When we reached the high plateau, in Spanish called 'páramo', not far from the Antisana volcano, we suddenly saw a large number of caracaras. Those found on the páramo in Colombia and Ecuador (3,000-4,000 above sea level) are referred to as Carunculated caracara (from the Latin name carunculatus), which might be justified by this picture where you can see the wattles of the bird. This individual turned out to be quite unafraid and therefore we came relatively close to it with the car (and the camera). While some bird species are highly specialized in a single type of food, such as many hummingbirds, this species represents the opposite. It seems to eat everything it comes across: small animals, insects, worms, fish, snails, birds and a lot of other things... It's also sociable. Outside of breeding time Carunculated caracaras gather, as in our case, in flocks of dozens of individuals who feed together.