The Story
I photographed this juvenile Green Honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) at La Florida El Bosque de las Aves, at Kilometer 18 near Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, at about 1,990 meters, in February 2021. Its feathers were dotted with small circles of blue, the promise of its adult color, and the muted forest light picked out those specks of blue against the green. Adult females have a grass-green head and upperparts with paler green underparts. The species lives in the tropical New World from southern Mexico to Brazil and on Trinidad, and its genus name means “showing green” in Greek. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L, at 1/1000 sec, f/6.7, ISO 800, −1 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.
©2024 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Green Honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) 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 2021), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List