The Story
I photographed this Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) at the Reserva Natural El Palmar, near Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia, in October 2020. Its extremely long bill lets it feed at flowers with long corollas that other hummingbirds cannot reach, especially Passiflora mixta. It runs a regular feeding circuit, a habit called trap-lining. It lives in humid montane forest, edges and gardens from 1,700 to 3,500 meters and builds a mossy cup nest hung among root fibers. Climate change and deforestation are its likely main threats. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. Cortolima and its partners have mapped 13 birding routes in Ibagué alone, and eBird ranks Tolima 14th in Colombia, with 778 bird species.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) 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
