The Story
I photographed this Western Emerald (Chlorostilbon melanorhynchus) at Hacienda Guadalajara in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It is found from the Western Andes of Colombia south into Ecuador. The male has a glittering green crown with gold highlights and a steel blue tail. 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. Palmira lies on the east bank of the Cauca River and is a center of the valley’s large sugar mills.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/2000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN includes the Western Emerald in its assessment of Chlorostilbon mellisugus, which it lists as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.
©2020 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