This Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus icterotis) perched beside a pale trunk at the Mirador de Las Palmas lookout in Roncesvalles, Tolima, Colombia, its yellow ear patches clear against green plumage. The parrot lives in the Colombian Andes and depends on the Quindío wax palm. IUCN lists it as Vulnerable, with numbers increasing thanks in part to conservation work. It nests in the hollow trunks of wax palms, often 25 to 30 meters above the ground.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/45 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. Its decline was driven by hunting and by the cutting of wax palms for Palm Sunday, and ProAves’ yearly campaign in Roncesvalles and other towns asks residents to protect the palm the parrot needs.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus icterotis) belongs to the family Psittacidae (New World and African Parrots) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Conservation
Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List