Birds, vanilla and waterfalls

Due to an intense month in the work, I barely had time to update this blog with posts of my last trips, so I'll do so... starting with some photos of a visit to Cerro Azul (foothills to the east of Panama City), accompanied by the photography-contests-winners Osvaldo Quintero, Rafael Luck and Itzel Fong.

We wandered through the gated community, visiting some classic spots... however, the day was cloudy and windy, and the activity -in general- quite low.  Eventually we reached the end of the Chimborazo street... and our luck changed: a mixed flock was taking advantage of a fruiting tree.

Including this male Gartered Trogon (above), many birds were all over the place... specially tanagers: Blue-gray, Palm, Summer, Hepatic, Plain-colored, Golden-hooded, Bay-headed, Speckled and Crimson-backed Tanagers side-by-side!  But, by far, the most cooperative birds were a trio of Masked Tityras.

The female was more confident, but the male is simply shocking: that red mask and pure white body is unique!

Another pair was feeding in the lower branches of a tree apart of the flock, both male and female Tropical Gnatcatchers are smart and active, intensely foraging every leaf, looking for tiny insects.

Another one feeding nearby was this tiny Paltry Tyrannulet; however, not as actively as the gnatcatchers.  You often heard its characteristic pee-yeep! revealing its presence.

After a while, we left the spot (reluctantly), passing by the Ahren's place, where they told us about a wild vanilla blooming in a nearby street... so we headed to that direction.  It was the sweet essence of the flower that finally attracted us, a marvel of nature!

It was around noon, time to have lunch at the club... but first, we decided to visit a popular site frequented by resident and visitors specially during the summer days: El Vigía waterfalls.

Half of the group could not resist the temptation of submerging in the cold (but refreshing) waters.  Can you tell who are these swimmers?

That's the way you should end every birding trip!

Very short visit to Metro Park

The Metropolitan Natural Park of Panama City is absurdly close to my home, ideal for rapid visits, which I did last saturday, february 25th, in company of Osvaldo Quintero and Rafael Luck (who was celebrating his birthday). My idea was to stay only a couple of hours, checking the trees at the entrance of the Mono Titi and La Cieneguita trails, and the bushes and trees close to the "vivero", both areas reported by Osvaldo as being quite good recently for mixed flocks visiting the fruiting "indio desnudo" trees. In fact, the trees were attracting tons of resident and migrant birds, but not as many as the previous days according to Osvaldo. However, we were delighted by the visitors. Most of them were flycatchers, the most dominant were the Streaked, Social and Rusty-margined Flycatchers (file photo from another place in Panama City), but also we saw (or heard) Bright-rumped Attilas, Tropical Kingbirds, Common Tody-Flycatchers, Southern Beardless and Paltry Tyrannulets and so on...

We also got many migrants, specially in a mixed flock passing at the opposite site of the trees, containing Chestnut-sided, Bay-breasted, Yellow, Protonothary, Golden-winged and Black-and-white Warblers, Northern Waterthrush and a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Close to them, a pair of Blue-crowned Motmots and a Squirrel Cuckoo gave some colors to the picture.

Walking towards the "vivero", the fruit feeders (actually bananas fixed in the fence) attracted Palm, Blue-gray, Plain-colored and Crimson-backed Tanagers, Red-legged Honeycreepers and many Clay-colored Robins, but we focused on the pair of Masked Tityras that was working the "indio desnudo" tree right above our heads.

It was a very nice ultra-short visit to the park, but my visit could not be complete without seeing the resident Yellow-backed Oriole singing as loud as it is possible and remembering me why the Metro Park is one of my favorites.

Happy birding!

A day in the foothills

Yesterday, I went to Cerro Azul with Osvaldo Quintero and Rafel Luck looking for colourful birds to photograph. The foothills of Cerro Azul are less than a hour-drive from Panama City, and it holds a completely different arrange of birds to what we are used here in the lowlands. Camera in hand, we visited first the section known as Altos del Frente, where we eventually found some activity in a now-usual spot where you can also have a great view of the city in the distance. There, two pairs of Crimson-crested Woodpeckers were displaying, making a lot of noise and flying from one trunk to another chasing each other. We also saw tons of Scaled Pigeos flying all over the place, with some of them calling and others perched atop bare branches, but never allowing us to approach enough to get good pictures. These are spectacular pigeons, with a very conspicuous red to the base of the bill and showy scales to the underparts. A flock of Keel-billed Toucans appeared, announcing their presence with their croacking calls. All these birds were a little far away, but Rafael found a male Masked Tityra close enough to see all the details of its plumage, and for some to take very good photos (not my case as you can see). A little farther in the road, we found a mixed flock with lots of tanagers, euphonias, flycatchers, woodcreepers, among others. The place is very good for tanagers... in that flock we saw Plain-colored, Golden-hooded, Bay-headed, Rufous-winged, Blue-gray and Palm Tanagers. Another tanager was accompanying the flock, at first glance it was dull gray, but then it perched in a Cecropia tree where I saw the white tufts at the sides of the chest: a Sulphur-rumped Tanager! This species is quite local and seldom reported for Cerro Azul, and the most recent reports come from that place precisely. My distant shots (two of them) show the white tufts... and barely part of the sulphur-yellow rump. Those marks are unique in this part of Panama. The flock also included a Black-cheeked Woodpecker and an endemic for Panama, a Stripe-cheeked Woodpecker that we heard first and then saw it briefly. The place became quiet when the flock left, so we moved on, this time to Birders' View, also a hot spot in these foothills. The property keeper, Nando, already told us about a Rufous-crested Coquette he saw the day before, so we waited there for it, watching closely the flowered bushes in the backyard. In the meanwhile, many others species showed up, including a migrant Black-and-white Warbler creeping a trunk close to us. It was an adult male, as you can see by its black cheeks. We also saw many more tanagers, and former tanagers in the form of Summer and Hepatic Tanagers. The former is migratory, the latter is a resident species. Both male and female were working the trees surrounding the backyard. It is hard to imagine these birds as cardinals, but I have to accept that the Piranga tanagers share many characteristics with their now-close relatives (overall coloration, beautiful voices, sexual dimorphism, etc...)... they are simply cardinals with specialized beaks! The first photo is a male, still with some yellow feathers in the body. You can separate them from the similar Summer Tanager by its darker red overall and dark lores. The females of both species are yellow, the head close-up of this female Hepatic Tanager shows well its dark lores, and also its dark bill. After all, we saw no less than 13 tanagers and former-tanagers, even more if we include the species of honeycreepers that we also saw. The coquette did not show up... so we tried another spot, this time the feeders at the Ahrens' place... but that is another story.