The Story
This Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola) perched on a slender green stalk at Caracolí Bird House, a rural birding lodge in the vereda Zuria outside Villavicencio, in Meta, Colombia. Despite its name it is a tanager, common in open and semi-open lowlands outside the Amazon Basin. It usually nests in cavities, including old hornero nests, bamboo stems and spaces under house roofs, and it is tolerant of people.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one from about 15 meters, at 1/125 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −1.5 EV. IUCN lists the Saffron Finch as Least Concern, and its comfort around houses and gardens makes it one of the easiest birds to watch near Villavicencio.
©2026 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola) belongs to the family Thraupidae (Tanagers and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2018), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List
