The Story
On June 23, 2017, I photographed this Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) at the Malecón Cameguadua in Chinchiná, Caldas, Colombia. It is a common resident across most of South America, absent mainly from dense forest, the high Andes and the arid west coast. In recent years it has been spreading through Central America. It is the only crested wader in South America, gray-brown above with a bronze gloss on the shoulders and a black forehead, throat and breast. Chinchiná lies 17 kilometers southwest of Manizales, at 1,360 meters, in a valley surrounded by coffee plantations.
I used a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM for this one, at 1/500 sec, f/11, ISO 400. IUCN lists the Southern Lapwing as Least Concern with an increasing population, and Chinchiná is part of the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) belongs to the family Charadriidae (Plovers and Lapwings) 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 increasing. Source: IUCN Red List