The Story
This is a Greater Ani (Crotophaga major) that I photographed at the Jardín Botánico de Bogotá in Bogotá, Colombia on June 28, 2017. It lives in mangrove swamps, semi-open woodland near water and forest edges from Panama to northern Argentina. Several females lay in one nest and share incubation and feeding, sometimes with non-breeding helpers. It is a large member of the cuckoo family, blue-glossed black with a long tail, a massive ridged bill and a white iris. The José Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden is Colombia’s largest botanical garden, with an emphasis on Andean and páramo ecosystems.
I photographed it with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250. IUCN lists the Greater Ani as Least Concern with a stable population, and the garden keeps five special collections for Andean plants in danger of extinction, among them orchids and bromeliads.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Greater Ani (Crotophaga major) belongs to the family Cuculidae (Cuckoos) 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