The Story
The shot
I photographed this Western Emerald (Chlorostilbon melanorhynchus) at Finca La Conchita, in the Kilómetro 18 area near Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, in October 2019. Males are glittering emerald green with a steel-blue tail, while females are pale gray below with a blackish face and a pale spot behind the eye. It usually feeds fairly low down. In Colombia its breeding season appears to run from January to June. It readily accepts man-made habitats. IUCN has not assessed it separately from the Blue-tailed Emerald, which it lists as Least Concern.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800, −0.3 EV. The San Antonio cloud forest at Kilometer 18 is recognized as an Important Bird Area and a Key Biodiversity Area, with the Multicolored Tanager as its symbol species.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Western Emerald (Chlorostilbon melanorhynchus) 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 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. IUCN does not yet assess the Western Emerald separately; this is the assessment of Blue-tailed Emerald (Chlorostilbon mellisugus), which IUCN treats as including it. Source: IUCN Red List
