The Story
I photographed this Fawn-breasted Brilliant (Heliodoxa rubinoides) at Finca La Conchita, in the Kilómetro 18 area near Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, in October 2019. It lives in the Andes from western Colombia to central Bolivia, in humid montane forest and cloud forest. It has warm buffy-cinnamon underparts and a small, isolated pinkish-lilac patch on the lower throat. When it feeds, it hovers or hangs from a flower and flicks its long tongue up to 13 times a second. It strongly defends good nectar sources, chasing off other hummingbirds, bumblebees and hawk moths. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400, −0.7 EV. Its numbers are thought to be falling as forest is lost to deforestation, farming and mining, and it is listed on CITES Appendix II.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Fawn-breasted Brilliant (Heliodoxa rubinoides) 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 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List