The Story
I made this photo of a juvenile Crested Caracara (Caracara plancus) at La Macarena, Meta, Colombia. It feeds mainly on carrion, but it also steals food from other raptors and raids nests. It is a bird of prey in the falcon family. It lives in almost any open or semi-open habitat and is often found near people. It avoids the Andean highlands and dense humid forest such as the Amazon, where it keeps mostly to open areas along major rivers. The Sierra de la Macarena is home to about 420 bird species, along with eight species of primates.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. IUCN lists the Crested Caracara as Least Concern, with a stable population.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Crested Caracara (Caracara plancus) belongs to the family Falconidae (Falcons and Caracaras) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2023), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List