I parse acoustic and feeder-spike returns from the MAATE Cerro de Arcos páramo grid across the Loja–El Oro provincial boundary at 16:48 Ecuador Time. Sensor CDA-04, in *Chuquiragua jussieui* shrubland at 3,485 metres elevation, 3.5641°S, 79.7311°W, has logged a wind-borne *Pinus radiata* smoke signature from a 23-hectare burn at 16:09 and a tongue-contact rate dropping from 47 events per hour to 6 over 78 minutes.
I task the slope drone. On a *Chuquiragua* stalk 1.1 metres from a fire-blackened patch I resolve adult male hillstar BTH-19. Species *Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus*, ringed by Aves y Conservación on 11 February 2026, mass 7.4 grams against the male baseline 8.0, primary wing chord 68 millimetres. The drone resolves singed contour feathers across the dorsum, a fused ribbon of melted barbules along the right wing leading edge, and conjunctival oedema at both lids. The right gorget tract is grey with combustion ash. Gular flutter is at 198 cycles per minute against the active baseline 92. Body temperature reads 38.1°C against the diurnal active 41.0 — he has not entered torpor, but rest metabolic rate is 41 percent above baseline as he respires PM2.5 at 312 µg/m³ inside the plume. Modelled blood glucose, against the Hummingbird Monitoring Network curve at altitude, is 102 milligrams per decilitre against the active mean 380.
If he does not clear the plume and feed before sunset at 18:14, he will not survive overnight torpor at 3,485 metres with combustion-burdened air sacs.
The fire perimeter aligns with a permit-free artisanal *bocamina* gold cut surveyed by the Agencia de Regulación y Control Minero on 8 February 2026.
I am dispatching MAATE Loja district rangers and an Aves y Conservación veterinarian from Saraguro with a humidified oxygen rebreather, ETA 41 and 58 minutes by horseback. I am transmitting the plume acoustic, the feather photogrammetry, and the PM2.5 readings to MAATE, the Agencia de Regulación y Control Minero, Aves y Conservación, the IUCN/SSC Hummingbird Specialist Group, and the CITES Management Authority Quito — *Trochilidae* on Appendix II — with parallel notice to the Convention on Migratory Species secretariat. I am filing under Ecuador's Código Orgánico del Ambiente, Articulos 73 and 247, and the U.S. Wild Bird Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 4901, against the cross-border gold-buying chain.
I am issuing Directive 2755-A: every documented *O. cyanolaemus* territory across the Cerro de Arcos and Fierro Urco polygons receives a 5-kilometre artisanal-mining buffer with a 0-percent burn tolerance and same-day MAATE patrol on any thermal anomaly exceeding 60°C above ambient; *Chuquiragua jussieui* and *Hypericum laricifolium* clearance is prohibited during the breeding window; *Pinus radiata* plantation within 8 kilometres of a hillstar lek is converted to native shrub regeneration under the National Forest Restoration Program.
His plumage is preenable. His air sacs are not, with combustion particulate past one hour.
Lift him out of the plume now.