The Story
This is a Yellow-headed Caracara (Daptrius chimachima) that I photographed in La Macarena, Meta, Colombia on July 4, 2017. It is a New World bird of prey in the falcon family, formerly placed in the genus Milvago. Its back and wings are blackish brown, and its reddish-brown eye is set in bare, bright yellow skin. The nearby Serranía de la Macarena is an isolated mountain range about 120 kilometers long, separated from the Eastern Andes.
I photographed it with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. IUCN lists the Yellow-headed Caracara as Least Concern with an increasing population, and the Sierra de la Macarena has been a national natural park since 1971, protecting 6,200 square kilometers where Amazon, Orinoco and Andean wildlife meet.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Yellow-headed Caracara (Daptrius chimachima) belongs to the family Falconidae (Falcons and Caracaras) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List
