The Story
This Brown Violetear (Colibri delphinae) perched diagonally across a branch at La Minga Ecolodge in Dapa, near Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Its brown plumage looks muted at first, but faint flashes of violet on the throat and a hint of green iridescence around the face show against the soft greens and warm background. It breeds in forest between 400 and 1,600 meters and spreads widely into the lowlands when not nesting. It feeds on nectar from small flowers of trees, shrubs and epiphytes, and it catches insects in flight for protein. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 for this one, at 1/250 sec, f/11, ISO 800, −1.5 EV. The San Antonio cloud forest at Kilometer 18, where La Minga sits, is recognized as an Important Bird Area and a Key Biodiversity Area, with the Multicolored Tanager as its symbol species.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Brown Violetear (Colibri delphinae) 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