Not only endemics in Cerro Santiago

Besides the endemic species and subspecies found in our last trip to the mountains of the Tabasará range, we also saw more widespread species of birds as you can imagine (read this entry for example).  The group of intrepid birders consisted of William Adsett, Dan Wade and Charles Davies... and for us, every species was special in its special way.  For example, check out this Spangle-cheeked Tanager... beautiful no matter how common it is!

We crossed several flocks, always three to six birds, most of the time mixed with other tanagers, finches and/or warblers.  One of those times, the mixed flock was accompanied by a female Black-and-Yellow Silky-Flycatcher.  This is an odd silky... it looks more like a colorful thrush, and some even think that this species doesn't belong to the family.

One important element in the Tabasará avifauna are the hummingbirds (as you may know by now).  Besides confusing female Selasphorus, we saw more common species.  In fact, the most common hummer all over the place was the Purple-throated Mountain-Gem.  The ground epiphytes along the road through the slopes of Cerro Santiago were frequently visited by these hummers, allowing nice shots (here, adult and immature males, adult female).

Others hummers for the area included Green Violetear, Violet Sabrewing, White-tailed Emerald, Stripe-tailed Hummingbird, Green-fronted Lancebill and Green-crowned Brilliant.  The male brilliant pictured here is quite blurry... but trust me that it was a real jewel glowing inside a beautiful cloud forest along the Continental Divide trail (above 1700 meters above sea level).

Not only the birds were putting a show, we saw some mammals, like this Pygmy-Squirrel in one of those productive forest patches along the road to the Ngöbe town of Ratón.  We still need some help to ID this little friend.

And the critters were awesome too... Dan was our expert in this field, and we learned a lot.  I will end this post with the photo of one of the coolest critter that I have seen.  Enjoy!

Cerro Santiago's Selasphorus hummingbirds

As announced previously, in our last trip to the highlands of the Ngöbe-Buglé reservation, in the former eastern Chiriquí province, we saw many Selasphorus hummingbirds... all of them, but one, female-plumaged birds.  In fact, they were not rare... we saw different individuals in eight different sites every day of our trip, including right at the cabin where we stayed.  So, what is the problem?  Well, the problem is that two different species occur in those mountains (well, at least in Cerro Santiago)... and the females are VERY hard to tell apart... you will see what I mean.  It is frustrating... in my first trip to Cerro Santiago, we saw several females... but we were not able to ID them since we never had good views of the tail patterns (check the comments of that post).

The first chance I got to photograph these hummingbirds was in the trail going down into the Caribbean slope, along the Ngwoini creek (at about 1500 meters above sea level, and several kilometers to the east of Cerro Santiago and Cerro Colorado, so supposedly well into the Glow-throated Hummingbird distribution).  We saw there the female pictured above.  Notice the very pale underparts (thought little overexposed).  We also saw a female-plumaged bird by the creek that, after checking the photos, turned out to be a young male (notice the feathers in the throat).  No color in these feathers was evident in the field.

The third day, we visited the main road along the slopes of the Cerro Santiago massif, at about 1700 meters above sea level).  There, we were able to have looks at eye level of the canopy of some flowering trees attracting Selasphorus hummingbirds, including this female.

Notice that there was no evidence of immaturity in this individual (no rufous edge to the feathers of the back) and the white underparts, including the belly and undertail coverts.  One of the available references (Ridgely & Gwynne 1976 and subsequent editions) states that the female Glow-throated is paler below than the female Scintillant, but others (Wetmore 1968, Angehr & Dean 2010) fail to describe this.  Wetmore describe for both Scintillant and Glow-throated Hummingbirds the white lateral tufts, present in this individual, a mark shared with the female Magenta-throated Woodstar.

As you can see, we got great looks of the tail pattern.  Notice that most of the right rectrice #1 (the pair of central feathers in the tail) and all the left rectrice #1 are covered by the left rectrice #2.  Also, notice that both rectrices #2 have a clear green margin above the black subterminal band... but most important... notice the rufous (not buff) tip of the central rectrice (there is a better photo of the tail pattern in Bill Adsett's report of this trip to Xenornis).  Why is this important?  Ridgely & Gwynne also states that the female Glow-throated Hummingbird have rufous tail tips to the central (green) rectrices, absent in the female Scintillant Hummingbird. In fact, the most comprehensive work on these birds, "Systematics of southern forms of Selasphorus" by F. Gary Stiles (1982) also shows this difference in a diagram comparing tail patterns of adult males and females Glow-throated and Scintillant Hummingbirds.

sc = Scintillant Hummingbird; a = Glow-throated Hummingbird.

Some say that the females can't be identified in the field, but I think we have a strong case here.  The truth is that it is better to have good looks of adult males with glittering gorgets, and we did it!  Close to the time to leave the site, I saw a male Selasphorus flying above the canopy of a distant tree... and for a fraction of second it turned its head to me, showing a glittering mid red, rounded gorget!  We stayed in the site for a while, but we only managed to see the male a couple of times, always in the move and for just few seconds.  The next day, Charles Davies went to the site and found the perch that the male was using, and got some good photos (fell free to enlarge the next photos).

Copyright Charles Davies, used with permission.

Copyright Charles Davies, used with permission.

Notice the color of the gorget.  Certainly, it is not orange or golden-orange as we are used for Scintillant Hummingbird.  Also notice the tail... it is mostly BLACK!  The color of the gorget may vary according to the light, distance and angle... but the tail color is a VERY good mark (notice Stiles' diagram again).  Also, notice the gorget shape.  All the adults Selasphorus males have erectable gorgets, but the shape and length of the lateral "wings" differ from one species to another, as explained in another diagram of  Stiles' work.  Compare Charles pictures with this diagram and tell me which one fix better?

Gorget shape (typical form with variants shown in dotted lines). Sc = Scintillant Hummingbird; a = Glow-throated Hummingbird; si, f, t = simoni, flammula and torridus Volcano Hummingbirds

We are calling this individual a typical adult male Glow-throated Hummingbird... and I finally have the pleasure to include this species in my Life List (after three years).

Birding the Tabasará range. Part I

The mountains of the Tabasará range, in western Panamá, are physically (and ecologically) separated of the main Talamanca range by the Fortuna depression, making this an area of subespecific  and especific endemism.  Most of the intact forest is restricted to the higher altitudes and to the Caribbean slope of the range, with very few, if any, good roads accessing it; and all the area is included within the indigenous reserve of the Ngöbe-Buglé people, making this area quite difficult to visit.  That's why, when I received the kind invitation of William Adsett for visiting this region for the weekend, I said "YES!" immediately!

After joining Charles Davies in Panamá City, and Dan Wade in the town of San Félix in Chiriquí province, we drove the improved road up to the mountains, passing the Ngöbe town of Hato Chami and exploring partially the new road to Llano Tugri, finding some low elevations birds and then returning to the main road.  This paved, well-maintened road reach its highest elevation (little more than 1700 meters above sea level) in the western slope of the Cerro Santiago massif, to then run along the Continental Divide between the former provinces of Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro (now the Ngöbe regions of Nedri and Ñucribo, respectively) for a couple of kilometers.

Road over the Continental Divide

Leaving the paved road, we followed the dirt, pot-holed road to the Ngöbe town of Ratón, passing by the infamous Cerro Colorado and through very nice patches of forest, home of most of the endemics species and forms of the region.  Our home for the next three nights was a rustic cabin right in the Continental Divide, in a site known as Buena Vista (well-named, it means good look).

Buena Vista!

Our hosts were the Pineda Montezuma family, owners of the cabin and the land surrounding it, and interested in conservation issues.  One of its member, Jorge, accompanied us during the birding outings... and the birding was good!  That night, we had great views of a calling Bare-shanked Screech-Owl right by the cabin!

Now you can see why this bird is named that way (shank is the lower part of the leg).  This bird was quite rufous, a color not appreciable in my shots due to the low light conditions.  The first day, we birded a trail going to the Caribbean side, finding some interesting species... like this beautiful male Orange-bellied Trogon.

In the forest, we crossed a nice mixed flock with Spangle-cheeked Tanagers, Slate-throated Whitestart, Barred Becard (range extension), Brown-capped Vireo (range extension) and Three-striped Warblers.

We followed a river through degraded habitat, finding some other birds, but we were surprised by the lack of life in the river itself... until we reached the highest part, with furious rapids and many fallen trees and logs.  Charles found two American Dippers and a Torrent Tyrannulet, rivers dwellers typical of the highlands creeks and rivers.  I watched them for some minutes... and I can state that it is always amusing to watch American Dippers.  It is incredible how comfortable they are in the water!

A light drizzle accompanied us during our return journey to the cabin.  Of course we saw endemics... but that is theme of other post!

Mud, rain and endemics!

The mountains of central and eastern Chiriqui province (western Panama) are home to many endemics bird species and sub-species. After the pelagic trip off Punta Mala, I went with Rafael Luck to the town of San Felix (by the Pan-American highway) where Euclides "Kilo" Campos was already waiting for us (the rest of the T.P. Gang went to the coclesian foothills of El Cope after the Umbrellabird). After a long day in the sea, we were so tired that we fell asleep after a couple of minutes. Still dark, very early the next morning (sunday, september 12th), we started our way to Cerro Santiago, entering the Ngöbe-Buglé reservation and passing first by the town of Hato Chamí. This 30 km-long road is famed because its toughness, only passable with strong 4WD vehicles with really high clearance... not a problem for the FJ Cruiser! After passing Hato Chamí, it was clear enough to see the spectacular landscapes with the subtle morning light... simply impressive. After two hard hours in the road, we reached a muddy part impassable for the cruiser! Can you imagine, we needed to push it to a less-muddy spot and then we began to hike along the very-muddy road (did I already mention that it was muddy?). We soon found the first birds along it: Purple-throated Mountain-Gem, Magnificent Hummingbird (a female) and Violet Sabrewings, Golden-crowned Warblers, Spotted Wood-Quail (only heard), Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch, Mountain Thrush and several Silvery-fronted Tapaculos heard in the understore. We were more or less at 1700 meters above sea level and I was feeling the effect of the reduced oxigen plus the steepy and muddy road. Anyway, I managed to follow Rafael and Kilo, finding more interesting species. Soon a female Selasphorus hummingbird showed up. It is supposed that the female Glow-throated Hummingbird is indistinguishable from that of the Scintillant Hummingbird, the former a panamanian endemic, the latter not expected there except during migration (photo courtesy of Rafael Luck). Then, Kilo found the other panamanian endemic, a flock of noisy Yellow-green Finches. These birds were shy, and were foraging higher in the trees than its relatives, the Yellow-thighed Finch of Costa Rica and western Panama. They were too far away, usually in dark spots, so I got only a marginal photo (but at least you can see that it is a Pselliphorus finch). We reached the antenna, supposedly the best place to find the Glow-throated Hummingbirds, but its favored bush were not flowered, and we only found more females! However, the last female that we saw, both perched and flying while feeding in some tubular flowers, showed conspicuous white tips to the tail (not buffy nor rufous as in the female Scintillant Hummingbird). It is significative? (WARNING: the next two photos are probably the worst photos of any bird ever published in the web; prepare yourself).Anyway, the spot was excellent for swifts, because they were flying at eye-level. We got two species there: the huge White-collared Swifts, and the less numerous Chestnut-colored Swifts. It was very hard to photograph them, but somehow I managed to get some pics. We also found around there Yellow-winged Vireo, Collared Whitestart, Black-and-yellow Silky-Flycatcher, Black-faced Solitaire, Sooty-capped and Common Bush-Tanagers and a singing Brown-billed Scythebill. In the way down, the sunny day quickly turned into a foggy and rainy one, but despite it we found a male White-tailed Emerald, many Western Wood-Pewees and a Mountain Elaenia. Under the rain, and laying on the muddy road, Kilo was able to remove from under the car a part that got stuck into the mud, and we descended the road very carefully because that part protected the axis of the vehicle. Sane and save, we were glad when we reached the lowlands in one piece (trust me, that road is scaring)... but also because we saw many special birds!Rafael and Kilo among the fog and the mud.
P.D.: I need some moral support in order to keep (or not?) my decision of not including the Glow-throated Hummingbird in my Life List. Let me know what you think in the comments.