The Story
The shot
I made this photo of a Steely-vented Hummingbird (Saucerottia saucerottei) at the Recinto del Pensamiento in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia on July 19, 2018. It is a hummingbird of Colombia and Venezuela, dark glittering golden-green below with greenish to steel-blue undertail coverts. In most of its range it lives between sea level and about 1,500 meters and forages for nectar at low bushes and trees. It was formerly placed in the genus Amazilia. The Recinto del Pensamiento is a 179-hectare nature reserve of Andean cloud forest above 2,000 meters, at Km 11 on the road from Manizales to the Magdalena. IUCN lists the Steely-vented Hummingbird as Least Concern, with a decreasing population (2021).
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. The reserve belongs to the Comité Departamental de Cafeteros de Caldas and is run by the Corporación para el Desarrollo de Caldas to promote nature tourism in Manizales.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Steely-vented Hummingbird (Saucerottia saucerottei) 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
