Striated Caracara

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). == Taxonomy and systematics == 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 Fuego). The drawing is…