The Story
This Black-collared Hawk (Busarellus nigricollis) perched at the Yahuarcaca lakes outside Leticia, in Amazonas, Colombia, its rufous body and pale head set off by the dark collar that gives it its name. It is a wetland hawk that lives mainly on fish, also taking water bugs, snails, frogs, lizards and small mammals. It is the only member of its genus and usually nests in a large tree near water. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/350 sec, f/16, ISO 800, −1 EV. The roughly 21 Yahuarcaca lakes are Leticia’s main source of water, and the Ticuna, Cocama and Yagua communities around them have kept fishing agreements for more than a decade.
©2023 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Black-collared Hawk (Busarellus nigricollis) belongs to the family Accipitridae (Hawks, Eagles, and Kites) 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