The Story
I made this photo of a Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) at Hato Barley in Tauramena, Casanare, Colombia. Its head is mainly gray, with a black forehead and a black throat patch that runs onto the black breast. It is a common, widespread resident through most of South America, except in dense forest and the high Andes. It has red bony spurs at the bend of the wings, used to intimidate rivals and fight off birds of prey. Its call is a very loud, harsh keek-keek-keek. It has benefited from the spread of cattle ranching.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/2500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200. IUCN lists the Southern Lapwing as Least Concern, with an increasing population.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) belongs to the family Charadriidae (Plovers and Lapwings) 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