The Story
I photographed this Western Emerald (Chlorostilbon melanorhynchus) at the Jardín Botánico del Quindío in Calarcá, Quindío, Colombia, on July 17, 2018. The female has a blackish face with a pale gray spot behind the eye. It readily accepts man-made habitats and is fairly common across its range. The Jardín Botánico del Quindío in Calarcá is a scientific research and environmental education center, and it was the first legally constituted botanical garden in Colombia. IUCN includes the Western Emerald in its assessment of Chlorostilbon mellisugus, which it lists as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640. The regional environmental agency, the CRQ, has also entrusted the garden with eight hectares of natural forest in the Barbas Bremen forest reserve, near Filandia and Circasia.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Western Emerald (Chlorostilbon melanorhynchus) 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. IUCN does not yet assess the Western Emerald separately; this is the assessment of Blue-tailed Emerald (Chlorostilbon mellisugus), which IUCN treats as including it. Source: IUCN Red List