The Story
On June 24, 2017, I photographed this Long-tailed Sylph (Aglaiocercus kingii) at the Río Blanco reserve near Manizales, Caldas, Colombia. It lives in open country such as scrub, clearings, forest edges and gardens, between about 900 and 3,000 meters. Andean populations move seasonally between lower and higher elevations. The male is 16 to 19 centimeters long, including outer tail feathers that alone measure about 12 centimeters. Río Blanco lies between 2,150 and 3,700 meters above sea level, with an average temperature of 11°C and about 90 percent humidity.
I used a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM for this one, at 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1000. IUCN lists the Long-tailed Sylph as Least Concern with a decreasing population, and BirdLife International lists Río Blanco as an Important Bird Area, protected because its forest supplies about a third of the drinking water of Manizales.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Long-tailed Sylph (Aglaiocercus kingii) 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 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List