Feeders-mania!

Birding is not only about seeking for specialties in remote tracks of forest or distant sites... sometimes, the birds come right next to you... specially if you attract them!  So, sometimes we just relax and wait in front of a feeder, as we did in our last trip to Panamá's western highlands.  See these photos, for example, from the bed-&-breakfast of our great friend Glen at Nueva Suiza, Cielito Sur.

This is just a sample, Clay-colored Thrush and Cherrie's Tanagers feeding side-by-side.  In this photo you can see the field mark that separates the female Cherrie's, its bright colored chest.  We saw also Palm and Blue-gray Tanager, and a shy Buff-throated Saltator that only allowed a photo out of the feeder.

But the star was a common migrant to Panamá, the magnificent male Baltimore Oriole (and yes, we got Baltimore Orioles in Panamá, just like those in the caps).

The number of species depends of many factors like season, regularity (that is, how often you attend the feeder), type of food (grains, fruits, and so on...) and location, which is probably one of the most important.  Imagine a feeder like this, but inside a tall montane forest... yes, like those at Los Quetzales cabins, inside La Amistad International Park.  Check the first photo... how many species can you count?    I'll talk about those species next, but first check out who else visited this feeder.

Yes, the Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush was very confiding around the feeder, allowing nice photos.  This species is quite widespread, just like the Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch.

But these feeders also attracted endemic birds, including two antagonists: first, the Yellow-thighed Finch is quite common, usually found in groups, working the middle and low levels of the forest.  A black bird with conspicuous yellow thighs.

In contrast, the uncommon Black-thighed Grosbeak is a solitary canopy dweller.  A yellow bird with incospicuous black thighs.  All these birds just feet from our hands!

Only a sample, as I said!

2010's Central Christmas Bird Count

Yesterday, earlier than usual, I woke still at dark in order to drive to the sleepy town of Gamboa (central Panama) to participate in the Central Christmas Bird Count organized by the Panama Audubon Society (PAS). Under a light drizzle, and in complete darkness, I joined Bill & Claudia Ahrens and Karl & Rosabel Kaufmann at the entrance gate of the famous Pipeline Road. A pouring rain struck the town all night long, and the weather forecast was not promising. As expected, our owling outing ended with just a Pauraque and a Mottled Owl due to the rain. The road was very damaged, so we only reached the area just beyond the former Limbo hunt camp, from where I started to walk (umbrella in hand) towards my own birding area around the Mendoza river, at the 8.8 km mark, hearing no dawn chorus due to the rain, a very bad sign. After a while, the team formed by Rafael Luck, Osvaldo Quintero and Venicio "Beny" Wilson (destined to explore the depths of Pipeline road) passed me swiftly aboard the tough FJ Cruiser without a problem, but it was a huge fallen tree (and not the muddy, potholed road) that stopped them... so I joined them in their quest after birds. We walked a lot on hilly terrain, passing the Syristes river and reaching the 11.0 km mark (photo courtesy of Beny, more at his Picasa Web Album)... and we were rewarded with special birds for this count, like Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon, Buff-throated Foliage-Gleaner, Russet Antshrike, Spot-crowned Antvireo, Tawny-faced Gnatwren, Speckled Mourner, Olive Tanager and even a rare (for that area) White-throated Thrush attending an antswarm. Of course, the antswarm attracted more regular ant-follower birds too, like Bicolored, Spotted and Ocellated Antbirds, Plain-brown and Northern Barred Woodcreepers and a Rufous Motmot. It is always nice to see the Ocellated Antbirds, with their intrincated pattern and bright blue bare-skin around the eye (file photo). Well, despite this list, the activity was desperately low between the mixed flocks, and we covered large tracks of road without seeing or hearing any bird. It was getting late and we started to return, finding a nicely perched nightjar in the open (I will discuss its ID in another post) close to the Mendoza river. Out of Pipeline road, we headed to the town of Gamboa, stopping first at the Ammo Dump's marshes and finding several waterbirds, including at least two adult Rufescent Tiger-Herons and a Muscovy Duck (another heard). We checked our lists at Guido Berguido's place, finding that we saw a good number of birds despite the weather, The house is at the edge of a nice forest and it has bird feeders scattered in the backyard, attracting hordes of colourful Red-legged and Green Honeycreepers (sometimes Shiny Honeycreeper as well, but not that day), Blue Dacnis, Blue-gray, Palm, Flame-rumped and Crimson-backed Tanagers, a stunning Baltimore Oriole just like the one of the baseball caps, Gray-headed Chachalacas, Variegated Squirrels, Central American Agouti, etc, etc, etc.... the backyard list is impressive. For the afternoon, I went with Darien Montañez and Jose Luciani around Gamboa, looking for some missing birds, and we saw many of them... with Great Antshrike, Golden-winged Warbler, Yellow-billed Cacique and Northern Rough-winged Swallows as my personal highlights. Probably not the best count in terms of quantity, but it is quality what matters after all!