2017's Top 10 Birds!

And here we are again!  This year is about to end, and everyone is looking forward to have a new beginning, with new goals and resolutions.  I'm glad to say that my last year's wish came true, to have  more life birds... and some of them, plus other goodies, are now part of this new Top 10 Birds for Panama in 2017.

Large-billed Tern

10. Large-billed Tern: extremely rare and erratic in Panama, this impressive species showed up at the Charges river in Gamboa (central Panama), where I was able to twitch it successfully.... several times!  Curiously, later in the year, a pair appeared in Finca Bayano, where I was able to photograph and audio-record them!

Buff-fronted Quail-Dove

09. Buff-fronted Quail-Dove: this secretive species was a long expected lifer for me.  I include it in this top 10 not because of its rarity or beauty, but for the story surrounding it... a long twitch with my wife Gloriela, a scary drive in the dark through an extremely rough road, and finding it quietly walking the trail in the chilly morning... simply a sublime experience!

Hermit Warbler

08. Hermit Warbler: also a long twitch to the western highlands with my family.  This rare migrant warbler decided to spent some days in Bambito (Chiriqui province).  Thanks for the alert of fellow birders, I was able to catch it during the most important festivity for the Panamanians: the carnival.

Dusky-backed Jacamar

07. Dusky-backed Jacamar: this range-restricted species, found only in eastern Panama and Colombia, used to need a complete expedition to find.  My good friend Nando Quiroz showed it to me, with many more eastern Panama specialties, aboard a little canoe and whistling it in!

Nop, there are no birds in the picture!

06. Gray-capped Cuckoo: another extremely rare and erratic species.  A Gray-capped Cuckoo appeared in Finca Bayano and stayed for three more days (at least).  No photo of this one.  It was probably taking advantage of the caterpillars feeding on the mangroves, as pictured above by my friend Rosabel Miró.  The mangroves suffered... but at least it made some lucky birders very happy!

Little Cuckoo

05. Little Cuckoo: this one appeared while trying to relocate a Dwarf Cuckoo reported in Rio Torti.  I dipped on the Dwarf Cuckoo, but this localized species made my day.  Why?  Because that was the last species missing in my very first "Wish List", which I wrote down more than 20 years ago!  Follow the link and you will see the blank space after the "Cuco Enano" entry!

Maguari Stork

04. Maguari Stork: this huge and elegant vagrant from South America was found by my friend Rolando Jordan in Finca Bayano... just the second sighting for the country.  One day later, short of time and in a hurry, I was able to relocate the bird with some friends.  I was unable to find it the first time it appeared in Panama, and curiously, it was a species that eluded me in South America as well... so it was a huge lifer for me!

Volcano Junco

03. Volcano Junco: this is the only species that was not a Panama-lifer for me in this list.  But seeing it after more than 15 years (and just for the second time) at the highest point of the country (at the summit of the Baru volcano, in the western highlands) with my wife and the fading light of the sunset... priceless!

Carib Grackle

02. Carib Grackle: this smart and adaptable species colonized Panama unnoticed!  The first records for the country are so close to Panama City that it is almost shameful.  After seeing it with a group of fine birders and friends (including Beny Wilson, Rolando Jordan and Natalia Decastro), I realized that this was the species that I saw and photograph some weeks before in Finca Bayano as well!

Russet-throated Puffbird

01. Russet-throated Puffbird: I know you already figured it out... a new species for Panama and North America!  Found yesterday by an organized birding group, I twitched it immediately with my friend Rolando Jordan, sorting traffic jams, pot-holed roads, torrential downpours and bad light conditions... well, that's probably the recipe to success!

OK, I hope you enjoyed this list as much as I did... and now, take your binoculars, go out, sort some obstacles, and lets find some new life birds in the new year!

To twitch, or not to twitch

Different birders watch birds in different ways.  Some of them like to spend the afternoon relaxing in the porch, watching the birds at the feeders in the middle of the backyard while others chase all the species possible within a region... some keep watching birds everywhere, anytime while other only birdwatch during the weekend.  I do a little bit of everything, depending on time of course.  However, sometimes a little extra effort is necessary if you want to add new birds to your life list.

Large-billed Tern at Gamboa

This year have been exceptional regarding occurrence of local rarities.  And so far, I have managed to cross the country several times searching for them... successfully!  Alone, with my family or with friends, chasing a rarity is always exciting, specially if you manage to successfully locate the bird you were looking for.  For example, the day after the first report of a vagrant Large-billed Tern in the town of Gamboa (central Panama) I decided to pay a visit in my lunch break... actually it was my only chance because I was about to leave the city later that day and for more than a week.  Gamboa is mere 30 minutes or less from Panama City, so the decision was straightforward.  After 10 minutes of my arrival, the Large-billed Tern circled above the public dock (right where it was reported) showing its spectacular flight pattern and allowing nice photos (above) and even better views.  I probably stayed only 20 minutes... yes, I saw it and that was all... back to work!

Twitching a Dwarf Cuckoo

Time is important... you better try to find your desired birds as soon as you get the news of its occurrence.  Some vagrants stay for long periods of time while others are seen only once or twice.  When the very rare (for Panama) Dwarf Cuckoo appeared in Tortí (one and a half hours to the east of Panama City) one week ago, I lost the chance to chase it... when I finally went to the site four days later, the bird was not there.  The birders that went the next day of the initial report found it by the way.  A Little Cuckoo at the site was a great consolation prize, but having a twitching trip with good friends always worth it... with or without Dwarf Cuckoo!

Little Cuckoo at Torti

But some times you get lucky... when my friend Rafael Lau published the photos of a very rare (for Panama) Hermit Warbler in Bambito (western highlands of Chiriqui province), I was in the middle of a trip with my family, thousands of kilometers away of Panama.  When I finally was able to twitch the bird, I drove more than 700 kms back and forth in the same day with my wife Gloriela and my daughter Gabrielle.  At the site, I started to search for the vagrant warbler.  It took me a while before an adult male Hermit Warbler decided to materialize in front of me, allowing some shots, like the one posted below... amazing!  We were in a rush, and only had time for another specialty of the Chiriqui highlands: strawberries with cream!

Hermit Warbler at Bambito

Strawberries & cream!

And then, just few weeks after my life Hermit Warbler, I went back to the Chiriqui highlands, again in a long twitch from Panama City with my wife.  My objective, a relative common, but secretive, inhabitant of montane forests.  Some friends of mine repeatedly reported a Buff-fronted Quail-Dove in the trails above the town of Guadalupe, within La Amistad International Park.  But a very early drive in the dark through a really bad road was necessary in order to be at the trail on time to watch the bird... and that was exactly what we did.  After spending the night at town (just after watching, for the first time, a Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl), I drove the road in complete darkness.  The road looks like a dry river bed... quite bumpy and scary... but we made it.  At first light, we were at the start of the trail.  Soon, I saw a plump figure walking toward us... I barely trusted my eyes because a Buff-fronted Quail-Dove was in collision trajectory!  When the quail-dove noticed our presence (mere five meters from us), it turned around, walking up-trail.  Then, I remembered that I was carrying my heavy camera and tried some shots... just this came out:

What a great experience!  Finding your desired bird is magical, specially after investing time and effort on it.  The above picture probably doesn't show the quail-dove in all its splendor, but I kind of like it... I can almost feel the chilly air in the morning under the canopy of the montane forest while seeing this photo!  For me, the answer to the question is TO TWITCH!

My first wish list

Seeing the Least Bittern in Gamboa earlier this week after all these years birding in Panama (19 years so far) with my wife was a great experience.  As I mentioned in the previous post, this was not a lifer.  I saw my first Least Bittern maaany years ago in coastal Lima (Peru) and since then, I had seen many spectacular heron species, including Least and other bitterns... so, what's the big deal?

Pinnated Bittern in Guaviare (Colombia), where I also saw a Least Bittern

This bird was so important to me because it is part of my very first wish list of birds to see in Panama!  You make a wish list with those species (of birds, in this case) that you want to see in the near or far future in a specific geographical area (state, country, world).  And I did my first formal wish list 18 years ago, in 1996.  In fact, I still have that list with me... handwritten in spanish (back then I did not have my physician handwriting) and with a yellowish hue due to the years, I found it deep buried under some old notes and bird lists.

The second bird in this list is Least Bittern (Mirasol Menudo)

Reading it brought back fond memories.  I can swear I remember each of those observations.  If you read it carefully, you can infer that I was just beginning to see birds.  My wish list have some birds not considered rare at all (Mourning Dove for example) and some broad groups (like any macaw or any quail-dove for example) as well.  Each of those records is an anecdote... I have some to share with you.  When I wrote that list, I considered that the most difficult species to see in Panama would be the Grasshopper Sparrow.  In fact, I thought it would be impossible, since the endemic subspecies beatriceae had probably been eradicated from our territory by habitat destruction in the Coclesian savannah of central Panama.

Grasshopper Sparrow.  January 2012.

Then, two years ago, in a random field close to our house in Penonome, while birding alone I found a Grasshopper Sparrow that allowed great photos!  The news of the re-discovery of the once-thought-exctinct bird in Panama spread like wildfire and the bird was relocated by at least two different birding groups in the next week.  Want to hear another story?  Look at my list... there are still two spaces left blank.  One is Bobolink, the other is Little Cuckoo.  Back in April 1998, while participating in the Young Ornithologist Program by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Panama Audubon Society, I had a chance to see this bird.  The field trips for the program included a visit to Costa del Este, then a marshy area surrounded by a mangrove forest in the outskirts of Panama City.  At one point, one of the instructors (Dr. Robert Ridgely!) pointed a rare Spot-breasted Woodpecker to the group while, in the opposite direction, someone else (I don't remember who, sorry) pointed a Little Cuckoo.  In matter of seconds I weighted both options.  Both were in my wish list... the cuckoo was considered uncommon in the right habitat (including some areas in the Canal Area close to the city); in the other hand, the woodpecker was considered rare even in its usual range and only few reports for those mangroves (and none since then).

My life Little Cuckoo in Guaviare (Colombia)

Well, you know what was my choice.  After seeing the Spot-breasted Woodpecker, I ran in the opposite direction to see if I can catch the cuckoo... the bird was gone.  Since then, I've seen the woodpecker on six occasions in Panama, and I have not even had a chance to see the cuckoo!

I have done many other lists since then, but the first will always be special ... and from what I see, I have two targets for my upcoming birding trips!

Birding Laguna La Maria

It was our last day in Guaviare department (Colombia), and already spend half-morning admiring the fantastic rocky formations at Sendero Puentes Naturales.  For the rest of the morning, our guides Luis Fernando ("Lucho") Galindez and Derly Blandon suggested to visit a trail known as Sendero Laguna La Maria, starting at San José del Guaviare, which passes through several habitats, including the shores of the mighty Guaviare river, and eventually reaching a tall forest.  We (Rafael Cortes, Mauricio Rueda and me) agreed, despite it was still an eight-hours drive back to Bogotá.

The crossed the first part of the trail with the car, inspecting the sand bars of the Guaviare river, seeing both Large-billed and Yellow-billed Terns, many herons, Yellow-hooded Blackbirds and a target bird for Rafael, a nicely patterned Pied Lapwing.  My photo is only for record purposes because the bird was quite distant.

We began to walk, watching several new birds for our lists (including my life list of course): Slate-headed and Yellow-browed Tody-Flycatchers, Turquoise Tanagers, Yellow-bellied Dacnis, many Great-crested Flycatchers, Red-stained Woodpecker, Gray Hawk and many more.  One of the birds we saw was a species that have eluded me so far in Panama (and elsewhere): a Little Cuckoo.  We saw at least two individuals of this smaller version of the common and widespread Squirrel Cuckoo (thought not so closely related).  In the photos you can see its red eyering.

Once in the forest, the activity was low... but the forest was very impressive and we only regret about not having enough time to explore it adequately.  

Mauricio and Rafael entering the forest

Anyway, we found a mixed flock with White-flanked Antwrens, Gray-headed Tanagers, a Chestnut-winged Foliage-Gleaner and a beautiful male Pink-throated Becard... however, it was the impressive Long-billed Woodcreeper who stole the show!  An individual stayed more than 15 minutes, allowing many photos.  This species is half-way between the scythebills and the more "normal" woodcreepers.

We got a nice surprise during the return journey along the same trail.  At a bridge, we stopped to watch some mixed activity, when Lucho noticed that something was watching us... a sleepy Prehensile-tailed Porcupine was no more than three meters above our heads!  It is unusual to find one of these during a birding trip (actually, during ANY trip).

We still had a date in downtown San José del Guaviare: Lucho's wife invited us to have lunch in their house... and it was simply excellent.  After a wonderful extended weekend in Guaviare, we had to say good-bye to our new friends, with the promise that we will return... and I'm looking forward to it!  In the long way back to Bogota, I kept inspecting the fields (we were crossing the llanos after all), resulting in my last lifer of the trip: a magnificent Buff-necked Ibis standing right next to the road (compare with the Black-faced Ibis we saw in Ecuador).  What a great bird to close my huge list... and what a GREAT TRIP!!!