Rain and birds

If your free day starts chilly and rainy, most of us prefer to stay in bed rather to wake up.  I usually do that... however, this time I preferred to grab my binoculars and started to watch through the windows and from the balcony of our apartment, in Panama City.  At first, nothing moved... then, I started to see some species, holding under the rain.

The time was not appropriate for flying... specially for raptors and vultures.  This pair of Black Vultures decided to wait the rain to stop atop the roof of a nearby mall.  In the other hand, this completely wet Yellow-headed Caracara preferred the trees of the little hill facing the balcony.

Any corner is good for shelter, as these Rock Pigeons proved.  They were very close to my window... they not noticed my presence.

However, some species were flying around in spite of the rain, like a flock of Gray-breasted Martins and this Zone-tailed Hawk that, at first, I thought it was a Turkey Vulture.  The similarity is impressive, even the way to fly from one side to another taking advantage of any breeze, making it look effortless.

A nice thing about the rain is that, when it stops, is like a new dawn... all the hungry birds come out... in my case, a pair of migrant Scarlet Tanagers just in front of the balcony!

What a great way to spend a rainy day!

Recently arrived gull?

Last friday (september 3rd), I went to Panama Viejo and Costa del Este in Panama City, this time with Osvaldo Quintero, just to check out the hundreds of shorebirds present in the mudflats. The day was cloudy and by the time when we arrived to Panama Viejo, it began to rain. Not only that, the 13-feet high tide was not enough to push the birds close to shore, so we did not get many photographic chances. In any case, we walked towards the beach, finding immediately the now-usual suspects: Western, Semipalmated, Least and Spotted Sandpipers all around, plus Black-bellied, Semipalmated, Collared and Wilson's Plovers. Then, I saw an agitated shorebird running from one side to the other, with a long and thin bill... a Wilson's Phalarope. I was surprised because that was my first phalarope in more than ten years! It was wearing its winter (basic) plumage and soon flew behind the mangroves. I got awful photos of the bird (as you can see... it was too far away for my lens), but Osvaldo's are better. Anyway, you can see the characteristic silhouette and thin bill of the bird. We decided to visit Costa del Este (not before watching one, of two, Wood Storks leaving the mangroves where they were resting). In Costa del Este the things were not better, we only found distant shorebirds... but two PETRELS were carefully inspecting them with their scopes. We only stayed for a while, and decided to return to Panama Viejo to see if the weather improved. Back in Panama Viejo, we noticed among the Laughing Gulls and the Royal and Gull-billed Terns, a bigger gull with darker mantle. Through my binoculars I noticed the not-so-heavy-looking and slender beak, with not a pronounced gonydeal angle, dusky with yellow tip, the dark grey back, the white (unmarked?) head, underparts and tail, and the yellow legs: a Lesser Black-backed Gull. It was too far away (like the phalarope), but my pics still show most of these marks (you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them).

In the last photo, you can notice its relative size compared to the nearby Laughing Gulls, and its darker mantle (compare the colour with that of the Black-necked Stilt standing in front of it). You can see also that this bird retains pale (younger) secundaries feathers in the closed wings. When it took off, it flew directly away of us, showing pale secundaries and inner primaries (the outer primaries were darker than the mantle) and a slightly dark smudge to the end of the tail.

This was almost an adult bird, and is the earliest date that I see this rare gull in Panama (and it seems that the earliest date recorded before was september 6th, 1997). I'm not an expert, but I'm calling it a third-winter (basic) Lesser Black-backed Gull probably molting from its 3rd-alternate. What do you think?

Ending the day, we went to the Panama Viejo's Visitors Center where we saw other Wood Stork, a Great Blue Heron (recently arrived too?) and, under the "curious thing" tag, a Ruddy Turnstone walking along with a Rock Pigeon. Is not curious?

My balcony list

Not always you can get out to a pristine habitat to chase rare birds. That is why quite often I go to my balcony just to see what can I find to deal with my birding abstinence syndrome (I live in a fourth floor in the center of Panama City). Usually I get the same common species, but sometimes I get surprises. I keep a balcony list where I include all the birds heard or watched while I am standing at my balcony. It is different to a backyard list because it is not restricted to a backyard (in anycase I don't have one)... I count all the birds that I can identify in my field of view, which includes part of the Metropolitan Natural and Camino de Cruces National Parks and the Ancon Hill as well (all are distant forested areas). I also have some photos showing the birds on or over man-made structures like telephone posts, wires, antennas, communication towers, etc... (that is the idea, to show them in an urban environment). So here is, my balcony list:

Magnificent Frigatebird

Great Egret
Wood Stork
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey

White-tailed Kite
Broad-winged Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Zone-tailed Hawk

Yellow-headed Caracara
Anhinga
Southern Lapwing
Laughing Gull
Rock Pigeon
Pale-vented Pigeon

Ruddy Ground-Dove
Orange-chinned Parakeet
Blue-headed Parrot
Red-lored AmazonYellow-crowned Amazon
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Short-tailed Swift
Rufous-tailed HummingbirdRinged Kingfisher
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Acadian Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Social Flycatcher
Streaked Flycatcher
Tropical Kingbird
Gray Kingbird
Fork-tailed FlycatcherGray-breasted Martin
Southern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Clay-colored Thrush
Tropical Mockingbird
Yellow Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Yellow-crowned Euphonia
Blue-gray Tanager
Palm Tanager
Crimson-backed Tanager
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow

Fifty-three species in total by now, but expect additions to this list in the years to come. In the other hand, if I do not find birds from the balcony, it is always nice to enjoy the sunset every afternoon.

Introduced species

They DO count... only if they are well-established. OK, it may sound simple, but it can get complicated. Who determines when an introduced species is well-established depends on the local or regional birding or ornithologists associations based on sightings, historical records, population studies and so on... but sometimes, it can be obvious. Think about the Rock Pigeons. Most of the cities that I have visited until now holds a well-established population of this species. You may say that they are all around because of us and our food sources... but if suddenly all the people that deliberately feed them disappear, they will survive anyway. It was not included in the first edition of the Panama Birds fieldguide (back in the 70's) but now it is part of our official bird list. The populations of these birds are dynamic. There are many factors influencing the establishment of an introduced species to a region: number of individuals, habitat, adaptability, nest sites availability, competence with native or other introduced species. For instance, when I started birding (more than 15 years ago), the Saffron Finch was known only from an introduced population in the charming town of Gatun, in the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. Back then, it was one of the main targets during the Atlantic CBC, because it was valid for the count, despite its tiny population. Since then, this species have spread along the isthmus and now is a very common resident in Panama City as well (also in some other localities, for example in Vacamonte, at the west side of the Canal). And what about the Tropical Mockingbird? First recorded in Panama City during the 30's, probably brought from Colombia as a popular cage bird due to its song, now is very hard to imagine a park or a neighborhood within Panama's main cities without them. Not only that, they have spread themselves all the way to Central America, being now not uncommon in some sites in Costa Rica. Sometimes, it is about chances of adaptability. In Panama, the urban niche was, more or less, available in order to be occupied by the House Sparrows when they arrived following its incredible expansion from North America. A pair or flocks of these birds is now a common sight at our streets, where they do not compete with any other sparrow species (contrary to what happened in other countries in South America where it competes with the Rufous-collared Sparrow). Many times, those introduced species are seen as invasor alliens that destroy the natural avifauna... but take into consideration that they simply are trying to survive and that usually we are responsible of their first occurrence after all. The ethical dilemmas abound in the literature about erradication methods, with tons of examples along the decades. Well, I think is better to let them alone with their lives... trying not to make worse the situation by introducing MORE species. What do you think?