The Story
I photographed this Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) at Finca La Esmeralda, near Santander de Quilichao in Cauca, Colombia. He hunts from a perch, flying out on short sallies to catch insects in mid-air and sometimes dropping to the ground for them. The species prefers semi-open country, and in Colombia it is a familiar bird of pastures, farms and gardens with scattered trees. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I photographed him with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/60 sec, f/16, ISO 1600, −0.5 EV. Santander de Quilichao’s mayor’s office promotes the town as “la ciudad de las aves,” the city of birds, and has held a yearly bird festival since 2020.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) belongs to the family Tyrannidae (Tyrant Flycatchers) 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 increasing. Source: IUCN Red List
