The Story
I photographed this Black-chested Jay (Cyanocorax affinis) in the Cincinati area above Minca, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia, at about 1,480 meters. Its yellow eye and the violet-blue spots on its black face make it easy to recognize, and males and females look alike. It is about 34 centimeters long. It lives in Colombia, northwestern Venezuela, Panama and far eastern Costa Rica, in dry and humid forest and heavily degraded former forest. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11, at 1/3000 sec, f/11, ISO 6400, −0.5 EV. The Sierra Nevada is the highest coastal range in the tropics, and its roughly 17,000 square kilometers feed 36 rivers across Magdalena, Cesar and La Guajira.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Black-chested Jay (Cyanocorax affinis) belongs to the family Corvidae (Crows, Jays, and Magpies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List