The Story
This Black-fronted Nunbird (Monasa nigrifrons) perched among the foliage in the Mocagua Indigenous community, a Ticuna resguardo beside Amacayacu National Natural Park in Amazonas, Colombia, its glossy dark plumage set off by a bright red bill. It belongs to the puffbird family and lives in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, including floodplain forest and river islands, up to about 1,000 meters. It eats mostly insects, along with other arthropods and small lizards and amphibians, and it follows troops of monkeys and army ant swarms to catch the prey they flush. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/3000 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −0.5 EV. In Mocagua, the Fundación Maikuchiga rehabilitates monkeys rescued from illegal wildlife trafficking.
©2023 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Black-fronted Nunbird (Monasa nigrifrons) belongs to the family Bucconidae (Puffbirds) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List