The Story
I made this photo of a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl) at La Huerta Hotel at Lago Calima, in Yotoco, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Like most hummingbirds it feeds on nectar and small insects. It is very territorial at flower patches and feeders, chasing off other hummingbirds and even large insects. Even so, it sometimes nests in loose colonies. Lago Calima is a reservoir of about 19 square kilometers, built for a hydroelectric project and later taken over by the regional environmental agency, the CVC. IUCN lists the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. In 2024 the CVC also made 1,277 hectares of the Hatoviejo hacienda in Yotoco a protected area, connecting dry forest with cloud forest.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl) 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 2021), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List
