The Story
I photographed this Black-fronted Nunbird (Monasa nigrifrons) near La Macarena, Meta, Colombia, in February 2021. It is mostly sooty black, darkest around the bill, with a blue-gray rear body and a bright red bill. It takes most of its prey in flight, though it also picks food from the ground and foliage, and its diet is mostly insects. It lives in forest, swampy river islands and floodplain forest from sea level to about 1,000 meters. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L, at 1/1000 sec, f/6.7, ISO 800. Birds recorded in the La Macarena reserve up to 1978 already numbered 456 species, about 27 percent of all the birds of Colombia.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Black-fronted Nunbird (Monasa nigrifrons) belongs to the family Bucconidae (Puffbirds) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List
