Phalcoboenus australis
In 3 days >90%
The striated caracara (Daptrius australis), also known as Forster's caracara, is a Near Threatened bird of prey of the family Falconidae, the falcons and caracaras. It is found in Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands. In the Falklands it is known as the Johnny rook, probably named after the Johnny penguin (gentoo penguin).
The striated caracara was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the falcons and eagles in the genus Falco and coined the binomial name Falco australis. The specific epithet australis is Latin meaning "southern". Gmelin based his description on the "Statenland eagle" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had obtained notes on the bird from the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. Johann Forster and his son Georg Forster had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The son Georg made a water-colour drawing of the striated caracara during their visit to Staten Island (Isla de los Estados, east of Tierra del...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Falkland Islands | 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Very likely
About 80% of wildlife watchers report a Forster's Caracara sighting in Falkland Islands on a given day, based on 1,290 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 4th most-seen of the 79 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 90% of wildlife watchers report a Forster's Caracara in Falkland Islands on a given day, against about 50% in April and September, the lowest months. July and August have too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Forster's Caracara sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Falkland Islands, in our data
Falkland Islands is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Forster's Caracara sightings: about 80% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Falconidae
The closest relatives of the Forster's Caracara that you can see in Falkland Islands (family Falconidae, Falcons and Caracaras) are Crested Caracara (about 10%) and Peregrine Falcon (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Forster's Caracara is recorded against all the birds logged in Falkland Islands (1,290 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.
