Special visits

Here in Castellinho38 we are lucky to always have illustrious visitors grace our breezy retreat. In the past week a group of maritacas, a type of small parrot, dined in our garden and today we received a very special morning greeting from a gavião-carijó, a type of eagle. The majestic bird came so close to our terrace that we could hear the flapping of its wings. Unfortunately, the gavião-carijó didn’t have time for a chat or a piece of cake—just a quick rest before bustling off.



To know a little bit more about our special guests...
Physical Appearance: gavião-carijó measure about 36 cm and have long wings with open points. The coloration of the female and male bird is almost exactly the same. The male and female are generally distinguished by the size, the female being a bit larger.
Habitat: Gavião-carijós can survive with very little vegetation, and therefore can populate many different areas.
Distribution: Gavião-carijós live in parts of Mexico and Argentina and all of Brazil.
Behavior: They fly in open sky in wide circles, beating their large wings rapidly as they call attention to themselves with the loud call for which they are widely known.
Food: Large insects are the main entrée on the menu for the gavião-carijó. They also feast on lizards, small cobras, birds such as pardais, and even bats.
Natural Predators: The greatest threat to these majestic birds is human kind. Due to the destruction of their environment and the devastating effects of hunting, these birds may be in grave danger.
Preservation: The birds of prey play an indispensable role in natural selection. They help with the problem of overpopulation of smaller birds (as well as rats and pigeons in the urban centers). Gavião-carijós also maintain the size of their own population, eliminating the terminally ill of their species.
Final Note: The gavião-carijó is one of the species least affected by human interference-- they can even be found in urban areas sleeping in sky-scraper windows! However, we must remember that we are sharing this earth with many other beings. Plus, our coffee and cake certainly would be a little less interesting without the morning greeting of our illustrious visitors.