The red-throated caracara (Ibycter americanus) is a social species of bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It is placed in the monotypic genus Ibycter, or sometimes united in Daptrius with the black caracara. Unique among caracaras, it mainly feeds on the larvae of bees and wasps, but also takes the adult insects and fruits and berries. It is found from Mexico south to Venezuela in most of Central and South America. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. Taxonomy The red-throated caracara was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1770 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Falco americanus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The red-throated caracara was for many years placed with the black caracara in the genus Daptrius but based on a molecular genetic study published in 1999 it was moved to be the only species in the resurrected genus Ibycter that had been introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816. The species is monotypic. The genus name Ibycter is from the Ancient Greek ibuktēr meaning "singer of war-songs". Description Males average 20.1 in (51 cm) long, while females average 22.1 in (56 cm); they are distinguished from the black caracara by larger size and plumage that is mainly black, with the belly, tail feathers, and undertail feathers being white. Both their faces and throats are bare with a few black feathers scattered on the throat; the exposed skin is red. Both male and female red-throated caracaras are similar in appearance. Males have a wing length of 35.55 cm, a tail length of 24.96 cm, a bill length of 2.5 cm, and a tarsus length of 5.41 cm. Females have a wing length of 35.93 cm, a tail length of 25.31 cm, a bill length of 2.58 cm, and a tarsus length of 5.62 cm. Distribution and habitat This species inhabits the humid lowland forests of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador,