Laura Erickson's For the Birds

This striking outlier of the falcon family makes its living not by engaging in high-speed chases of flying prey, but by scavenging (often dining on the ground with vultures) and occasionally taking insects and other small animals on the ground. The national bird of Mexico, nicknamed the Mexican Eagle, is found throughout much of Central and South America and is fairly common in Texas and Florida. Oddly enough, vagrants have wandered up both the East and West Coasts into Canada, and in quite a few inland states and provinces as well.