The Story
I photographed this Striated Heron (Butorides striata) at Playa El Diablo, near La Macarena, Meta, Colombia, in February 2021. In the Americas it breeds in South America and the Caribbean. It is generally a lowland bird of marshes, lakes and rivers, found in Peru only up to about 800 meters, so it avoids the Andes. It mainly eats small fish, frogs and aquatic insects. When young birds feel threatened, they stretch out their necks and point their bills skyward. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/350 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −1.5 EV. Flooded forest covers about 13 percent of La Macarena National Park, mostly along the Guayabero River.
©2025 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