The Story
This female Sapphire-throated Hummingbird (Chrysuronia coeruleogularis) paused on a slender branch at Casa Galú, a small hotel in Capurganá, in Chocó, Colombia, seen from the balcony of the hillside cabañas. Females have entirely white underparts with distinctive green spots along the sides of the breast, while males have a broad, glistening blue throat. The species lives in Panama, Colombia and, more recently, Costa Rica. Overall it is a shiny metallic-green hummingbird, and that green shows here on the female’s back.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/30 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, +1 EV. IUCN lists it as Least Concern because of its large range and its ability to adapt to habitat change.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Sapphire-throated Hummingbird (Chrysuronia coeruleogularis) 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