The Story
I made this photo of a Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) at Reserva Natural Hato Berlín in Trinidad, Casanare, Colombia. The Lesser Yellowlegs breeds across interior Alaska and northern Canada. It is highly migratory, and its largest wintering populations are in Mexico, Central America, South America and the Antilles. Its call is softer than the Greater Yellowlegs’. Hato Berlín is a civil-society nature reserve on the Casanare savanna, about 10 km from Trinidad, where capybaras, caimans, turtles, monkeys and savanna and marsh birds can be seen. IUCN lists the Lesser Yellowlegs as Vulnerable, with a decreasing population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. In 2020 Hato Berlín opened an eco-lodge as part of the Safari Llanero, a project led by the Casanare Chamber of Commerce with Swiss cooperation to strengthen wildlife-watching tourism.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) belongs to the family Scolopacidae (Sandpipers and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List