The Story
I photographed this female Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata) at the Raudal del Guayabero, near San José del Guaviare, Guaviare, Colombia, in February 2021. Females have a bluish-gray band across the upper breast, while males have rusty-brown underparts with a white throat. It is a large, noisy kingfisher found from the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas to Tierra del Fuego. Its strong wings beat slowly, and it can fly over land for longer than other kingfishers. 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 1/350 sec, f/16, ISO 1600, −0.5 EV. An hour’s climb above the Raudal leads to rock paintings of tapirs, lizards and ritual dances, which have not been dated exactly but may be 7,000 to 12,600 years old.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata) belongs to the family Alcedinidae (Kingfishers) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List