Carcaras are a group of falcons found throughout South and Central America. They're odd, especially for a bird of prey, in that most species like to hang out in groups, and their diet is extremely broad. They're also very curious and some species, such as the striated carcaras who live on the Falkland Islands, seem very interested in humans, even after humans attempted to wipe them out (for preying on sheep), as humans do.
Meiburg ranges widely in the book, starting on the Falklands with the carcaras (or "Johnny rooks"), moving to discussion of the evolution of carcaras, why they're so different from other falcons like the peregrines which also inhabit the Falklands. Evolution means also talking about Darwin, who encountered the Johnny rooks during his voyage on the Beagle, and was fascinated by their behavior, but Meiburg discusses William Henry Hudson even more.
Hudson grew up in the pampas of Argentina, where he was more likely to see the chimango caracaras, but they interested him as well. I read and reviewed his novel Green Mansions on here in late 2018, but he wrote several books about both birds and his childhood after he'd moved to England. Sounds like I would have enjoyed his non-fiction more.
I think Meiburg's trying to draw a connection between Hudson's connection to nature and fond memories of his home to the intelligence of the caracaras and how they're a product of that same home. More specifically, its lengthy isolation from the Northern Hemisphere. It's what I think keeps the lengthy section of his trip up the Rewa River from feeling out of place. He does encounter some red-throated caracaras, but that's only a small part of the story. It's more closely related to the places Hudson tried to evoke in Green Mansions, of finding places yet untouched by humans.
One of the things Meiburg brings up is, despite being related to falcons, caracaras act in many ways similar to ravens and crows, which were absent in the Southern Hemisphere. Wide diet, intelligent, curious, recognize the potential in humans to provide food. He spends some time discussing Johnny rooks brought to England that were taught to solve puzzles, how they're capable of learning simply by watching other caracaras solve them. It's interesting, the way different animals fill different niches. Up north, corvids took on that role. In South America, it was caracaras. For the striated, at least in part of necessity. On an island, you can't necessarily be too picky about what you eat.
'The ones that make it to adulthood have mastered the art of finding a meal anywhere they can, and since the larder varies from island to island and season to season, successful Johnny rooks have to maintain an open mind and an ecumenical diet. They catch tiny fish in the shallows at low tide, or fill their bellies with seal shit, and some become seasonally nocturnal to hunt petrels that return to their burrows at night.'
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