Easter outing

After a long free weekend, due to the Holly Week festivities, I went with my family in a short outing to the Metropolitan Natural Park, in Panama City.  The truth is that we were just seeking to leave home for a while... and this park (mere 5 minutes from our place) is a great place to spend a couple of hours.

But first, some egg hunt!  My wife placed some decorated eggs in the woods ... my daughter found them all in a few minutes.  She still don't know the meaning of Easter... but certainly had fun looking for them in the woods!  I found my own jewels in the woods... a particular fruiting tree attended by many resident and migrant birds.  In the ground, picking up fallen fruits, was this usually-hard-to-see Orange-billed Sparrow.

Orange-billed Sparrow

It was joined by these migrants:

Bay-breasted Warblers

Yes, those were Bay-breasted Warblers picking up the fallen fruits too.  There were more in the tree itself, accompanying Chestnut-sided and Yellow Warblers (both migrants as well), and several White-shouldered Tanagers that never left the canopy.  This species exhibit a notorious sexual dimorphism... males and females look completely different.

male White-shouldered Tanager

female White-shouldered Tanager

They were joined in the canopy of the tree by this beautiful male Black-crowned Tityra.  It stayed just for a few seconds... and was alone.  We usually see pairs of tityras on fruiting trees.

male Black-crowned Tityra

As you can see, we all enjoyed our Easter.   Happy Easter to all!

Visiting the Metro Park

I don't know why I don't visit more often the Metropolitan Natural Park. It is right here in Panama City and holds a huge list of both resident and migrant species. Trying to change that, I went this morning to the Mono Titi trail, where I joined Osvaldo Quintero. The park is quite popular, and we crossed several groups of joggers, birders, trekkers, or people simply having a walk through nature. At first, we saw mostly big-sized birds, like the always-present Blue-crowned Motmot, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, White-tipped Doves, at least three Scaled Pigeons high on a tree, some Slaty-tailed Trogons heard and a female Black-throated Trogon that welcomed us with her calls. Is when you see the female of this species that you understand why its scientific name is Trogon rufus. Then, we started to see the smaller species of tanagers, greenlets, flycatchers and warblers that are very common in these forests. Of course, we were paying more attention to the warblers and other migrants. In the lookout, the fruiting trees were full of migrants, including several Bay-breasted Warblers, some of them acquiring parts of their breeding plumage. Other migrants present were tons of Great Crested Flycatchers, Yellow-throated Vireos vocalizing and Chestnut-sided and Yellow Warblers. Soon the lookout got crowded with a group of little children, and the place became quite noisy... time to move on. In the way out, we find others common residents of the park, like the Red-throated Ant-Tanagers, both Scarlet and Yellow rumped Caciques, and a immature male Lance-tailed Manakin calling and displaying, allowing some great pictures. As you can see in the photo, this male still have some olive in its plumage. At the entrance, by "The Fortress", a mixed flock stopped us for a while. We saw one active Black-tailed Flycatcher, fanning its tail and exposing its yellow rump, several Southern Bentbills, Yellow-margined Flycatchers and Greenish Elaenia. We also got more Chestnut-sided and Bay-breasted Warblers plus another Yellow-throated Vireo and resident Plain-colored Tanagers. A calling bird out in the open turned out to be a Northern Scrub-Flycatcher, who stayed for photos. We waited in front of a fruiting tree waiting for the mixed flocks to pass, but we only got some Red-legged Honeycreepers and more Plain-colored Tanagers. In the other side of the field, a group of birders, guided by our friend José Carlos, were focused on a patch of tangles where they heard, and then saw, a rare White-eyed Vireo (!!!), and a coperative Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant that showed well when we finally arrived to the place (but the vireo left). The pale eye of the pygmy tyrant is not very conspicuous in the field, but you can see in my photo its pale legs and mandible, plus its compact size. By the end, at a mango tree right in the entrance, a pair of Green Honeycreepers were inspecting the dead leaves... both of them stopped their duties to have a look at me. For a short walk, we saw tons of birds... definitively I will try to visit more often this place!

Warblers and Hummingbirds at Altos del María

Altos del María is a huge, private residential development located in the foothills of western Panama province, above the town of Sora. A resident there, Alfred Raab, and his friend from Switzerland, Robert Furrer, kindly agreed to guide me, Osvaldo Quintero and Rafael Luck into this still-little-known hot spot. Due to camera battery issues (I left it at home accidentally!), ALL the photos in this post are copyright Rafael Luck. The place turned out to be warblers' heaven! In the first stop, in second growth habitat, we found both Tennessee and Bay-breasted Warblers (the latter with buffy underparts including the undertail coverts and chestnut flanks) with some common residents like Variable Seedeaters, Plain Wren and Streaked Saltator. A little higher, we stopped at a clearing bordering a forested area around 950 meters above sea level. We immediately noticed the activity of both resident and migrant birds around us. Among a group of Clay-colored Thrushes, I saw for just a few second an infiltrated White-throated Thrush... but when I was about to show it to the others, others birds caught our attention. A big mixed flocks of warblers was passing by the woods. The first one to appear was an adult male Golden-winged Warbler... simply beautiful. Then, we got more Tennessee Warblers, two Black-and-white Warblers, a Black-throated Green Warbler (only seen first by Rafael, but then it showed well for the rest of us) and an absolutely great adult male American Redstart. A winter-plumaged warbler caught my attention... at first, we thought it was a Bay-breasted Warbler, but we noticed its yellower underparts (not buffy) with faint streaks in the chest and sides, plus white undertail coverts... a Blackpoll Warbler! There are just a handful of reports for this species in Panama, and is my first in maaaany years. Others migrants accompanying the flock were the Yellow-throated and Philadelphia Vireos. Both species of vireos were more cooperative than the warblers, moving slower along the branches and with the Philadelphia Vireo even sitting for a while, allowing some photos. This individual was particularly yellowish in the underparts... I'm used to see them with quite whitish underparts in Panama. Eventually, we were not able to follow the flock anymore and decided to move on despite the insistent chipping of a resident Rufous-capped Warbler. Alfred took us into the mountain, into the real cloud forest around 1000 meters above sea level, in a site where he and Robert saw a singing Brown Violetear the day before... and there it was, almost in the same place, singing its loud call (for a hummingbird) in an exposed branch. Despite it was against the sun, Rafael managed to take very good photos, like the one I'm showing here. Altos del María is a regular site for this erratic species in Panama, and Alfred have done a good job figuring out its haunts. In the same forest, but in a different site, Alfred reserved a surprise for us. At the end of a wide trail, he showed us no less than three adult males Snowcaps chasing each other and perching for few seconds near the canopy of a flowered tree. Amazing! These are very special hummingbirds, with a kind of patchy distribution in Panama. The trail also produced a singing Thrush-like Schiffornis, a flock of Black-faced Grosbeaks and wintering Blackburnian and Canada Warblers. In a marshy area we got Mourning Warbler and Northern Waterthrush, while in the nearby forest along a beautiful creek (walking along a brand new paved trail!) we found Spotted Woodcreeper, White-throated Spadebill and heard a Black-crowned Antpitta. What a wonderful place! In total, we saw twelve (12) migrant warblers! And I'm pretty sure that we still have not seen everything in Altos del María. Thank you Alfred for your company and expertise... shall we do this again, don't we?

More and more migrants

I went yesterday to the Metropolitan Natural Park of Panama City, taking advantage of the free day. The two previous day have been amazing due to the thousands of hawks and vultures that flew over the city in their way to the south and yesterday the counters at Ancon Hill (that hill with the panamanian flag covered in migrant Turkey Vultures) that the raptors stayed at the forest surrounding the former Canal Area. So, I was expecting to find many raptors in the park waiting for the day to heat-up to re-start the migration. The same did Osvaldo Quintero and Itzel Fong... they also went to the park looking for sleepy raptors. We hardly saw any migrant raptor in our way to El Mirador, but saw many migrant songbirds, specially tons of Swainson's Thrushes and Eastern Wood-Pewees (both were aboundant). At El Mirador, the activity was low... but after a few minutes we started to see some Turkey Vultures, then other group, and then another! In seconds, we saw tons of Turkey Vultures at the thermal currents gaining altitude from all the surrounding forests! Then we saw some Swainson's Hawks too approaching quite close to us, including one individual that flew so close over our heads that I barely captured part of it in the photo. By that time, the whole city was covered in migrat vultures and hawks, literally!!!

We realized that the main route was following the coast, a little distant of us, so we started to walk the way down to the parking lot at the entrance of the trails. We found a big mixed flock after passing the entrance to La Cieneguita trail with many resident species like Lesser and Golden-fronted Greenlets, White-shouldered Tanagers, one Green Shrike-Vireo and some Red-throated Ant-Tanagers; but also including some migrant warblers. The most common was the Bay-breasted Warbler. We found several individuals with variable amount of chestnut on its flanks. I checked them all very well looking for something rarer... but all seemed to be Bay-breasted Warblers in basic plumage. The other pretty common parulid was the Chestnut-sided Warbler. It is amazing how much they change... the alternate and basic-plumaged birds look like different species! However, it is very distinctive even with its winter dress. You can recognize them (even in my photo) by its bright-green crown and back, the complete white eye-ring and its lemon-yellow wingbars. The flock also included a magnificent male Golden-winged Warbler. It was so active, never stopping its quest for insects high on the trees, so I only got blurry photos. It is a shame because that bird is a real jewel. Other warblers at the park, but not in that particular flock, were the Yellow Warblers and the Blackburnian Warblers (both photos are from Costa del Este recently). The Yellow Warbler is one of the most common migrant songbird in Panama, but not in the forest. We also have a resident population, the "Mangrove" Warbler, distinctive different and considered by many as a good species. About the Blackburnians, they become very common in the park (and around the city) for a short period of time... this time I saw only one probable individual briefly while seeing the raptors from El Mirador (this species was pretty common just a couple of weeks ago). Close to the parking lot (at "El Castillo"), I saw a thrush perched quietly at the border of the trail. A quick look with my binoculars confirmed it to be a Gray-cheeked Thrush instead of the aboundant Swainsons'. Both Itzel and Osvaldo asked me: who??, so I showed them the bird, who stayed enough for some photos. It turned out that it was a lifer for both of them! Curiously, that was the second time this season that I see the bird exactly in the same place... so it was not a new year-bird for me, but an exciting lifer (and life photo) for my companions. We then drove to the Visitors Center of the park to have a well-deserved drink... but Osvaldo had a surprise for us. He took us behind the wildlife rehab facilities and in a matter of seconds, a splendid young Common "Mangrove" Black-Hawk appeared to inspect us, probably waiting for us to feed him. Of course we took tons of photos of the cooperative bird, who stayed in the nearby forest when the park's personnel released him. Great way to end the day!