The Story
I photographed this Thick-billed Euphonia (Euphonia laniirostris) at La Huerta Hotel at Lago Calima, in Yotoco, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Both sexes build the nest, a globe with a side entrance made of twigs, leaves and plant fibers. Nests are usually well hidden, in tree cavities, among epiphytes and vines, or in branch forks. Lago Calima is a reservoir of about 19 square kilometers, built for a hydroelectric project and later taken over by the regional environmental agency, the CVC. IUCN lists the Thick-billed Euphonia as Least Concern, with a stable population.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. In 2024 the CVC declared more than 18,000 hectares of the upper Calima basin a new protected area, linking it with the Río Bravo forest reserve and the Páramo El Duende regional park.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Thick-billed Euphonia (Euphonia laniirostris) belongs to the family Fringillidae (Finches, Euphonias, and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List