The Story
I photographed this White-rimmed Brushfinch (Atlapetes leucopis) along the Trampolín de la Muerte, the mountain road above Mocoa, Putumayo, Colombia, at about 2,296 meters. It is found only in Colombia and Ecuador, and in Colombia it lives in the Central Andes from Huila south and on the eastern side of the Eastern Andes from Caquetá south. There it ranges between 2,100 and 3,000 meters. It forages in dense foliage on the ground and up to about 5 meters above it. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 for this one, at 1/1500 sec, f/11, ISO 6400. The road from San Francisco to Mocoa opened in 1944 and runs between about 600 and 2,800 meters, crossing from Andean forest into the Amazonian foothills.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The White-rimmed Brushfinch (Atlapetes leucopis) belongs to the family Passerellidae (New World Sparrows) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2018), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List