The Story
I photographed this Sooty-capped Hermit (Phaethornis augusti) near La Macarena, Meta, Colombia, in February 2021. It is grayish brown above with a rufous rump, and its face has a black mask with a white eyebrow and throat stripe. The tail feathers next to the central pair are longer than the rest, and all have white tips. Its nest is a cone-shaped cup of moss and spider web, sometimes with dried mud on the outside, and a nest may be reused within a season. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L for this one, at 1/1000 sec, f/6.7, ISO 800, −0.5 EV. La Macarena National Park traces its origins to the La Macarena Biological Reserve of 1948 and today covers 629,280 hectares of humid forest, flooded forest, scrub and Amazonian savanna.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Sooty-capped Hermit (Phaethornis augusti) 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 2018), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List