PAS Fieldtrip to El Chorogo. Part I

Once, most of the lowlands in the western Pacific of Panama was covered in lush humid forest, with characteristic flora and fauna shared only with Costa Rica.  Today, it is gone... except for some scattered patches, most of them not large enough to accommodate its original biodiversity.  That's why, the Panama Audubon Society (PAS), and some of its members, started to buy the last remaining patches of considerable extension in the Burica Peninsula, along the border with Costa Rica, a place known as El Chorogo.

El Chorogo

I joined Bill Adsett and Antonio Dominguez in a trip to those forests, looking for those specialties not found away of the Burica Peninsula in Panama and taking advantage of the carnival free days.  Getting there is not easy.  You have to drive all the way to the town of Puerto Armuelles (at least seven hours from Panama City), and from there, to the towns of San Bartolo Linea and San Bartolo Limite.  This first part of the trip is through a considerable flat terrain and very degraded habitat, pasture lands, riverine bushes and tiny gallery forest along the 15+ river crossings.

White Ibis and Snowy Egret

This is a bird rich area, with many waders and waterbirds along the shallow rivers, and raptors and flycatchers elsewhere.  Notice for example the flock of White Ibis and the Snowy Egret feeding along the San Bartolo river (above), or the very attractive Northern Jacanas that were pretty common.

Northern Jacana

Among the waders we found several flocks of Least Sandpipers, scattered Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers, some Greater Yellowlegs and, surprisingly, a pair of Killdeers too.

One (of two) Killdeer along the San Bartolo river

Eventually the road becomes hilly, away of the river.  There are plenty of flowering and fruiting trees and patches of secondary forests... and many birds too!  The species are different from those seen previously along the road, and includes some western specialties... those species that survive in these degraded habitats.  In a random stop, I heard a thrilling call similar to that of the common Red-crowned Woodpecker.  A quick search resulted in a pair of the rare (for Panama) Golden-naped Woodpecker.  My distant shots don't make them justice... I promise better photos in my next post!

Golden-naped Woodpecker (male)

Golden-naped Woodpecker (female)

There are only few records of this species from the western foothills (none recently) away of the Burica Peninsula.  Eventually, we saw several pairs in this habitat before reaching the forests of El Chorogo, and only one pair in the forest itself.  Other species that is doing well in these patches is the Fiery-billed Aracari.  They are still common both in lowlands and foothills of western Panama, but they are so beautiful that you never get tired of seeing them!

Fiery-billed Aracari

Bill left the car in a ranch at San Bartolo Limite.  From there, we took the horses.  While waiting for the horses and for our local guide Armando, I started to explore the surroundings.  The first trogon species (Gartered) was calling from the woods,  while many migrants also said present: Tennessee, Yellow, Chestnut-sided and Blackburnian Warblers, Philadelphia and Yellow-throated Vireos and several Ruby-throated Hummingbird!

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (male)

The activity was furious, and more and more birds started to appear: Masked and Black-crowned Tityras, Orange-chinned, Brown-throated and Crimson-fronted Parakeets, hordes of Red-legged Honeycreepers and Thick-billed Euphonias.  Then, I saw a small bird flying atop a nearby tree.  Bright red underparts and throat, blue head and green back: a male Painted Bunting!  This was a life bird for me, certainly not in my radar because is very rare in Panama.  Great way to start!  Then, we rode the horses uphill (2.5 hours to the forest), stopping at some patches of flowered Inga trees attracting tons of hummers: more Ruby-throateds, many Blue-throated Goldentails, some Snowy-bellied and Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, a lonely Charming Hummingbird and the first White-crested Coquette for the trip (a female).  In one of these patches, Bill found a pair of Rufous-tailed Jacamars.

Rufous-tailed Jacamar (male)

In that patch of secondary forest, the last before a huge pastureland bordering El Chorogo, Bill mentioned that they used to see the localized Costa Rican Swift.  The Costa Rican Swift, a recent split from the Band-rumped Swift, was one of my main targets for the trip (with Tawny-winged Woodcreeper) and I was about to have my first chance to find it.  So, before getting to the open, I started to search the sky through the canopy... finding some swifts flying above our heads!

Costa Rican Swift

Costa Rican Swift

I hurried to the open, where a flock of eight Costa Rican Swifts were flying and chasing each other, sometimes against the dark background of the forests of El Chorogo allowing great views.  I have to admit that it was not until I saw the whitish, large contrasting rump patch when I declared them my long-desired lifer!

Costa Rican Swift

Costa Rican Swift

Notice the body and wing shape.  This species is larger than the Band-rumped Swift (of central and eastern Panama), with a more contrasting pale throat and a distinctively shaped pale rump as you can see in the pictures.  Notice that in the area the common swift is Vaux's Swift, which we found previously and later.  Notice the cigar-shaped body and the wing shape of the Vaux's Swift.

Vaux's Swift

Vaux's Swift

Of course, none of the above birds had the contrasting pale rump of the Costa Rican!  Three days later, we were unable to find the Costa Rican Swifts again in our way back from El Chorogo, so I feel extremely lucky of having the opportunity to see (and photograph) this species in Panama.  Two lifers in the bag, and we had not even reached El Chorogo!

In the way to Cerro Punta

After birding the previous day in Batipa, we woke early the morning of monday, march 15th in order to leave David city (the capital of Chiriqui province in western Panama) towards the highlands, this time to the western side of the Baru volcano, to the town of Cerro Punta. Despite our original plan was to spent most of the morning searching for an adult male Resplendant Quetzal in Cerro Punta, we decided to make some stops along the way after the town of Concepción. Now, there are only few scattered patches of disturbed forest remaining along this road, but sometimes those patches can have surprises. Our first stop was at the town of San Vicente. We took the road towards the town of Escobal, but drive only few meters until reaching a bridge over a shaded creek. Almost immediately we heard the distinctive noise of a Manacus manakin and, after a little searching, we found a pair of Orange-collared Manakins. This species is a regional endemic (southeastern Costa Rica - western Panama), a really handsome one, but there are still some taxonomic issues about its relationships. Anyway, the male was very cooperative (the female dissapeared quickly), allowing many photos in full view. We only recorded common species in the area, including Chestnut-sided Warbler, Yellow-crowned Euphonia (I checked it well, it wasn't a Spot-crowned) and Piratic Flycatcher (calling everywhere). We spent about half hour in that place and then moved on. The next stop was at the Macho de Monte river, entering through the Cuesta de Piedra town. We had been quite lucky in this site before, but that day there were heavy construction works at the bridge, with lot of noise, so we were sceptical. A quick glimpse revealed common birds like Blue-and-gray, Cherrie's and Golden-hooded Tanagers plus a Buff-rumped Warbler. I also noticed a flowering Inga tree, so I decided to check it out. The first hummingbird I saw was a Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, but then, a tiny bee-like hummer appeared. Mostly rufous, with white throat and white rump band: a female White-crested Coquette!!! I took a couple of (bad) photos and then ran to warn Gloriela who was still in the car. Soon we relocate the bird, perched nicely on a bare twig, allowing more photos. We stayed for an hour or so, while the coquette remained in the surroundings. This is a very rare hummingbird (at least in Panama), with recent reports from this same place and from El Chorogo (at the border with Costa Rica in the Burica peninsula). My only other sighting was of a female too many years ago precisely in El Chorogo... I suppose that I will have to return in order to see an adult male! Eventually, we reached Cerro Punta, but it was a little bit late for birding... anyway, we looked for an adult male Quetzal in several spots before finding one in Las Nubes (more details in the next post). After that, we descended again, this time we took the road to Santa Clara and found a bunch of fruiting Cecropias by a coffee plantation. Highlights were Speckled and White-lined Tanagers, Scarlet-thighed Dacnis (all of them year-birds), Masked Tityra and a pair of Fiery-billed Aracaris feeding on the Cecropias. Great collection of birds below Cerro Punta, don't you think?

Bright day in Batipa

Batipa is a private reserve in the lowlands of the Chiriqui province (western Panama) that still contains remaining patches of lowland forest. Its include the Cerro Batipa and other two hills, plus a coastline with tall mangrove forest. It is the only reliable site in Panama to find the endangered Yellow-billed Cotinga but it also holds many western Pacific specialties, including a former endemic for Panama. Last sunday, after an excellent day birding the highlands around the town of Boquete, Osvaldo Quintero, Osvaldo Quintero Jr., Rafael Luck, Milagros Sánchez, Olemdo Miró, Gloriela and me decided to visit this reserve, trying to locate the cotinga. We were a little delayed (after descending all the way from Boquete and meeting Mr. Ríos -the reserve owner- for the key of the access gates), so we started birding around 9:00 am. We didn't realized how hot it was in the lowlands until our first stop. After spotting a Laughing Falcon, we all went out of the cars, raising our cameras, noticing that these were completely misted due to the sudden change of temperature. Anyway, I tried to obtain some photos of the falcon... I needed to do a lot of photoshop to fix it! After solving the problem (only waiting a couple of minutes and driving with the windows down with the air conditioners switched off) we stopped a little farther, in a section of road bordered in trees with deep-orange tubular flowers. Soon, we saw five Fiery-billed Aracaris feeding close to a group of Howlers Monkeys. The aracaris moved closer to us allowing some photos, while others birds started to show up. First, an unidentified bird photographed by Olmedo resulted to be an Olivaceous Piculet laboriously working at a few twigs; then, Rafael spotted a hummingbird in the tubular flowers and then another one: a Long-billed Starthroat and a Veraguan Mango. The mango used to be an endemic bird for Panama, but now it is presumably established in Costa Rica's extreme southeastern corner due in part to deforestation. This individual was an immature male because it showed lot of white speckling in the underparts. It showed also a yellow throat probably due to the pollen of the flowers it visited earlier. Later, in the same site, we found an adult male Veraguan Mango feeding in the same flowers. We reached the tideland of the Horconcitos river and decided then to take the road around the Cerro Batipa, which passes through several forest patches and through an immense teak plantation, finding Black-hooded Antshrike and Lance-tailed Manakin in several sites plus Yellow-olive Flycatcher and Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant in the hill itself. Besides the Laughing Falcon and both Caracaras, others raptors found were Swainson's, Gray, Roadside and Zone-tailed Hawks, plus a flock of ten or more Swallow-tailed Kites around Cerro Batipa. We didn't reach the mangroves and probably we never had a real chance to find the cotinga without a guide. By noon, we said goodbye to Rafael, Osvaldo and Osvaldo Jr, who were returning to Panama City, while we returned to David with Milagros and Olmedo. The last bird we saw together was a White-collared Seedeater in the urban area. Then, we separate only to meet us again at the San Jose de David Fair, where we visited the commercial and agricultural exhibitions, among others. We said goodbye to them too... it was time to rest and to prepare for the next day.