The Story
I made this photo of a Yellow-bellied Seedeater (Sporophila nigricollis) at the Jardín Botánico San Jorge in Ibagué, Tolima, Colombia. It is mainly a bird of grassy places, including clearings, fallow fields and weedy old pastures. In the breeding season it usually forages in pairs, and outside it, it often forms flocks that can exceed 20 birds. Males have a black head and throat, while females are warm buffy brown. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad, the Lesser Antilles and every South American country except Chile and Uruguay. Ibagué, the capital of Tolima, sits on the Central Andes between the Combeima Canyon and the Magdalena valley, near Nevado del Tolima.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400, −1 EV. IUCN lists the Yellow-bellied Seedeater as Least Concern.
©2019 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Yellow-bellied Seedeater (Sporophila nigricollis) belongs to the family Thraupidae (Tanagers and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025). Source: IUCN Red List