The Story
This Pied Puffbird (Notharchus tectus) perched on an angled branch near Capurganá, in Chocó, Colombia, its black-and-white plumage and fine white speckling on the crown clear against soft green. It is found from Nicaragua to Bolivia and Brazil, and in Costa Rica it seems to avoid primary forest, living in more open landscapes. It eats spiders and many kinds of insects, and it usually digs its nest into a termite nest in a tree, 4 to 25 meters above the ground.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. Capurganá can be reached only by boat or small plane, and it has no cars, which keeps the village and its forest edges quiet for birds like this one.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Pied Puffbird (Notharchus tectus) belongs to the family Bucconidae (Puffbirds) 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