The Story
This Flame-rumped Tanager (Ramphocelus flammigerus) was photographed at Villa de Aurora near Dapa, in the hills above Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, at about 1,980 meters. Males of the nominate subspecies are almost entirely deep black, with a velvety head and a shiny flame-scarlet lower back, rump and undertail. That subspecies has a fairly small range in Colombia, mainly in the Cauca River valley from central Antioquia south to Cauca, on both slopes above the river. The yellow-rumped form was long treated as a separate species, the Lemon-rumped Tanager. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L, at 1/350 sec, f/6.7, ISO 1600, −0.5 EV. The San Antonio cloud forest at Kilometer 18 is recognized as an Important Bird Area and a Key Biodiversity Area, with the Multicolored Tanager as its symbol species.
©2023 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