---
title: "Laughing Falcon"
description: "Herpetotheres cachinnans — Birds. The laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) is a medium-sized bird of prey in subfamily Herpetotherinae of family Falconidae, the falcons and caracaras."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/laughing-falcon
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Laughing Falcon

> Herpetotheres cachinnans — Birds. The laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) is a medium-sized bird of prey in subfamily Herpetotherinae of family Falconidae, the falcons and caracaras.

- Scientific name: *Herpetotheres cachinnans*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `forest` (Forest)
- iNaturalist observations: 6972
- Wikidata: [Q903642](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q903642)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4719](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4719)

## Names

- en: Laughing Falcon
- de: Lachfalke
- es: Halcón guaco
- fr: Macagua rieur
- nl: Lachvalk
- pt: Acauã
- pl: Trębacz chichotliwy

## Countries with the most observations

MX (1902), CR (1289), BR (888), CO (701), EC (423), PA (232), BZ (181), HN (145), PE (123), GT (110), SV (81), BO (80)

## Summary

The laughing falcon (Herpetotheres cachinnans) is a medium-sized bird of prey in subfamily Herpetotherinae of family Falconidae, the falcons and caracaras. It is found from Mexico south through Central America and in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing_falcon

## Photo

![Laughing Falcon](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/laughing-falcon/medium.jpg)

Photo: Boox Selekta · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/201385230

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/laughing-falcon?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).