CARACARA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does caracara mean? 

• CARACARA (noun)
  The noun CARACARA has 1 sense:

1. any of various long-legged carrion-eating hawks of South America and Central America

  Familiarity information: CARACARA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CARACARA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various long-legged carrion-eating hawks of South America and Central America

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("caracara" is a kind of...):

falcon (diurnal birds of prey having long pointed powerful wings adapted for swift flight)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "caracara"):

Audubon's caracara; Polyborus cheriway audubonii (widespread from southern United States to Central America; rusty black with black-and-white breast and tail)

carancha; Polyborus plancus (South American caracara)

 Context examples 

The mitochondrial genome showed that C. creightoni is closely related to the two remaining caracara species alive today: the crested caracara and the southern caracara.

(Extinct Caribbean bird yields DNA after 2,500 years in watery grave, National Science Foundation)

Scientists have recovered the first genetic data from an extinct bird in the Caribbean, thanks to the remarkably preserved bones of a Creighton's caracara in a flooded sinkhole on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas.

(Extinct Caribbean bird yields DNA after 2,500 years in watery grave, National Science Foundation)