The Story
I photographed this female Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) near Santander de Quilichao in Cauca, Colombia. Females lack the male’s vivid red, with grayish upperparts and whitish underparts that shade into a peach or light-red wash on the belly, and both sexes hunt insects on short sallies from a perch. The species remains abundant, though habitat loss has caused declines in parts of its range. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/750 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −1 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 Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) belongs to the family Tyrannidae (Tyrant Flycatchers) 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 increasing. Source: IUCN Red List