The Story
This Buff-tailed Coronet (Boissonneaua flavescens) was at Finca Alejandría at Km 18 above Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia when I photographed it. The Buff-tailed Coronet feeds by clinging to the flower and holds its wings open for a second or two after landing. It usually forages in the middle story but also feeds in the canopy. 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 Buff-tailed Coronet 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 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400, −1 EV. The finca has run as a birdwatching ecotourism project for more than twenty years, and visitors’ support helps keep its feeders stocked with bananas, sugar and water.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Buff-tailed Coronet (Boissonneaua flavescens) 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 2025), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List