The Story
The shot
I photographed this Chivi Vireo (Vireo chivi) at Hacienda Guadalajara in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, on October 11, 2019. It is perched on a thin branch under a spray of green leaves, showing the crisp gray, black and white head pattern of the species. Chivi Vireos breed in the forests of the United States and Canada and spend the northern winter in South America, so a bird in Colombia in October is a migrant from the north. On their wintering grounds they eat almost entirely fruit. Palmira lies on the east bank of the Cauca River and is a center of the valley’s large sugar mills.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Chivi Vireo as Least Concern, with an increasing population.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Chivi Vireo (Vireo chivi) belongs to the family Vireonidae (Vireos, Shrike-Babblers, and Erpornis) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2019), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List
