Trying again eastern Panama province for THE heron

Officially, we are experiencing an invasion of South American species into Panama.  The most remarkable example so far is the influx of Whistling Herons, the last ones seen in Gorgona (West Panama province) and another close to the town of Santa María in the Azuero Peninsula, both 100 and 200 km to the east of the first report close to Chepo! (see this eBird map).  In a random afternoon, I went to the original site close to Chepo with Osvaldo Quintero, who still needs the heron for his life list.  When we arrived, the place was very dry and hot.  We decided to explore the surroundings because the Whistling Heron was not in the original site.

Great Egret

Cattle Egret

We saw other herons species, like Little Blue Heron and both Great and Cattle Egrets.  The last two breed very close to the site; however, these were not the heron we were looking for!  Back in the site, we decided to wait.  Some common species started to show up as the afternoon wore on and the temperature descended.  We noticed a pair of active Pied Water-Tyrants picking insects from the ground and flying to some low bushes at the banks of a pond.

Pied Water-Tyrant 

Pied Water-Tyrant's nest

As you can see, they were carrying food into a globular nest... probably for some hungry chicks.  The minutes passed and the heron did not appear.  To protect me from the sun, I waited under the shade of a tree... and I was accompanied!  This little friend was also taking advantage of the shade to capture some ants.

Yellow-headed Gecko

Yellow-headed Gecko

This is a male Yellow-headed Gecko.  In the field, its body looks all dark... but a closer look reveals an intricate pattern of silver lines all over the body, except the lower belly and the tail, that has a white tip.  Also notice the blue spangles under the eye... sublime.  According to my grandparents, the introduced (and now abundant) House Geckos replaced this species in and around the houses... but this is prettier!

Buff-breasted Wren

After five hours, we saw no signs of the heron.  This Buff-breasted Wren said goodbye with several phrases of its sonorous song.  The bars in the closed wing were more evident in the field, just like those in the tail, separating it from the similar Plain Wren that is also present in the same habitat.  After all, it was a nice day in eastern Panama province!

Code 5: Whistling Heron!

Almost exactly one year ago, a new bird for Panama (and North America), a Whistling Heron, was found in the pastures close to the town of Chepo, in eastern Panama (45 minutes from Panama City).  Intensive search at and around the site were unsuccessful.  Personally, I visited the site several times (chronicles here).  A previous record (from february 2010) was validated in eBird only after photographic evidence was sent to the regional reviewer (me).  Then, my friend and professional birder Guido Berguido (from Advantage Tours, found another Whistling Heron yesterday close to the original site while guiding a birding group late in the afternoon!  In a show of camaraderie, he sent a report almost immediately through social networks, with specific details of the site.

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks

Although I considered going there early today, my job duties prevented me of doing so... but then Rafael Lau photographed the bird this morning almost exactly in the same site.  I took advantage of a gap in my agenda, waited for Gloriela and Gabrielle and went to the site.  It took me one and a half hour to reach the site due to the traffic jams in the city, leaving me only one hour to search the area and find the bird before returning to my clinic with the patients!  Coincidentally, we joined our friend Justo Camargo in the road.  He spent four hours searching for the heron with no luck, so he decided to join us for another try.  He showed me the Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks pictured above, and both saw some nice species, like Pied Water-Tyrant and this Striated Heron.

Striated Heron

After a while, we decided to walk into the pasture where the bird was seen in the morning.  It was around 4:00 pm and the sun was high, so Gloriela and Gabrielle stayed in the car.  I walked with Justo to some artificial ponds... a quick search with my binoculars and PAM!!!  A Whistling Heron was standing some 30 meters away.  It was shy (similar to my previous observations in Venezuela and Colombia last year), and soon took flight to some nearby pastures.  I managed a couple of flight shots.

Whistling Heron 

Whistling Heron

I decided to approach carefully, almost crawling, to not disturb the bird.  It was feeding by craning its neck and taking something in the straws with the beak (I hope it were not ticks because I was surrounded by these straws).  I got some distant shots... good for documenting the sighting.

Whistling Heron

Cattle Egret and Whistling Heron

It was larger and stockier than the Cattle Egret as you can see in the picture above.  Not a lifer for me (it was for Justo), but a HUGE Panama life bird instead!  This is just the third record of this species in Panama.  Original from the wet plains of northern and south-east South America, its range and habiat is similar to another recent vagrant to Panama and North America: the Maguari Stork.  Are they only accidental vagrants or we have to wait for a horde of south american new species in the future?  Who knows... I only know that both Justo and I will remember this forever!

JC & JC.  Photo by Gloriela

In search of THE heron. Part II

As I wrote before, a Whistling Heron, the first for Panamá and North America, was reported from the outskirst of the town of Chepo a little more than a week before.  After a first attempt last saturday, I decided to stay in home for the rest of the weekend.  However, Venicio "Beny" Wilson called me the morning of last sunday to see if I was interested in joining him and Christian Gernez in a new search for the heron... my answer: of course!

We saw a nice collection of birds of prey again, including the Roadside Hawk pictured above.  They are simply well-named!  This time, we drove directly to the site of the first sighting... passing first by a this beauty:

WOW!  What you think?  It is not the most gorgeous heron ever?  The Capped Heron is restricted to eastern Panamá, and is quite uncommon.  Also, is kind of related to the Whistling Heron that we were looking for... good sign, eh?

Sorry, I simple had to post another photo of this heron.  In fact, this is another individual.  Notice the slightly duller color of the bare parts of this particular individual.  In spite of that, it is still gorgeous.

In fact, we saw three different birds, including one in the very same place where the Whistling Heron was found.  That bird came flying and landed close to the site, disappearing instantaneously due to the overgrown vegetation.  Might it be possible that the Whistling Heron was still in the site and not to notice it?

While waiting, we saw another interesting heron in the site, a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron working in a ditch.  Depending of the angle, also it was disappearing in the tall grass.  Although not completely unexpected, this was also a nice find for the site!

The same was for this Pearl Kite.  Quite common in the area, we saw a pair vocalizing close to us.  This species also came from South America and now is well established in Panamá... the same as the next species.

Yes, the Cattle Egrets aren't native of Panamá, not even of America!  But, as you can see, they are doing extremely well... this individual is showing the bright bare parts indicative of its breeding season.  The heronry is very close the site of the sighting, surely this individual has its nest there (photos of the heronry here).

Did I mention that we saw all three species of anis, including this Smooth-billed Ani?

Again, we spend a terrific day out in the field looking for THE heron... the total list for the two days ascends to 109 species... not bad for pasture lands and marshes!      

The heronry close to Chepo

Chepo is an agricultural town located 30 miles to the east of Panamá City, and is the capital of the district bearing the same name.  It is surrounded by pastures, rice fields and marshes, making this site attractive to a great variety birds.  For many years now, an heronry exists just outside of town, mostly with nesting pairs of Cattle Egrets, but also some other species.  We usually don't stop at this spot; however, today was different.  Accompanied by Rafael Luck, Venicio "Beny" Wilson and Itzel Fong, and at the end of our birding day (more on it in another post), we notice the intense activity at the heronry when leaving Chepo.

It doesn't matter how many Cattle Egrets you have seen... you MUST stop if you see something like this!  Those bright colors of the bare parts were simply beautiful!

Well, only a minority exhibited those bright bare parts, but all the birds had the orangish tones typical of breeding birds (completely white outside breeding season).  At least one hundred nests were visible, many with chicks begging for food.  Look at those chicks... any doubt these beast were once dinosaurs?

The second most common species was the Anhinga.  We saw at least ten nest, each with a male or female on it, some with chicks.

The males also exhibited bright bare parts around the eyes... simply beautiful!

We also saw three nests of Great Egrets, but there were probably more species nesting in the site, since the heronry extend beyond our field of view, but we stayed only for a while.  We did another stop at a nearby pond after noticing an Amazon Kingfisher by the road.

The kingfisher was only the appetizer... the pond was full of life, with Green Herons, Snowy and Great Egrets, many Black-billed Whistling-Ducks and Southern Lapwings, Wattled Jacana, Black-necked Stilt and a flock of resting Wood Storks.

Common species?  Right... but interesting anyway! 

Rice fields and savannas!

Birding in the tropics is not only about rain and cloud forests... any type of habitat is good if you are looking for birds!  The group of intrepid birders, composed by Osvaldo Quintero, Rafael Luck, Venicio "Beny" Wilson and myself, headed last saturday to the -mostly- agricultural lands of Juan Hombrón, in Coclé province (central Panamá).  We were looking for migrants buntings; however, we found many other goodies (but no buntings).  Our first stop were the rice fields on route to Juan Hombrón.  Most of the fields were essentially pool of mud waiting to be sowed... but it turned out that was the perfect habitat for a bunch of migrant waders!

As you can see, we saw many shorebirds, especially Southern Lapwings and Least Sandpipers, but also small numbers of Pectoral Sandpipers, Willets, both Wilson's and Semipalmated Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs, Black-necked Stilts and Solitary Sandpipers.  We were inspecting carefully every shorebird looking for rare vagrants when Beny called us to see through his scope: an American Golden-Plover still with part of its breeding plumage.  Not exactly a vagrant, but a rare migrant through Panamá.

Not the best photo, it was too far away.  We continued our way, finding many typical inhabitants of these fields, like Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures, Savanna Hawks and the omnipresent Cattle Egrets.

One mile before reaching the coast, we stopped at a tiny gallery dry "forest", finding Veraguan Mango, Sapphire-throated Hummingbird, Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, both Common and Slate-headed Tody-Flycatchers and many more... but only this Acadian Flycatcher allowed photos.

By the time we reached the coastal marsh, it was raining so hard that we decided to go back, stopping again at the rice fields were we saw the bird of the trip.  After a while, we went to Penonome, where we had lunch at a new hotel in the outskirts of the town.  Then, we headed south of town, taking the road to El Gago, finding more raptors typical of the coclesian savannas, like White-tailed Kite, Roadside Hawk and both Yellow-headed and Crested Caracaras.

For the first time, we actually reached El Gago, a tiny river pier at the end of the 16 km-long road!  That was a life site for me!

At El Gago, we saw both immature and adult Common Black-Hawk, this form used to be known as the Mangrove Hawk some years ago.  I think that the adult looks boring if you compare it with the colorful immature bird.

In the way out we took a couple of minutes to photograph some migrant Barn Swallows by the road.  Not only that, I also got my first Bank Swallow photo!  Can you find it?

I stayed in Penonome with my family after saying good-bye to my friends.  What a great day at the savannas, watching resident and, specially, migrant birds.  To end the day, I was able to capture the silhouette of a migrant Chimney Swift over the shrubs of the savanna... simply a nice way to call it a day!

A Peregrine bites the dust

While looking for shorebirds and waders in Costa del Este (Panama City) last saturday, Osvaldo Quintero and I witnessed a dramatic episode of the daily fight for survival in the birds' world. A young Peregrine Falcon was mercilessly attacked by a pair of adults, probably defending their winter territory. We were inspecting the recently cut grass of the extensive fields in Costa del Este, spying the birds that were taking advantage of the insects and others critters available. The most numerous were the Cattle Egrets... a complete flock was following the tractor working on the fields, but also many raptors were attending too, including an adult Zone-tailed Hawk flying over some Black Vultures (not to be confused with the Turkey Vultures that were on the fields too). First, I noticed the noise of the three birds maneuvering in the air, both adults chasing the young one.

The fight reached the ground, right where the egrets were, so they flew away without thinking on it twice! Once in the ground, the young Peregrine tried to repel the attacks, showing its claws to the adults during each of their steep attack dives, lying on its back.

Eventually, the tractor came close to the Peregrine, so the adults stopped the attack for a while, allowing me to take some pictures.

However, the young Peregrine flew to a nearby flooded field, where it was struck again, this time by only one member of the pair. The adult Peregrine was too fast for my camera in Aperture mode, so you will see only its blurry silhouette and the young one trying to defend itself. Notice the third witness of the attack, a Crested Caracara in the background of the next photo (only the head is visible).

It was a nasty attack, sometimes with an audible PAFF! during each hit by the adult. After several minutes (and many hits), the adult left the young one inmobile in the ground. A Turkey Vulture approached it, surely with obscure intentions, but for its dissappointment (and our relief), the young Peregrine started to move, quite wet and clumsy.

The Peregrine Falcon flew to a nearby wall, where the Crested Caracara joined him.

It seemed to be well for such a fight and then it flew to never be seen again... I hope it found its own territory and to be strong enough to fight another day.

Alien invaders

I'm pretty sure that by now, nobody would call "alien" to a Cattle Egret or a Southern Lapwing. These birds are so common and familiar that they almost never are targets of our cameras' lens (and someone might ask what was I doing photographing Cattle Egrets?). The truth is that some years ago (in one case maaany years ago), the simple sight of one of these species would have been breaking news. And that is because they are "naturally" arrived birds to our country, and many others. I wrote "naturally" because, despite they were not directly introduced in Panama by us, its spreading along the Americas was favored by habitats changes made by us. Both species prosper in open habitats, like grasslands, gardens, football fields, pastureland and so on..., just like us! Of course, that is not the only factor that contributed to its successful history (in that case I would be expecting more Cattle Tyrants around). These are very adaptable birds, taking advantage of any opportunity to feed, to nest, to do their things. As all you know, the Cattle Egret originally accompanied the hordes of big mammals in the african savanna and other tropical zones in the Old World. Amazingly, the first report for our continent was from northern South America (way back in 1877) where they arrived having apparently flown across the Atlantic Ocean... what about that!!! In Panama, it was first reported in 1954 and then spread quickly (just to make it clear, I didn't witness that). In the other hand, the Southern Lapwing is original of South America, where it is particularly common in the basin of the River Plate. Its colonization of the isthmus was more recent than that of the egret. Back in the 90's, when I started to birdwatch, it was still an uncommon bird (while the egret was so abundant). One of my very first reports to the XENORNIS included a Southern Lapwing at the former Tocumen marsh. The particular individual pictured here was feeding alone. When I tried to approach it to get better photos, it ducked down, becoming undetectable... well, almost. They are noisy, but still good-looking birds, with an agressive attitude against the intruders. They are now common residents in many sites of Panama, and they are spreading towards the north, at least up to Nicaragua (with a report from Mexico). Well, so the next time you see one of these birds, think about the history that is behind them and, suddenly, they will not seem to be so boring.