The Yellow-headed Caracara has a pale head and chest with dark brown back and wings. It searches for food around pastures and roadsides.
Adults have a creamy head, neck, and chest, dark brown back and wings, yellow skin around the eyes, and a pale blue bill. Juveniles are streaked.
It searches around pastures, roadsides, riverbanks, and treetops, and may feed on animal carcasses.
At Lami Biological Reserve in southern Brazil, it has been observed picking and eating ectoparasites from the skin of capybaras.
In this reserve, capybaras sometimes lie down and expose their belly or flanks, and the bird immediately begins removing parasites. It also picks parasites from the upper body when the capybara shows no response.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.