The Story
I photographed this Barred Becard (Pachyramphus versicolor) along the Trampolín de la Muerte, the mountain road above Mocoa, Putumayo, Colombia. It lives in Costa Rica, Panama and in South America from Venezuela to Bolivia. Adult females have a slate gray crown and nape, a yellow eye-ring and rufous wing coverts, and their breast is more olive than the male’s. It feeds mostly on insects along with some small fruits, and it sometimes joins mixed-species flocks for short periods. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11, at 1/350 sec, f/11, ISO 6400, +0.5 EV. The road from San Francisco to Mocoa opened in 1944 and runs between about 600 and 2,800 meters.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Barred Becard (Pachyramphus versicolor) belongs to the family Tityridae (Tityras and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2021), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List