PRECARIOUS BIRDS

Coelingena orina, Glittering Starfrontlet

Fewer than 250 of these critically endangered Colombian hummingbirds are believed to exist, high in the Andean cloud forest and humid forests in Colombia. The male hummingbird’s plumage sparkles green, blue and gold. In the two, tiny areas of Colombia this species struggles to exist there are rich deposits of gold, zinc and copper. These sparkling minerals are valued over the hummingbirds plumage.

I planned to draw 250 versions of the same image and animate them – I only made it to 50, which is the lower estimate of extant birds.

Formerly, Dusky Starfrontlet. In Spanish, ‘Colibri del Sol’ means Hummingbird of the Sun.