The Story
I photographed this Andean Emerald (Uranomitra franciae) at La Minga Ecolodge in Dapa, near Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, at about 1,990 meters. It rested for a split second on a flower stem between feeding flights. Its iridescent greens and blues shift with the angle of the light, under the soft, diffused canopy. Males have a glittering violet-blue crown, golden-green to emerald cheeks and a white center to the underparts. The species lives in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, from 600 to 2,100 meters, and besides nectar it catches insects by sallying out from a perch. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11, at 1/500 sec, f/11, ISO 3200. Cali, Yumbo, La Cumbre and Dagua have committed to conserving the San Antonio–Km 18 Key Biodiversity Area, the cloud forest around La Minga, along with its water sources.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Andean Emerald (Uranomitra franciae) 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. Source: IUCN Red List