The Story
I photographed this Canivet’s Emerald (Cynanthus canivetii) at Hacienda Montecristo near Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. Males are only about 8 to 9 centimeters long and have a forked tail; the female’s tail is shorter and less deeply forked. In Honduras the species belongs to the subspecies osberti, which ranges from Chiapas to western Nicaragua, and across most of its range it lives from sea level up to about 1,900 meters. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I photographed him with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/60 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. Santa Rosa de Copán held its first bird festival in August 2022, organized by the local COAS Copán club, and I was glad to take part as a speaker.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Canivet’s Emerald (Cynanthus canivetii) 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 stable. Source: IUCN Red List