The Story
I photographed this Thick-billed Euphonia (Euphonia laniirostris) at Qawana Reserva Natural near Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia, at about 1,315 meters. His yellow forehead patch reaches just past the eye, and the rest of his head and upperparts are glossy blue-black over bright yellow underparts. It is a small euphonia with one of the thicker bills in the genus. Euphonias were long placed with the tanagers but now belong to the finch family, Fringillidae. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I photographed him with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11, at 1/250 sec, f/11, ISO 3200. Ibagué has more than 551 recorded bird species, and a SiB Colombia bird-monitoring project there describes birdwatching as an important strategy for both development and conservation.
©2021 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