The Story
I made this photo of a Western Emerald (Chlorostilbon melanorhynchus) at the Recinto del Pensamiento in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia. The Western Emerald 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 Recinto del Pensamiento is a 179-hectare nature reserve of Andean cloud forest above 2,000 meters, at Km 11 on the road from Manizales to the Magdalena. IUCN includes the Western Emerald in its assessment of Chlorostilbon mellisugus, which it lists as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. The reserve belongs to the Comité Departamental de Cafeteros de Caldas and is run by the Corporación para el Desarrollo de Caldas to promote nature tourism in Manizales.
©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