The Story
I photographed this Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber) from the Ferry Marcopolo on the Orteguaza River at Puerto Arango, near Florencia, Caquetá, Colombia, in February 2020. It flies with its legs and neck stretched out. Its colonies are spread across much of South America and the Caribbean. Where its range overlaps that of the White Ibis in the Llanos of Colombia and Venezuela, researchers have found the two interbreeding. Courting males preen, shake, pop their bills and make high flights to attract a female, and pairs stay together to raise the young. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/3200 sec, f/11, ISO 1600, −1 EV. Florencia, the capital of Caquetá, is known as the golden gateway to the Colombian Amazon and was founded on December 25, 1902.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber) 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 decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List