The Story
I photographed this Striated Heron (Butorides striata) at the Nowen Bridge in Puerto Concordia, Meta, Colombia, in February 2021. It is mainly a lowland bird of marshes, lakes and rivers, and it eats small fish, frogs and aquatic insects. It sometimes fishes with bait, carefully dropping a feather or leaf on the water and catching the fish that come to investigate. It was once considered the same species as the Little Heron of the Old World tropics. It is widespread in tropical and warm temperate South America, mainly in the lowlands, in marshes, lakes and rivers.
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 Striated Heron as Least Concern with a stable population.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Striated Heron (Butorides striata) 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