Juvenile White-throated Toucan

The Story

This is a juvenile White-throated Toucan (Ramphastos tucanus) that I photographed 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. In 1948 the central part of the Serranía de la Macarena became the first national reserve in Colombia. The nearby Serranía de la Macarena is an isolated mountain range about 120 kilometers long, separated from the Eastern Andes.

I photographed it 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 botanical garden just outside La Macarena invites visitors to take part in its restoration work.

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