The Story
I made this photo of a Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata) at La Charca de Guarinocito in La Dorada, Caldas, Colombia. The Ringed Kingfisher’s range runs from southern Texas through Central and South America, the Amazon basin, Argentina and Uruguay. Its distribution is expanding northward. Males and females are about the same size. Corpocaldas counts 135 plant species, 14 amphibians, 21 reptiles, 164 birds and 45 mammals at the charca. The Charca de Guarinocito is an old channel of the Magdalena in La Dorada, protected since 1988 and now delimited by Corpocaldas at 167 hectares. IUCN lists the Ringed Kingfisher as Least Concern, with a stable population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200. In 2025 Corpocaldas zoned the charca for preservation, restoration and sustainable use, recognizing its role in community tourism and artisanal fishing.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata) belongs to the family Alcedinidae (Kingfishers) 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 stable. Source: IUCN Red List