The Story
This Long-tailed Tyrant (Colonia colonus) perched on a bare snag near San Pablo de Borbur, in Boyacá, Colombia, its long central tail feathers hanging below a black body. It feeds on insects, and in some places, such as Costa Rica, it specializes in stingless bees. Its lookout perch is often in the same tree as its nest. It hunts from an exposed perch, taking most prey in midair, and flicks its long tail streamers up and down, often returning to the same perch.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/180 sec, f/16, ISO 800. IUCN lists the Long-tailed Tyrant as Least Concern, and no immediate threats to it have been identified.
©2024 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Long-tailed Tyrant (Colonia colonus) 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 stable. Source: IUCN Red List