The Story
I photographed this Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana) at Playa El Diablo, near La Macarena, Meta, Colombia, in February 2021. Birds in the north and south of its range, and those west of the Andes, are larger and heavier than the rest, but the differences change gradually. Its green tail has a lot of white on the outer feathers, which shows best in flight. It lives in its range all year and may patrol a territory of a kilometer or more of river, and its nest burrow can be up to a meter long. 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 1/2000 sec, f/16, ISO 6400, −1 EV. Flooded forest covers about 13 percent of La Macarena National Park, mostly along the Guayabero River.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana) belongs to the family Alcedinidae (Kingfishers) 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
