The Story
This Red-rumped Woodpecker (Veniliornis kirkii) clung upright to a textured trunk near San Pablo de Borbur, in Boyacá, Colombia, braced on its tail. It eats adult and larval wood-boring beetles and other insects, and it digs its nest hole in a living tree or palm, usually 3 to 8 meters above the ground. It stays in the same area year-round and is considered uncommon to fairly common in different parts of its range.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/180 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. IUCN lists the Red-rumped Woodpecker as Least Concern, and it is found from Costa Rica south to Peru and east to Brazil, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.
©2024 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Red-rumped Woodpecker (Veniliornis kirkii) belongs to the family Picidae (Woodpeckers) 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