The place
Caracolí Bird House, Villavicencio, Meta, Colombia. At the foot of the Andes in Villavicencio, Caracolí sets out fruit for the birds of the llanos edge, and aracaris, parakeets, euphonias and tanagers come in to feed. I was there just after 7 a.m. on a September morning in 2025.
The shot
This female clung to a moss-covered branch, her head angled upward in quiet focus. From about eleven meters away I worked at a very slow 1/45 second, and the R5’s in-body stabilization held fine feather detail and the texture of the moss sharp at 1120 mm.
The bird
A woodpecker of the family Picidae, the Little Woodpecker (Veniliornis passerinus) is a non-migratory resident that BirdLife rates as highly forest-dependent, found from sea level to about 1,300 m.
Conservation
Least Concern (IUCN Red List, last assessed 2018), with a stable population trend, according to BirdLife. Source: BirdLife International