The Story
This female Blue-chested Hummingbird (Polyerata amabilis) perched on a bright red heliconia bract at Casa Galú, a small hotel in Capurganá, in Chocó, Colombia, her green back and the curve of her bill in clear view. The species lives in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador, including degraded former forest. It feeds on nectar by trap-lining, visiting the same flowers on a regular circuit, defends feeding territories where nectar is scarce, and gleans small insects from leaves. 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 1/30 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −1 EV. Capurganá can be reached only by boat or small plane, and it has no cars, which keeps the village and its forest edges quiet for birds like this one.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Blue-chested Hummingbird (Polyerata amabilis) 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