The Story
This Chestnut-eared Aracari (Pteroglossus castanotis) landed on a weathered branch at Caracolí Bird House, a rural birding lodge in the vereda Zuria outside Villavicencio, in Meta, Colombia, with the chestnut patch behind its eye, yellow belly and red rump all showing. A toucan of the western and southern Amazon Basin, it is often found in landscapes with standing or flowing water, and it eats mostly fruit, along with flowers, nectar, and the eggs and nestlings of other birds. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 for this one from about 15 meters, at 1/180 sec, f/11, ISO 3200, −1 EV. The lodge is a public eBird hotspot, so the birds seen there go into a shared record that anyone can use.
©2026 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Chestnut-eared Aracari (Pteroglossus castanotis) belongs to the family Ramphastidae (Toucans) 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
