The Story
On June 23, 2017, I photographed this Striated Heron (Butorides striata) at the Malecón Cameguadua in Chinchiná, Caldas, Colombia. 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. It is widespread in tropical and warm temperate South America, mainly in the lowlands, in marshes, lakes and rivers. 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 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Striated Heron as Least Concern with a stable population, and Chinchiná is part of the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011.
©2020 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