The Story
I made this photo of a Lesser Violetear (Colibri cyanotus) at the Recinto del Pensamiento in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia. The Lesser Violetear forages alone but gathers at flowering trees, especially the Inga trees that shade coffee. It feeds mainly on nectar and small insects. The Recinto del Pensamiento is a 179-hectare nature reserve of Andean cloud forest above 2,000 meters, at Km 11 on the road from Manizales to the Magdalena. IUCN includes the Lesser Violetear in its assessment of Colibri thalassinus, which it lists as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600, +1 EV. The reserve belongs to the Comité Departamental de Cafeteros de Caldas and is run by the Corporación para el Desarrollo de Caldas to promote nature tourism in Manizales.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Lesser Violetear (Colibri cyanotus) belongs to the family Trochilidae (Hummingbirds) 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. IUCN does not yet assess the Lesser Violetear separately; this is the assessment of Green Violetear (Colibri thalassinus), which IUCN treats as including it. Source: IUCN Red List