The Story
I photographed this Crimson-backed Tanager (Ramphocelus dimidiatus) at the Reserva Natural Municipal Cerro Munchique Los Tigres, near Santander de Quilichao in Cauca, Colombia. A heavy-billed tanager with a broad-based lower mandible, it lives along humid forest edges, in shrublands and around farms and gardens, feeding on insects, fruit and seeds in pairs, family groups or flocks. IUCN lists it as Least Concern with a stable population, and it is considered common in Colombia.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/125 sec, f/16, ISO 1600, −0.5 EV. Santander de Quilichao’s mayor’s office promotes the town as “la ciudad de las aves,” the city of birds, and has held a yearly bird festival since 2020.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Crimson-backed Tanager (Ramphocelus dimidiatus) 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 2021), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List