The Story
I made this photo of a Thick-billed Euphonia (Euphonia laniirostris) at Hacienda Guadalajara in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. In northern Colombia it lives in forest edges and clearings, gallery forest, farmland, gardens and trees around houses. It mostly forages in pairs and small groups and often joins mixed-species flocks. Both sexes build the nest, a globe with a side entrance made of twigs, leaves and plant fibers. Nests are usually well hidden, in tree cavities, among epiphytes and vines, or in branch forks. Palmira lies on the east bank of the Cauca River and is a center of the valley’s large sugar mills.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Thick-billed Euphonia as Least Concern, with a stable population.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Thick-billed Euphonia (Euphonia laniirostris) belongs to the family Fringillidae (Finches, Euphonias, and Allies) 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