Rufescent Tiger-Heron

The Story

I photographed this Rufescent Tiger-Heron (Tigrisoma lineatum) at the Nowen Bridge in Puerto Concordia, Meta, Colombia, in February 2021. Adults have a dark rufous head, neck and chest with a white stripe down the center of the foreneck, and juveniles are rusty-buff barred with black. It eats mostly aquatic prey, including fish, crustaceans, water beetles and dragonfly larvae. Its main call is a low-pitched paired hoot, often given at night. It is largely crepuscular and generally solitary, typically hunting alone while standing hunched in shallow pools.

I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/1000 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. IUCN lists the Rufescent Tiger-Heron as Least Concern with a stable population.

The bird

The Rufescent Tiger-Heron (Tigrisoma lineatum) belongs to the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.

Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)

Conservation

Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2022), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List