The Story
I photographed this Buff-necked Ibis (Theristicus caudatus) at Reserva Natural El Encanto de Guanapalo in Casanare, Colombia. The Buff-necked Ibis’s 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. It is a fairly large ibis of open habitats in eastern and northern South America. 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 made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/400 sec, f/7.1, 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 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