The Story
I photographed this Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) at La Florida near Bogotá, Colombia on June 29, 2017. It is a common resident across most of South America, absent mainly from dense forest, the high Andes and the arid west coast. In recent years it has been spreading through Central America. It is the only crested wader in South America, gray-brown above with a bronze gloss on the shoulders and a black forehead, throat and breast. Ninety bird species have been recorded at La Florida.
I took this with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320. IUCN lists the Southern Lapwing as Least Concern with an increasing population, and the Bogotá Water Company is in charge of restoring the city’s wetlands, which support more than 95 species of migratory birds.
©2018 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