The Story
On June 22, 2017, I photographed this Flame-rumped Tanager (Ramphocelus flammigerus) in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia. It is found from Panama to Peru. Males are velvety black with a shining flame-scarlet lower back and rump. Manizales sits on the steep ridges of Colombia’s Central Cordillera, near the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, which rises to 5,321 meters. Caldas has 837 bird species on record, about 45 percent of the birds of Colombia. Females are brownish above with a reddish-orange rump and pale yellow underparts.
I used a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM for this one, at 1/250 sec, f/11, ISO 400. IUCN lists the Flame-rumped Tanager as Least Concern with an increasing population, and the city of Manizales owns and protects forest fragments such as the Ecoparque Los Yarumos inside its urban area.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Flame-rumped Tanager (Ramphocelus flammigerus) belongs to the family Thraupidae (Tanagers and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2023), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List