The Story
This White-eared Hummingbird (Basilinna leucotis) perched on a thin twig in the hummingbird garden at Villa Verde, by the entrance to Celaque National Park near Gracias, Lempira, Honduras. The bold white stripe behind the eye that gives it its name and the red bill with a dark tip are both clear here. In Honduras it is represented by the subspecies pygmaea, and it lives between about 1,200 and 3,500 meters. It sometimes makes secretive low approaches to feed in the territories of much larger hummingbirds. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/750 sec, f/16, ISO 1600, −2 EV. Celaque protects Cerro Las Minas, at 2,849 meters the highest point in Honduras, and its rivers supply water to more than 120 communities, including Gracias.
©2024 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The White-eared Hummingbird (Basilinna leucotis) belongs to the family Trochilidae (Hummingbirds) 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 decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List
