The Story
I photographed this Great Black Hawk (Buteogallus urubitinga) near La Macarena, Meta, Colombia, in February 2021. It has very broad wings and is mainly black, with a short white tail that ends in a broad black band, a black bill and yellow legs and cere. Its call is a distinctive piping ooo-wheeeeee. It eats a wide range of food, from reptiles, amphibians, fish and small mammals to crabs, large insects, carrion, eggs and fruit. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 6400, −0.5 EV. La Macarena National Park was created by decree on September 1, 1989, and spreads across five municipalities of southern Meta.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Great Black Hawk (Buteogallus urubitinga) belongs to the family Accipitridae (Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) 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 decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List
