The Story
I photographed this Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) at the Raudal del Guayabero, near San José del Guaviare, Guaviare, Colombia, in February 2021. Adults have purple-maroon heads and blue bodies, and the two-toned bill is light blue at the base with a black tip. Juveniles are almost completely white. It prefers to stand still and wait for prey rather than chase it, moving slowly between spots. Its range runs from the United States to northern South America. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/750 sec, f/16, ISO 1600, −0.5 EV. An hour’s climb above the Raudal leads to rock paintings of tapirs, lizards and ritual dances, which have not been dated exactly but may be 7,000 to 12,600 years old.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) belongs to the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List