The Story
I photographed this female Blue-tailed Emerald (Chlorostilbon mellisugus) at the Finca Ecoturística Canaguaros, near Tauramena, Casanare, Colombia, in January 2020. It lives in South America east of the Andes, from Colombia to the Guianas and south to northern Bolivia and central Brazil. Females have a blackish mask with a pale gray stripe behind the eye, pale gray underparts and a blue-black tail tipped whitish gray. It feeds mostly by trap-lining, though in some areas it defends patches of flowers, and it hawks small insects from a perch. It places its cup nest of plant down and spider silk on a sloping branch, often within a meter of the ground. IUCN lists it as Least Concern, though its numbers are believed to be falling.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 3200. It occurs in several protected areas and has adapted to human-made landscapes.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Blue-tailed Emerald (Chlorostilbon mellisugus) 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