This White-winged Swallow (Tachycineta albiventer) perched on a weathered stump in the Mocagua Indigenous community, a Ticuna resguardo beside Amacayacu National Natural Park in Amazonas, Colombia, its blue-green upperparts and clean white underparts in clear view. It is a resident swallow of tropical South America that usually lives in lowlands along rivers and lakes. It builds a cup nest lined with other birds’ feathers inside a tree hole, between boulders or in human-made structures, and its scientific name means white-bellied.
I photographed it from a canoe on the Amazon River with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/1000 sec, f/16, ISO 6400. Mocagua’s Ticuna community runs guided ecotourism next to Amacayacu National Natural Park, so visits like mine help support the people who protect this forest.
©2023 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The White-winged Swallow (Tachycineta albiventer) belongs to the family Hirundinidae (Swallows) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2024), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List