The Story
This Blue-winged Mountain Tanager (Anisognathus somptuosus) was at Finca Alejandría at Km 18 above Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia when I photographed it. The Blue-winged Mountain Tanager lives in highland forest and woodland in the Andes of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, with a separate population in the Venezuelan Coastal Range. Finca Alejandría sits in cloud forest at Km 18 on the road from Cali to Buenaventura, and it is an eBird hotspot with more than 340 bird species recorded, about 40 of them hummingbirds. IUCN lists the Blue-winged Mountain Tanager as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800. Raúl Nieto, who runs the finca, won second place in the 2023 Gemas environmental awards for a project that uses birding as a strategy for conservation.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Blue-winged Mountain Tanager (Anisognathus somptuosus) belongs to the family Thraupidae (Tanagers 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 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List