The Story
I made this photo of a Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) at Reserva Natural La Palmita in Trinidad, Casanare, Colombia. In flight it alternates groups of stiff, shallow wingbeats with glides. Plume hunting in the 18th and 19th centuries almost drove it to extinction. It gets its pink color from its diet, from the carotenoid pigment canthaxanthin. Adults have a bare greenish head and a white neck, back and breast. La Palmita is a civil-society nature reserve in Trinidad that protects about 400 hectares of flooded savanna and 250 hectares of forest. IUCN lists the Roseate Spoonbill 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 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. La Palmita’s research center also monitors the savanna’s birds and mammals and rehabilitates and releases wildlife rescued from illegal trafficking.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) belongs to the family Threskiornithidae (Ibises and Spoonbills) 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 stable. Source: IUCN Red List