The Story
On July 5, 2017, I photographed this Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani) in La Macarena, Meta, Colombia. Its flight is weak and wobbly, but it runs well and usually feeds on the ground. It lives in open and semi-open country and farmland. Several females lay their eggs in one nest and then share incubation and feeding. In 1948 the central part of the Serranía de la Macarena became the first national reserve in Colombia.
I used a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM for this one, at 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600, +4.7 EV. IUCN lists the Smooth-billed Ani as Least Concern with a stable population, and the Sierra de la Macarena has been a national natural park since 1971, protecting 6,200 square kilometers where Amazon, Orinoco and Andean wildlife meet.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani) belongs to the family Cuculidae (Cuckoos) 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