The Story
I photographed this Purple-throated Woodstar (Philodice mitchellii) at Finca La Conchita, in the Kilómetro 18 area near Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, in October 2019. This tiny bee hummingbird weighs about 3 grams and lives in Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. The male has a shining violet-purple gorget above a white band, while the female has a buffy white throat. It lives in humid forest and cloud forest and is most numerous above 1,000 meters. It feeds high in flowering trees such as Cordia and Inga, and males defend feeding territories. IUCN lists it as Least Concern, though its numbers are believed to be falling.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 3200. 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.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Purple-throated Woodstar (Philodice mitchellii) 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 2022), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List