The Story
I photographed this Azure-crowned Hummingbird (Saucerottia cyanocephala) in the Microcuenca La Hondura, the forested watershed just west of Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. It lives from Mexico to Nicaragua between about 600 and 2,400 meters and forages for nectar from the understory to the forest canopy. Its cup nest seems to vary in materials depending on what is locally available, and the details of its diet are still poorly known. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/350 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −0.5 EV. The municipality protects La Hondura with reforestation, fire patrols and watch against illegal logging, and the COAS Copán club birds there regularly.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Azure-crowned Hummingbird (Saucerottia cyanocephala) 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