The Story
I photographed this Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) near El Doncello, Caquetá, Colombia, in February 2021. It has bright aqua blue feathers above, a lime-colored head and rich yellow to light orange underparts. Some birds are more orange or butterscotch below, especially on the breast, a look often seen in birds from Trinidad and the Caribbean. It reaches breeding age at three to six years and can live 30 to 35 years in the wild. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −1 EV. El Doncello sits in the foothills of the Eastern Andes northeast of Florencia, and the town founded there in 1951 took its name from a local tree called el doncello.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) belongs to the family Psittacidae (New World and African Parrots) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2018), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List
