The Story
I made this photo of a juvenile Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola) at Reserva Natural Agua Fría in Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia. Its pleasant, repetitive song and bright color have led to it being kept as a cage bird in many areas. Males are territorial and may mate with two females in a nesting season. It is common in open and semi-open lowlands outside the Amazon basin. Agua Fría is one of the civil-society reserves of Ibagué’s nature tourism network, in premontane humid forest at about 1,150 to 1,200 meters.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800. IUCN lists the Saffron Finch as Least Concern, with a stable population.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Saffron Finch (Sicalis flaveola) 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 2018), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List