The Story
I photographed this Striated Heron (Butorides striata) at the Charca de Guarinocito near La Dorada, Caldas, Colombia on June 25, 2017. It is widespread in tropical and warm temperate South America, mainly in the lowlands, in marshes, lakes and rivers. It eats mainly small fish, frogs and aquatic insects. It sometimes uses bait, dropping a feather or leaf on the water and catching the fish that come to look. Researchers at the Universidad de Caldas call the Charca de Guarinocito the most important wetland in Caldas, a stopover where migratory birds rest.
I took this with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Striated Heron as Least Concern with a stable population, and people living around the lagoon see the birds as an attraction for visitors and do not allow them to be hunted.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Striated Heron (Butorides striata) belongs to the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2022), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List