The Story
I photographed this Yellow-bellied Seedeater (Sporophila nigricollis) at Hacienda Guadalajara in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad, the Lesser Antilles and every South American country except Chile and Uruguay. In Colombia it lives in all three Andean ranges, in the northeast and east of the Andes. It plucks seeds while sitting on the seed head or by bending the stalk to the ground. 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. 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 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Yellow-bellied Seedeater as Least Concern.
©2020 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