Birding Bocas: Part II

A rainstorm struck Changuinola in the Bocas del Toro province (western Caribbean lowlands) during the night of our first day there, so the morning of our second day was clouded, but afortunately without rain. Our plan was to explore the road that follows the Sixaola river (which is the limit between Panama and Costa Rica) beyond the frontier town of Guabito. We passed the towns of La Mesa, Las Tablas and Tiger Hill on a very good road, reaching the tiny town of Sibube and then, Las Delicias and Boca de Yorkin. It was like an exploratory trip since none of us had reached that part of the road ever. Of course we saw some pristine forest at the hills close to the towns, but the road only passed by its borders in few places, more often around Las Delicias were we stopped several times just to see what can we get. This is a beautiful region of our country and the road is passable all the way to Yorkin, a town seldom visited by foreigners. We were able to see the town of Bribri in the Costa Rican side of the Sixaola river while visiting Las Delicias duty free shop (yeap, a duty free in that isolated part of Panama) and to talk with a member of that ethnic group (the Bri bris) at the road. And what about the birds? OK, we did not saw any new bird for Panama (you know, Red-billed Pigeons, Melodious Blackbirds), but got some interesting sightings. For example, we saw many Green-breasted Mangos, including a female feeding a young bird. We still need to know more about the relationships of the Mangos species in Panama... some years ago this form was unknown for Panama! We also saw a flock of Chestnut-collared Swifts, previously unrecorded for that region. Of course we saw others common birds like Crimson-fronted Parakeets, White-crowned Parrots, more Passerinii's Tanagers and Grayish Saltators and Olive-crowned Yellowthroats and several pairs of White-lined Tanagers. The females honor its latin name, Tachyphonus rufus, as you can see in the photo. Since they usually travel in pairs, it is easy to identify them by their companions. Again, we heard the Grayish Saltators almost everywhere... it is hard to imagine that this bird was unknown in Panama few years ago. This species is one of those that occur in northern Central America and reappear in South America, skipping Panama (others examples are Double-striped Thick-Knee, Spot-tailed Nightjar, Steely-vented Hummingbird, Vermillion and Brown-crested Flycatchers, Green Jay and so on...). This is due to the relative recent origin of the isthmus (at least of the lowlands) and some habitat requirements that changed since then, isolating the populations of certain species in the north after its migration from the south through the isthmus. It is not strange that most of the examples are birds of clear forests, open or dry habitats, being isolated by the tropical rainforest that grew up in the isthmus. Now, some of these birds are gaining terrain again due to men activities (clearing the forests for example) in both directions... most of the new species of birds recorded for Panama in the last decade or so, both in the west and in the Darien province, are typical of open habitats, not of forests. OK, I'm glad that our country list is constantly growing, but it would be great to preserve our forest just to see if the forest denizens gain terrain too. Back to the story, in the way back we stopped in several places looking for more Bocas specialties. Two species were in our radar: White-collared Manakin and Black-throated Wren, both of them completely resctricted to western Bocas del Toro province. We heard them the previous day, but we wanted to actually see them (both were long-desired life birds for me). So, after a quick meal in Changuinola, we tried the road to El Silencio. This road is mostly lined with houses, but some patches of forest still remain in some places. We drove all the way to the new bridge over the Teribe river, from which you can see the confluence of the Changuinola and the Teribe rivers. You need a permit to drive through the bridge in the brand new road to Bonyic, a Naso community and the proposed site for an hydroelectrical proyect (hence the construction of the road and the bridge). Back to the birding, we inspected a little patch of forest where I heard the typical noise of a group of males Manacus manakins... I saw a movement through the understore with my binoculars but then a gorgeous Black-throated Wren appeared in front of me! The White-collared Manakins took us more time, they were difficult to spot in the entangled but eventually we got great views of the lekking males, with its contrasting snowy-white necks and lemon-yellow underparts. To photograph them went almost impossibly, I only got a (VERY) poor shot of its legs! In the same site we saw also a Bronzy Hermit and a pair of Bare-crowned Antbirds, all of them new year-birds for me. We said good-bye to Changuinola and headed towards the town of Punta Peña and Chiriqui Grande (70 km away), stopping in some places looking for Snowy Cotingas, but finding a pair of Masked Tityras in a Cecropia tree and a beautiful White Hawk perched in the distance. After a delicious sea-food dinner, we stayed at a comfortable cabin in the town of Punta Peña. The plans for the next day (our last day) were including a visit to the Chiriqui Grande's Two Tank road and the Bocas foothills in our way back to Panama City.

Birding Bocas: Part I

Almost a week ago, I had the pleasure to visit Panama's western Caribbean lowlands of the Bocas del Toro province. This part of the country holds its own array of habitats and wildlife, including a great variety of birds found nowhere else in Panama. This is not a well-known birding destination, specially when talking about the mainland (the Bocas islands are a well-known touristic attraction at the other hand), so I joined two "bocatoreños" in our quest of those Bocas' specialties. After saying good bye to Gloriela, I took the 8:00 PM night-bus to the coastal town of Almirante, arriving 10 hours later. With the first lights I started to identify birds by my own while walking through the streets towards the main avenue. I quickly found a pair of singing White-collared Seedeaters and several flocks of noisy Crimson-fronted Parakeets along the main streets. I met Rafael Luck (who overnighted in town) and soon were heading west, to the town of Changuinola where we joined Venicio "Beny" Wilson. If the bananas were money, then Changuinola would be the richest town on earth! The town is almost entirely surrounded by banana plantations and most of the commercial activity still turns around it. Of course we were not there because of the bananas, but because of the special birds that lives around the town, where good habitat still remains. I got my first life bird in a marshy area very close to the bridge over the San San river in route to the frontier town of Guabito: a pair of Olive-crowned Yellowthroats. A bird that escaped my searches in previous occasions, now was conspicuous and singing everywhere, as it proved later. The same marshy area also had Thick-billed Seed-Finch, White-collared and Variable Seedeaters, Blue-black Grassquits and the Bocas' race of Plain Wren (zeledoni). Some authorities call this form the Canebrake Wren. I must admit that the bird's call was distinctively different from that of the Plain Wren in central Panama and it looked different too... more grayer. I only managed to obtain poor photos of it. We first tried a spot known by Beny good for aquatic birds, the port at the channels in "Las 60". These channels eventually join the Soropta channel that connects to the Caribbean sea, but now are navigable only for little boats ("pangas"). We found some common aquatic birds like Green Heron, Northern Jacana, Purple Gallinule, Mangrove and Souther Rough-winged Swallows, and even a female Pygmy Kingfisher. In the park we found a female Green-breasted Mango and a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. After this, we drove to the other side of Changuinola, to a trail that heads to the beach ("Sendero Ecológico"). Despite the hour and the heat, the place proved to be very good, with mostly regenerative vegetation and some gallery forest along wet meadows that were full of birds, including some interesting species. The Passerinii's Tanagers were numerous in all sort of habitats (including the banana plantations), the same for the attractive Black-cowled Oriloles that were all around. A cooperative Striped Cuckoo responded to playback while we heard the call of a Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher that we barely saw later. Then, Beny recognized the characteristic call of a Grayish Saltator (a quite recent addition to the Panama's bird list) and soon we saw one of them working some nearby bushes. Other birds found were tons of Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, Pale-vented Pigeons, a family group of Olive-backed Euphonias, more Green Herons including one in black phase, the Bocas ssp. of Plain-colored Tanager (with buffy underparts instead of white) and so on... We returned to town in order to have a well deserved lunch just to keep birding! The last spot we visited that day were the rice fields west of town and surroundings. The rice fields were dry so we did not find all those specialties we were looking for (Nicaraguan Seed-Finch for example), but anyway we got good species. In the same field we saw both Bronzed and Shiny Cowbirds and a Crested Caracara which is still rare in Bocas. The Grayish Saltators were calling from everywhere and we heard the characterictic call of several Gray-breasted Crakes while a noisy flock of Aratinga parakeets turned out to be Olive-throated Parakeets (only found in Bocas del Toro) and only the second time ever that I see this bird. It was a very long first day so we stayed in town, planning the journey for the next day.