The Story
This White-vented Plumeleteer (Chalybura buffonii) was at Spa Ambiental Turística Los Alpes in Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia when I photographed it. Its nest is a cup of plant down bound with spiderweb, with moss and lichen on the outside. It seems able to tolerate some habitat disturbance. It mostly forages by trap-lining, visiting a circuit of flowers, but it also defends rich patches aggressively. The male has a bluish green throat and belly and a blue breast. Los Alpes is one of the civil-society reserves of Ibagué’s nature tourism network, a small property in tropical dry forest at about 950 meters.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. IUCN lists the White-vented Plumeleteer as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The White-vented Plumeleteer (Chalybura buffonii) 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 2022), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List