcon (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Laughing Falcon is recorded against all the birds logged in Carara National Park (677 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
