A Visit to Finca Los Lagos (aka Ibis-Land)

The news spread like fire!  A Bare-faced Ibis returned to the same area where it was seen for the first time in Panama last year.  As you heard it, the Bare-faced Ibis found in Darien province (eastern Panama) by Pepe Castiblanco and Erasmo De Leon was the last addition to our national list of birds, but after the first few sightings, it disappeared... until now.  It reappeared in the same general area last month, and since then, several twitchers have found it with the help of Erasmo.

Finca Los Lagos, Darien

So, last Sunday I decided to try for it.  Erasmo's nephew, Jean, showed me the way through pasture land and dry riverbeds until we reached Finca Los Lagos, property of Erasmo's parents, at first light.  It was evident why it attracted so many birds... the surroundings were extremely dry due to the harsh dry season, but the place holds a lake with marshy vegetation and other wetlands that attracts tons of life.  Also, the property borders an extensive forest too... a nice combination.  We did the first try before breakfast... and I'm going to kill the suspense right away because the very first ibis we saw mere 100 meters from the house was THE ibis!

Bare-faced Ibis with Blue-winged Teals and a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

The ibis was not a lifer for me to be honest... but it was the first time ever I see one in Panama!  With its growing number in South America, I wonder why this species have not yet "invaded" our country. It was quite shy and I only managed distant shots... but hey, I got my target and I was just starting!  With the ibis in the bag, we decided to bird along the forest border in direction to a nearby wetland.  As you can imagine, we found several other species... but as suggested by the title, I was impressed with the diversity of ibises species.  In quick succession we saw Glossy, Green and White Ibises feeding on the wetlands!

Glossy Ibis

Green Ibises

White Ibises (immatures)

I don't recall any other site in Panama where you can see four different species of ibises at the same time (the Panama list of birds have seven species of ibises, with the other three extremely rare, just as the Bare-faced), indicating the quality of the habitat at the site.  The ibises were not the only one attracted to these wetlands, the ducks were well represented with large numbers of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks and Blue-winged Teals, plus at least 150 Muscovy Ducks, which are hunted in other sites.  Even a beautiful drake American Wigeon posed for photos!

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks

Muscovy Ducks

American Wigeon with Blue-winged Teals

We saw hundred of herons, egrets, jacanas and other aquatic birds... but there were other specialties too.  The flycatchers were well represented with several species, including Cattle Tyrant (in spite of its preferred habitat, it is still scarce and erratic in Panama), Pied Water-Tyrant, Rusty-margined Flycatcher, Great and Lesser Kiskadees, Tropical and Gray Kingbirds, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tyrant, and many more!  A female Golden-green Woodpecker also showed well, specially considering how difficult to find usually they are, and by the river, the nominate subspecies of Boat-billed Heron (with white-ish- breast and face) was resting in the open.

Cattle Tyrant

Long-tailed Tyrant

Golden-green Woodpecker (female)

Boat-billed Heron

In the way back, Jean took me to a little marsh where he thought the Bare-faced Ibis liked to wander.  Using some bushes as hides, we managed to approach very close to the marsh.  Effectively, the ibis was there... and this time I managed some great shots and even tape-recorded it guttural vocalization, which you can heard from this eBird checklist.

Bare-faced Ibis

What a great way to end a twitch!  My four-and-a-half-hours drive back to Panama City was definitely more bearable with the feeling of mission accomplished!  I greatly recommend contact Erasmo for a visit to this private property in eastern Panama... write him at ecotourdarien@gmail.com or through his page at EcoTourDarien.  Happy Birding!

Birding in colombian llanos and amazon region

After a great, but quick, birding trip to northwestern Ecuador, Rafael Cortes and your blogger host were again in Colombia's capital city, Bogota, making our bags in order to start the last part of this epic trip... we were heading to the eastern lowlands, to the llanos and the amazonic region around San José del Guaviare, in the department of Guaviare (and where the road actually ends!).  For this part of the trip we were joined by Mauricio Rueda, a friend of Rafael who only counts the birds he photographs... and is very good doing that!  We left the busy Bogota city and took the same highway that we used for our first birding trip out of the huge city some weeks before (with Oswaldo).  The winding road runs parallel to a rushing river, and I was searching it, trying to find the Fasciated Tiger-Heron that we saw the last time, but no luck on that (photo from that day).  However, we saw several others birds from the car, including Cliff Flycatchers, Lesser Swallow-tailed Swifts, Crested Oropendola, Magpie Tanager (near the Monterredondo), and many more.

It was mostly a travel day... but that doesn't mean that we didn't see any bird... as soon as we left the andean slopes we started to see species typical of the lowlands: Roadside Hawk, Pale-vented Pigeon, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Carib Grackle, Oriole Blackbirds, tons of herons and ibises.  Definitively, the bird of the day was the Scarlet Ibis.  Mauricio spotted a flock so Rafael stopped the car in order to have better views... it was a spectacular lifer for me, that color is unreal!  Compare it with the abundant Bare-faced Ibis in the second photo (also a immature Wattled Jacana in the same frame).

We arrived at night, left our thing at our rooms in the hotel and then had dinner with our guides Luis Fernando Galindez ("Lucho") and Derly Blandon (who is training in order to become a guide)  at a tiny restaurant by the main square.  Very early the next day, we left San José del Guaviare and drove all the way to the community of Playa Guio, our home for the next three days.  The cabins were in the opposite of the Caño Negro creek, so we left the car and loaded the boat with all the bags and photographic equipment.  We started birding immediately... the first birds being hordes of ancient-looking Hoatzines (we were no longer in the Andes anymore!).   

Right in the dinning hall, I got my first lifers for the day.  A pair of attractive White-eared Jacamars were flycatching while a gang of noisy Thrush-like Wrens inspected every single branch around the house.

A Ruddy Pigeon started to call right in front of us and soon we were having good views of this canopy dweller.

I'm used to the heat... but in Playa Guio, it was suffocating... however, we enjoyed the beauty of the forest and the river.  A pair of Scarlet Macaws flew in front of us... they turned out to be semi-pets of the house, but they wander freely in the forest (I'm not including this species in my list, of course).

At our cabin (powered by solar panels), we have a close encounter with a young Rufescent Tiger-Heron that allowed some VERY nice photos!  This was our second Tiger-Heron for Colombia.

And all this even before our first walk through the forest!  Stay tuned for more!