The Story
I photographed this Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) at Hacienda La Cabaña, near Tauramena, Casanare, Colombia, in January 2020. It is the only crested wader in South America. It is common across South America except in dense forest such as most of the Amazon, the high Andes and the dry western coast. It carries red bony spurs on its wings, which it uses to intimidate rivals and fight off birds of prey. In flight it shows a broad white wing bar. Visitors to the ranch report heron colonies, capybaras and caimans, and the family also runs a cacao-planting project.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200. Its numbers grew as forests were cleared in eastern North America, but they are now shrinking as suitable habitat declines.
©2020 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