The Story
This is a Steely-vented Hummingbird (Saucerottia saucerottei) that I photographed at the Jardín Botánico del Quindío in Calarcá, Quindío, Colombia on June 16, 2017. It was formerly placed in the genus Amazilia. In most of its range it lives between sea level and about 1,500 meters and forages for nectar at low bushes and trees. It is a hummingbird of Colombia and Venezuela, dark glittering golden-green below with greenish to steel-blue undertail coverts. The garden’s main site is a research and environmental-education center in a remnant of native forest in Calarcá.
I photographed it with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/2000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Steely-vented Hummingbird as Least Concern with a decreasing population, and the garden, a nonprofit foundation, also looks after eight hectares of natural forest in the Barbas-Bremen reserve near Filandia and Circasia.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Steely-vented Hummingbird (Saucerottia saucerottei) 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. Source: IUCN Red List