Milvago

Milvago
Chimango caracara (Milvago chimango)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Falconiformes
Family:	Falconidae
Subfamily:	Polyborinae
Genus:	Milvago Spix, 1824

Milvago is a genus of bird of prey in the family Falconidae.

Species

Milvago contains two extant species:

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Milvago chimachima	Yellow-headed caracara	Costa Rica south through Trinidad and Tobago to northern Argentina (the provinces of Misiones, Chaco, Formosa, Corrientes and Santa Fe)
	Milvago chimango	Chimango caracara	Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and south of Brazil.

They are native to South America and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, with M. chimachima just reaching to the Isthmus of Panama and into Costa Rica, though recently having expanded its range into the northern part of the country. Prehistorically the genus extended much further north into Cuba and Hispaniola, where it might have become extinct as late as after the arrival of the first humans in the early Holocene, though there is no evidence for this at present and they more likely disappeared already during the last glacial period.

Fossil species

• †Milvago brodkorbi (Late Pleistocene of Peru)
• †Milvago alexandri (Late Pleistocene of Hispaniola, West Indies)
• †Milvago carbo, Cuban caracara (Holocene of Cuba, West Indies)
• †Milvago diazfrancoi (Late Pleistocene of Cuba)

A paleosubspecies of the yellow-headed caracara from Florida is also known.