The Story
This female Red-billed Emerald (Chlorostilbon gibsoni) perched on a twig near San Pablo de Borbur, in Boyacá, Colombia. The species lives only in Colombia and Venezuela, and the nominate subspecies is found in the Magdalena River valley. It usually feeds close to the ground, at small flowers that are less attractive to larger hummingbirds. Males have a mostly red lower mandible, the feature behind the name. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/90 sec, f/16, ISO 800, −0.5 EV. The Fura and Tena hills near town are promoted for hiking and birdwatching, with a local association running ecological tourism built around their ancestral legend.
©2024 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Red-billed Emerald (Chlorostilbon gibsoni) 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