The Story
This female Torrent Duck (Merganetta armata) rested on a rock beside fast water in Pichindé, in the hills above Cali, Colombia, in the buffer zone of Farallones de Cali National Natural Park. Females have orange underparts and throat with a gray head and upperparts, and they are smaller than the males. Torrent Ducks hold territories on fast-flowing Andean rivers, usually above 1,500 meters, and they swim and dive strongly even in white water.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/30 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −1 EV. IUCN lists the Torrent Duck as Least Concern, and because it depends on clean, fast mountain rivers, the streams protected around the Farallones de Cali park matter to it.
©2024 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Torrent Duck (Merganetta armata) belongs to the family Anatidae (Ducks, Geese, and Waterfowl) 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 decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List