The Story
I photographed this juvenile Amazon Kingfisher (Chloroceryle amazona) at Hacienda El Escobal in Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia. Both members of a pair dig the nest burrow in a riverbank, up to about 1.6 meters long with a chamber at the end. The female does most of the incubating at night and the male during the day. It usually hunts from a perch, diving into the water from about 1 to 1.5 meters up. Its diet is mostly fish, especially characins, along with crustaceans. Ibagué, the capital of Tolima, sits on the Central Andes between the Combeima Canyon and the Magdalena valley, near Nevado del Tolima.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and a 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 lens, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200, −1 EV. IUCN lists the Amazon Kingfisher as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Amazon Kingfisher (Chloroceryle amazona) 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 decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List