The Story
I photographed this Cocoi Heron (Ardea cocoi) at Reserva Natural Hato Berlín in Trinidad, Casanare, Colombia. The Cocoi Heron prefers fish and mammals as prey over insects. It ranges from Central America to the Strait of Magellan. It uses almost any body of water or wetland away from dense forest, including lake shores, swamps, rivers and estuaries. Hato Berlín is a civil-society nature reserve on the Casanare savanna, about 10 km from Trinidad, where capybaras, caimans, turtles, monkeys and savanna and marsh birds can be seen. IUCN lists the Cocoi Heron 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 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800. In 2020 Hato Berlín opened an eco-lodge as part of the Safari Llanero, a project led by the Casanare Chamber of Commerce with Swiss cooperation to strengthen wildlife-watching tourism.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Cocoi Heron (Ardea cocoi) belongs to the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2021), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List