The Story
This White-whiskered Puffbird (Malacoptila panamensis) sat motionless on a mossy diagonal branch in the dim understory near Capurganá, in Chocó, Colombia, its white whisker marks and brown plumage blending into the forest. Like other puffbirds it hunts by watching and waiting, then darting out to catch large invertebrates and small vertebrates such as frogs and lizards. Unlike most puffbirds, males and females look different, and it nests in a cavity at the end of a burrow dug into gently sloping ground.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/15 sec, f/16, ISO 25600. Capurganá can be reached only by boat or small plane, and it has no cars, which keeps the village and its forest edges quiet for birds like this one.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The White-whiskered Puffbird (Malacoptila panamensis) belongs to the family Bucconidae (Puffbirds) 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 decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List