The Story
On June 22, 2017, I photographed this Sparkling Violetear (Colibri coruscans) at the Recinto del Pensamiento in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia. It is a hummingbird of the highlands of northern and western South America, including much of the Andes. It lives in many semi-open habitats, even gardens and parks in large cities, and is often the most common hummingbird in its range. It has long violet-blue ear plumes that it can raise, and a green tail with a steel-blue band near the tip. Manizales is the capital of Caldas and was founded on October 12, 1849, by a group of twenty settlers from Antioquia.
I used a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM for this one, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Sparkling Violetear as Least Concern, and most of the Recinto del Pensamiento’s 179 hectares are a protected and productive nature reserve.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Sparkling Violetear (Colibri coruscans) 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). Source: IUCN Red List