The Story
I photographed this juvenile Neotropic Cormorant (Nannopterum brasilianum) from the Ferry Marcopolo on the Orteguaza River at Puerto Arango, near Florencia, Caquetá, Colombia, in February 2021. Juveniles are brownish, unlike the mainly black adults. Pairs are monogamous and breed in colonies, building a platform of sticks with a hollow in the center. Both parents incubate for about 25 to 30 days and feed the young until around their eleventh week. In Peru, the Uru people use this cormorant for fishing. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/1000 sec, f/16, ISO 6400, −1.5 EV. The Ferry Marcopolo leaves from Puerto Arango, about 15 kilometers from Florencia, on a two-hour trip on the Orteguaza River, passing the mouth of the Hacha River and stopping at a sandbar for lunch.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Neotropic Cormorant (Nannopterum brasilianum) belongs to the family Phalacrocoracidae (Cormorants and Shags) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2018), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List