The Story
I photographed this immature White-throated Toucan (Ramphastos tucanus) in La Macarena, Meta, Colombia on July 3, 2017. It is mainly a fruit-eater of the treetops, but also takes insects, lizards, eggs and small birds. It nests in tree cavities, sometimes in an old woodpecker hole. The nearby Serranía de la Macarena is an isolated mountain range about 120 kilometers long, separated from the Eastern Andes. In 1948 the central part of the Serranía de la Macarena became the first national reserve in Colombia.
I took this with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the White-throated Toucan as Least Concern with a decreasing population, and the Sierra de la Macarena has been a national natural park since 1971, protecting 6,200 square kilometers where Amazon, Orinoco and Andean wildlife meet.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The White-throated Toucan (Ramphastos tucanus) belongs to the family Ramphastidae (Toucans) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2022), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List