Gallery: Cinnamon Stick

From the Autumn 2024 issue of Living Bird magazine. Subscribe now.

It may look like this bird is giving the camera the stare-down, but look closely … it’s actually looking down. Spanish photographer Rafael Armada found this Cinnamon Flycatcher while exploring the Aburra Valley region of Colombia. Armada was with ornithologists documenting the northernmost population of a different species, the Yellow-headed Brushfinch, when he happened upon a pair of Cinnamon Flycatchers perched at eye level.

“At one point, one of them flew down to catch a fly while the other, still perched, followed the movement with its eyes,” says Armada. “That’s how I managed to capture this picture, where the big eyes of the flycatcher seem to be looking at me, while its beautiful yellow crest is exposed.”

See more of Armada’s work in the new book Portfolio 1: Photographs and Stories of Extraordinary Birds, available from Lynx Nature Books.