Formosa, Chaco, and Misiones provinces of north-central and northeastern Argentina M. r. olrogi, Jujuy, Salta and Tucumán provinces of northwestern Argentina Barred forest falcons mainly use mature upland forest. In Central America, the species is generally restricted to mature tropical forest. In South America, however, the barred forest falcon lives in other kinds of forest and woodland, even relatively arid ones. For example, in the Amazon biome it occurs most often in secondary forest, gallery forest, tidal swamp forest, semideciduous forest, and forest edges. In Acre, Brazil, the barred forest falcon is reported to prefer disturbed forest types, both natural secondary and man-made, including bamboo and more open seasonally drier forest on rocky outcrops, but generally it is a bird that avoids habitat where human influence is too pronounced, and requires primary or mature secondary forest to persist in any location. The barred forest falcon is rare on the eastern slope of Colombia's Cordillera Oriental, where it was recorded in primary forest and old secondary forest, in a narrow elevational band between Second-growth forest in these mountains is dominated by trees like Melastomaceae (e.g. Miconia and Tibouchina) and trees are generally overgrown with epiphytes and hemiepiphytes like Coussapoa (Urticaceae). Behavior Movement The barred forest falcon is a year-round resident throughout its range but vagrants have been recorded beyond it. Feeding The barred forest falcon feeds on lizards, small birds, mammals (mainly rodents and marsupials such as the Brazilian slender opossum, Marmosops paulensis), bats, snakes, and frogs. Like Accipiter hawks, they often hunt prey by sitting quietly on tree branches and waiting for their victims to appear. When the prey arrives, the forest falcons quickly ambush them, attempting to catch them with a brief, flying pursuit. However, forest falcons also use other techniques to hunt prey, such as chasing prey on foot, following army ant swarms, flushing prey from cover, and nest robbing. The species has also been recorded to snatch animals from traps or cages, for example during mark-recapture studies. Breeding The barred forest falcon's breeding season in Guatemala is from mid-April to early August. The season is not well known elsewhere but includes early June in Amazonian Brazil and October in Colombia. Almost all of the data on its breeding biology were collected in Guatemala during the Peregrine Fund's Maya Project. The species nests in tree cavities, almost always natural ones but sometimes those excavated by woodpeckers. Estimated heights