The Story
I photographed this Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) near El Doncello, Caquetá, Colombia, in February 2021. Carl Linnaeus described it in 1758 as Psittacus ararauna. Its genus name, Ara, comes from the Tupi word for macaw, and ararauna comes from the Tupi Arára úna, meaning big dark parrot. The species has no subspecies, and little variation in plumage is seen across its range. Its face is nearly bare white skin, with lines of small black feathers around the pale yellow eyes. 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 1/750 sec, f/16, ISO 6400, −0.5 EV. El Doncello is the leading rubber-growing municipality in Colombia, with more than 200 hectares planted around Maguaré and Puerto Manrique.
©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