Birding the dry lowlands

Last weekend, I went with Osvaldo Quintero in a quest along the dry lowlands of central Panama's Pacific slope searching for migrants and some resident specialties for the area.  We left Panama City at dark, very early in the morning, and drove directly to our first destination: El Chirú, some 1.25 hours away in Cocle province.

Quite recently, El Chirú figured in the map as the most reliable site in Panama to find the scarce Grassland Yellow-Finch, represented by an endemic subspecies.  In fact, the only time I've seen this species in Panama was in this place some years ago.  Since then, the habitat has deteriorated, but still is a good place to find common residents, like Crested Bobwhites right in the middle of the dirt road, or flocks of Brown-throated Parakeets atop the introduced Eucalyptus trees (file photo).

This is an isolated population of Brown-throated Parakeets, and well could be considered a full species in the future (Veraguan Parakeet).  After a while, we moved to Juan Hombron, birding along the road that crosses rice fields, dry forest patches, and riverine habitat.  These patches of forest are very good for migrants in the appropriate season, and so we found Yellow, Prothonotary and Tennessee Warblers, Northern Watertthrushes, tons of Eastern Wood-Pewees and two pairs of Gray Kingbirds.

We found these kingbirds exactly in the same spot where we saw them last year, they are always welcomed.  We had the opportunity to compare this species directly with the ubiquitious Tropical Kingbird... and the longer flights made by the Gray Kingbirds after flying insects became evident.  It was getting hot quickly, so we left Juan Hombron and started the return way, stopping for beverages on route, and shortly in the town of Gorgona to check an artificial pond where we saw many Least Grebes (some of them hiding in the grass like the one in the photo - looking for nesting sites?) and heard a Gray-breasted Crake, which was a surprise for us.

Our last stop was Punta Chame.  This 10 km-long sand bar extends into the Pacific Ocean away of the mainland, and its varied habitats are very good for migrants and resident birds.  However, it was late when we reached the place and the activity was low.  We had lunch in town and moved to the beach.

As you can see in the photo, it was about to rain.  We enjoyed the view of the islands of the Gulf of Panama (Otoque, Boná and Estivá... the same I visited with Gloriela and Gabrielle one year ago).  From Punta Chame, these islands look very close to shore.  In the way out, we found this American Kestrel on a wire.

Sincerely, I can't tell if this individual is a northern migrant or a resident bird, since south american races of this species are colonizing Panama and are quite common now in some sites.  Migrant or not, this was a nice bird to end the day!

2012 CBCs: Pacific circle

December is a month of festivities... but also of bird counts!  The Panama Audubon Society organizes three Christmas Bird Counts in central Panama, and I pretend to participate in all of them.  In fact, I already participated last sunday, december 16th, in the first count, the Pacific circle.  As usual, my count area was the coastal strip of the west bank of the canal, including Farfan, Palo Seco and Vercaruz, accompanied this time by Rafael Luck, Jennifer Wolcott, Dan Heinrichs and Neville Lincoln.

The tide was pretty high early in the morning, so we concentrated first in the huge pond at Farfan, finding many waterbirds, like Roseate Spoonbill, Neotropic Cormorants, ton of egrets and White Ibises, both Belted and Ringed Kingfishers and many more.

One good thing about our counting area is the variety of habitats... we visited mudflats, ponds and mangroves before moving to a dry forest three minutes away... the forests around the (former) Palo Seco Hospital.  In spite that it has been abandoned for a couple of years now, the jungle already took it and only some buildings are evident now.

The forest was very quiet, however, we still recorded Lesser Greenlets, Tropical Gnatcatcher, Lance-tailed Manakin and the particular sight of both Turkey and Black Vultures resting side-by-side.

Most of the main targets at our count area were waders, and the best place to look after them is around Veracruz beach.  This year, we didn't see many shorebirds compared to other years, but we got at least the cutest of them all: Collared Plovers!

The final habitat visited was the taller and wetter forest just north of Veracruz, where we found different species like Lineated Woodpecker, Cocoa Woodcreeper and, surprisingly, a group of five White-vented Euphonias.

However, it was almost noon when we reached this patch of forest, and by that time, the forest borders and the open areas were more productive than the forest itself... just check the cooperative Gray Kingbird and the bright Saffron Finch that we found.

We recorded 113 species in total, not a bad number for only six hours of birding!

Migrant and resident kingbirds of central Panama

During the northern winter, the resident population of Tyrannus kingbirds in Panama receives the visit of some others members of the same genus from farther north. Four different migrant Tyrannus have been reported for Panama, with two species that become particularly common around Panama City in central Panama. Despite it is only a passage migrant (doesn't winters in Panama), the Eastern Kingbird is the most common migrant Tyrannus in Panama. They typical are seen in huge and compact flocks during their passage through the isthmus, usually feeding only from fruits at the canopy of the trees. They fly over almost every kind of habitat in Panama. For obvious reasons, the translation of its spanish name is Northern Kingbird (the "eastern" part of its name makes no sense for us down here) and, definitively, this species is strongly associated with migration here in Panama. In contrast with our common, bright-colored species, the Tropical Kingbird, the Eastern KB exhibit a black-and-white pattern more reminiscent to the Fork-tailed Flycatcher. Of course, the Eastern KB lacks the long trail streamers; instead, it has a square tale tipped in white and has white markings in the wings. It also lacks the pale gray back of the Fork-tailed Flycatcher. Both, the Fork-tailed Flycatcher and the Tropical Kingbird, are VERY common in central Panama. Usually solitary, these two species often gather in really big flocks in relation to local movements, and even migration for the Fork-tailed Flycatcher. One of those unusual flocks of Tropical KBs initiated an interesting debate some months ago (you can read the story here). Not as common like the previous species, the Gray Kingbird is quite frequent in open habitats in central Panama. This is a migrant species, only present in our country during the northern winter. Mainly caribbean in distribution, this species also breeds in the mainland in southern Florida and in northern South America (Venezuela). You can tell apart it from the Eastern KB by its greater size, heavier bill and lack of black in the plumage or white in the tail. It also have a more large-headed look than the Eastern KB, making it more similar to our resident TK, specially under bad light conditions when you cannot distinguish its colors. All the species above mentioned are pretty common, surely due to their adaptability and availability of suitable habitat. However, the other two Tyrannus recorded for Panama are rare to very rare migrants to the western part of the country, though there are several records from central Panama as well. I still need to see a Western Kingbird, of which there is only a handful of records (the most recent here) and, till today, my only Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was an adult in the caribbean side of the Canal some years ago during a Christmas Bird Count. My distant photo does not do justice to the beauty of this bird...well, I guess I'll need to keep searching for these rarities!