The Story
I photographed this Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) near El Doncello, Caquetá, Colombia, in February 2021. Its range extends only slightly into Central America, where it is found in Panama. Little variation in plumage is seen across that range, and no subspecies are recognized. Its diet includes nuts, seeds, fruit, bark and leaves. It nests almost only in dead palms, and chicks leave the nest about 97 days after hatching. 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 1/1000 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −1 EV. Like other colonization areas of the Amazon foothills, El Doncello has lost forest to clearing and indiscriminate logging, which the municipality links to extensive cattle ranching.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) belongs to the family Psittacidae (New World and African Parrots) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2018), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List