The Story
I made this photo of a Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) at Reserva Natural El Encanto de Guanapalo in Casanare, Colombia. The Black-necked Stilt’s downy young are light olive brown with rows of black speckles. Females have little or none of the male’s green gloss, with a brown tinge to the back and wings instead. The Guanapalo River is a tributary of the Meta, and with the Pauto it drains a basin of about 2,100 square kilometers, mostly in San Luis de Palenque. IUCN includes the Black-necked Stilt in its assessment of Himantopus himantopus, which it lists as Least Concern, with a stable population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. El Encanto de Guanapalo pays for its conservation through traditional cattle ranching, ecotourism and carbon credits, using the Cataruben Foundation’s Co2Bio model.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) belongs to the family Recurvirostridae (Stilts and Avocets) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as stable. IUCN does not yet assess the Black-necked Stilt separately; this is the assessment of Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus), which IUCN treats as including it. Source: IUCN Red List