On the 23rd February Colchester Zoo welcomed a female Striated caracara from London Zoo. Our new arrival has been named Blue by her keepers and she will be housed at our Wild Displays Arena. Blue is the first of her species at Colchester Zoo since 10 years ago! Curator Sarah Forsyth commented ‘It’s fantastic news for us to be home to one of these extremely intelligent birds once again.’
As a young bird Blue will be spending her time getting used to her new environment and trying out some new training with her keepers before meeting the public in any of the birds of prey displays and showing off just how truly intelligent her species are. The Striated caracara is known for being quite striking and charismatic and like Blue; birds of this species have dark brown feathers with the underwing being a much lighter brown with some white tips. The light yellow patch around the eyes and beak and bluish bill are what make this bird stand out.
Did you know it is thought the Striated caracara have the southernmost breeding distribution of any bird of prey in the world!?