The Story
I photographed this Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) near El Doncello, Caquetá, Colombia, in February 2021. It is found in Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay, and in Central America only in Panama. Most pairs breed in rural and forested areas, but small numbers nest in cities such as Rondonópolis, Brazil, using dead ornamental palms beside the roads. 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 1/750 sec, f/16, ISO 6400, −0.5 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