The Story
I made this photo of a Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) at La Huerta Hotel at Lago Calima, in Yotoco, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. The Vermilion Flycatcher prefers riverside and semi-open habitats. It catches insects in flight. Females build a shallow open cup nest and incubate the eggs, and the male feeds the female during incubation. Both parents feed the chicks, which are ready to fledge after about 15 days. 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 Vermilion Flycatcher as Least Concern, with an increasing population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. In 2024 the CVC also made 1,277 hectares of the Hatoviejo hacienda in Yotoco a protected area, connecting dry forest with cloud forest.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) belongs to the family Tyrannidae (Tyrant Flycatchers) 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 increasing. Source: IUCN Red List