The Story
I made this photo of a Buff-necked Ibis (Theristicus caudatus) at Reserva Natural El Encanto de Guanapalo in Casanare, Colombia. The Buff-necked Ibis lives in fields, marshes and savannas. Its bill and the bare skin around its eyes are blackish, and its legs are red. The female usually lays two to four eggs in a platform nest of twigs in a tree. 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 lists the Buff-necked Ibis as Least Concern, with a stable population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with a 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 lens for this one, at 1/400 sec, f/11, ISO 100. The families who run its ranches work to keep the savanna from being cleared, burned or plowed, and to keep llanero culture alive for the next generation.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Buff-necked Ibis (Theristicus caudatus) belongs to the family Threskiornithidae (Ibises and Spoonbills) 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. Source: IUCN Red List