The Story
I photographed this Tourmaline Sunangel (Heliangelus exortis) at the Río Blanco reserve near Manizales, Caldas, Colombia on June 24, 2017. It is a hummingbird of the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador, found in all three of Colombia’s Andean ranges. It lives in humid and wet premontane forest, especially cloud forest and elfin forest, mostly between 2,300 and 3,400 meters. It defends its feeding spots aggressively and usually clings to flowers to feed rather than hovering. More than 360 bird species have been recorded at Río Blanco, and it is known among birders for its antpittas.
I took this with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Tourmaline Sunangel as Least Concern with a decreasing population, and Río Blanco, a protected forest reserve managed by the regional authority Corpocaldas, supplies about 35 percent of the drinking water of Manizales.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Tourmaline Sunangel (Heliangelus exortis) 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 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List