From sea level to paramo!

Western Panama is a diverse region.  Only on its Pacific slope, you can explore lush lowland forests (although, currently, there are only a few patches left), coastal wetlands and mangrove stands in the morning, montane and sub-montane forests at midday and visit the paramos of Panama's highest peak, the Baru Volcano, to see the sunset.  I did that itinerary some months ago during my Big Year quest (OK, not exactly in the same order).  If you have the chance to bird Chiriqui province, I suggest you to follow this itinerary, starting at Chiriqui's capital city, David.

Northern Jacana

Sunrise caught me in Quebrada Berlina, at the David-Querevalo road, very close to busy David city in fact.  As you guess, I saw many common water birds, including hundreds of Cattle Egrets, Anhingas, Cormorants, gaudy Northern Jacanas, etc...  But the reason why I went there so early was not the water birds, but an emblematic species of western Panama.  Ages ago, Scarlet Macaws used to fly wild all over our western Pacific lowlands, but the pet trade, habitat loss and the use of their long and colorful feathers for regional folkloric dances decimated them, to the point that they were extirpated from mainland Panama (it last stronghold was Coiba island, off Veraguas province).  Since some years now, Scarlet Macaws have returned to the David - Querevalo area.  It is not clear if they arose from an informal re-introduction program or escapees... the truth is that now there are no doubts about the wildness of this population.

Scarlet Macaw

As expected, at least three pairs of Scarlet Macaws flew above me, with one pair staying on nearby trees, detected by their raucous calls.  I hope this population continues to grow and, eventually, reoccupy its former distribution in western Panama.  From there, I drove through agricultural landscapes and cattle pastures to the highlands.  In fact, I was willing to visit Cerro Punta area, but a car accident blocked the only access road, so I stayed around the town of Volcan, looking for mid-elevation species and mixed flocks filled with migrants... and they didn't disappoint!  A huge mixed flock with mostly migratory species showed up almost as soon as I got off the car:  Yellow-throated and Philadelphia Vireos, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and hordes of warblers, including Louisiana Waterthrush, Black-and-white, Blackburnian, Black-throated Green, Golden-winged, Tennessee and rare Yellow-throated Warblers allowed great views and some photos!

Yellow-throated Warbler

But I was more interested in some resident warblers.  Soon, I also found both of them... both Gray and Olive-crowned Yellowthroats.  The Gray-crowned Yellowthroat was a year-bird for me, while the Olive-crowned Yellowthroat was... well, kind of complicated.  The form present in Panama (and adjacent Costa Rica) was considered conspecific with South American Masked Yellowthroat and known as "Chiriqui Yellowthroat".  However, the last taxonomic review considered it only a form of the more widely distributed Olive-crowned Yellowthroat... a species I already saw for the year.  They sound similar, although are quite different in their head patterns.  So it was not a year-bird, but it was the first time I managed to actually see the "Chiriqui" form for the year (I heard it few months before in the same site).

Gray-crowned Yellowthroat (file photo)

Olive-crowned "Chiriqui" Yellowthroat (file photo)

Olive-crowned Yellowthroat (file photo)

After noon, I hit the road again, this time I took the road that connects Volcan to Boquete, at the opposite flank of the Baru volcano.  This road transects some nice patches of forests and also get you to one of the best sites in Panama for bird photography (yes, I'm talking about Birding Paradise)... but I was in a hurry and drove directly to the charming town of Boquete, where I met my friends Howard, Dodge and Lorna.  We hired in advanced another two friends who are excellent bird guides for western Panama: Jason Lara (of Jason Lara Tours) and Raúl Velásquez.  Using a high-clearance, modified 4WD vehicle, we started our ascent to the summit of the Baru volcano around 3:00 pm.  The rough and steep 13 km-long road to the summit is only accesible with that type of vehicles, and some restrictions apply for entering it.  Of course, Jason and Raul took care of all the permits well in advance.  Of course, the road transects several habitat types, and we birded them all.  The lowest part (but well above 1800 meters) produced such beauties like Scintillant Hummingbirds, Long-tailed Silky-Flycatchers, Flame-colored and Spangle-cheeked Tanagers, more resident and migrant warblers and an exquisite pair of Resplendant Quetzals feeding on an "aguacatillo" tree.  The quetzal is the essence of the western highlands... a bird that arouses emotions both in experienced  and novice birders and even in the general population.

Adult male Resplendent Quetzal

Jason and Raul had a surprise for us.  At a known site, they started to search for a special bird for us.  Some activity of Volcano and Fiery-throated Hummingbirds, plus alarm calls of Sooty Thrushes confirmed our suspicions... a top predator was close.  Some searching and there it was: a fierce Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl was steering at us trying to ignore the hordes of hummingbirds and other little birds mobbing him.

Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl

We left the pygmy-owl with his fans and keep ascending through the windy road.  Above 3000 meters, the landscape changes abruptly to paramo, the only easy accesible paramo in Panama.  Not only the vegetation, but the wildlife is very different up there.  These paramos hold very unique species for the country, including three of them that are essentially restricted to this habitat (present only in another mountain top in Panama apart of the Baru volcano) both in Panama and Costa Rica (and nowhere else), descending to lower elevations only seasonally and/or occasionally. The most common is the previously mentioned Sooty Thrush.  In spite of the boring name, this bird is really attractive and with attitude, showing no fear to the humans intruders of its reign.

Sooty Thrush

The second one is the aptly named Timberline Wren.  A real skulker, difficult to photograph, but easily detected by its nice song.  Notice how much patterned is this guy, with vibrant white facial marks and underparts.

Timberline Wren

Lastly, but not less important, a real high-elevation specialist.  The next species is rarely seen away of the paramo.  It is also the most difficult one to find... for me that is... it takes to climb all the way to the highest part of the volcano, right a t the top of it to find it... the southernmost junco, the Volcano Junco!  That is another fearless, fierce-looking marvel:

Volcano Junco (file photo)

The above is a file photo.  It took me two ascents to the Baru volcano top to finally add the junco to my year-list.  But all the effort of climbing to the roof of Panama has its benefits.. like awesome sunsets and chilly weather!

Clouded sunset from the summit

That's me at the summit of Baru volcano

At dark, it is time for owling.  The star of the show is, by far, the Unspotted Saw-whet Owl.  However, it also took me two volcano climbings to add him to my year-list.  At the other hand, we were lucky enough to have crippling views of a cooperative Bare-shanked Screech-Owl.  Its distinctive vocalization was heard at several sites along the road, but this guy decided to show up right in front of us and at eye level after calling it only once.  I only took some quick shots while the bird was in the spotlight, to not disturb it.

Bare-shanked Screech-Owl

Descending the volcano road in the dark is quite scary at places, but is an exciting experience anyway!  We heard some other species in the way down, like Dusky Nightjar, but essentially were focused on the road.  We arrived at our hotel in Boquete around 11:00 pm.  As you can see, it is possible to bird starting at sea level and ending at the high paramo of the highest peak in Panama... all of this in one day.  Try it once, you won't regret it!

Next stop: endemic island!

I finally managed to escape Panama City for two and a half days in order to accept the great opportunity my friend Kees Groenendijk (of Hotel Heliconia Bed & Breakfast) offered time ago... a quick visit to famed Coiba Island (off-shore central Panama) in order to clean-up the endemics and specialties it has to offer.  Isolated from mainland some 12,000 to 18,000 years ago, many of its inhabitants had diverged since then into distinctive subspecies and even completely new species restricted to this island, the largest of Central America's Pacific coast.

I joined a couple of visiting Dutch birders in this journey.  With Kees as guide, we boarded our boat at the Palo Seco beach in western Azuero (close to the town of Malena where the hotel is) and headed directly to Los Pozos trail in Coiba Island.  As soon as we landed, the birds started to show up.  A mixed flock included Scrub Greenlet, Blue-gray and Crimson-backed Tanagers, Streaked Saltator, House Wren and a pair of Tropical Gnatcatchers.  All these species are represented by endemic subspecies restricted to Coiba and adjacent islands.  Most of them look very similar to the mainland congeners, except by the greenlet and the gnatcatchers.  The endemic subspecies cinericia of Tropical Gnatcatcher is distinctively darker below than other subspecies, as you can see in this male.

male Tropical Gnatcatcher (ssp. cinericia)

Los Pozos trail is flat and easy to bird.  Along it we found more Coiba's endemic subspecies, including tons of Barred Antshrikes, some Tropical Pewees, a smart Rufous-capped Warbler, a Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet and several Red-crowned Woodpeckers.  We also saw a pair of Yellow-bellied Elaenia and a Red-rumped Woodpecker.  The subspecies subpagana of Yellow-bellied Elaenia is not endemic... but is the only site in Panama where it is found; while the woodpecker is VERY rare (essentially absent) from western Panama.  Then, Kees noticed a call he recognized immediately... it was our main target... the endemic Coiba Spinetail!  The little bird crawled along some tangled vines carrying some nesting materials... and then it entered a nest.

Coiba Spinetail's nest

I can't show you a photo of the Coiba Spinetail... but I can show you its nest, a globular mass with a lateral entrance.  There is nothing like the Coiba Spinetail in the adjacent mainland of Panama... and the most similar species, the Rusty-backed Spinetail, lives in a different habitat at the other side of the Andes in South America!  It was a huge lifer for me!  I promise you some photos next time.

Mangroves along the San Juan river, Coiba Island 

Around noon, we left Los Pozos trail and headed to a different habitat; this time navigating through the San Juan river, admiring the impressive mangrove forest along its banks.  Many waders, herons, Yellow -Mangrove- Warblers and Great-tailed Grackles call this forest their home, but Kees was looking after a special resident for the area... a species extirpated from adjacent mainland Panama: Scarlet Macaw.

Scarlet Macaws

Coiba Island is a reserve of macaws and the only wild and viable population in Panama of this striking species.  After a couple of minutes, Kees was able to localize a pair resting under the canopy following their raucous  calls (photo above).  In spite of their size and plumage, they can be difficult to detect sometimes.  We were lucky to have this pair close enough for photos.  They were new birds for me as well.... a very colorful lifer!  After leaving the mangroves, we stopped by the former penitentiary... hundreds of Sandwich and Royal Terns were resting at the remains of the old pier, with some Black and Elegant Terns mixed in (including an anomalous Elegant Tern with red legs).

Black Tern

Elegant, Royal and Sandwich Terns 

Elegant, Royal and Sandwich Terns

We also visited Los Monos trail in order to find another endemic subspecies for Coiba.  Taxonomically talking, the situation of the next species is not clear.  Most authorities consider the Gray-headed Dove as a polytypic species spreading from SE Mexico to western Colombia; however, the form present in the Pacific slope of central Panama (essentially Azuero Peninsula and off-shore islands) is isolated from other populations, have a brighter plumage, apparently is vocally different too and probably deserves species status as Brown-backed Dove, an endemic species for Panama and represented in Coiba Island by its own endemic subspecies nominate battyi).  Well, after walking for a while, Kees located a pair of these doves on the ground.  It was dark and tangled, and my poor photos barely shows how bright this bird looks in the field.

Brown-backed Dove 

Brown-backed Dove

It is almost pale blue in the crown (instead of gray) and bright rufous in the back, with pinkish breast... simply beautiful.  By far this was my best experience with this species... not a lifer, but I only got glimpses of it during my last visit to Coiba Island many years ago.  We saw many more birds in that trail, including Lance-tailed Manakins, Tropical Parulas and White-throated Thrushes... but it was getting late and Kees had another surprise in store for us.  Our boat took us to some rocky islets to the north of the main island.  After some searching, we found three stock shorebirds with yellow legs and long bill.

Wandering Tattler

They were Wandering Tattlers, elsewhere a VERY rare migrant to Panama, but in these islets seems to be regular and even present year-round!  It was my third lifer for the day, something hard to say for me in Panama.  I want to thank Kees for this very quick trip to Coiba... I have to return someday to take better photographs!

Birding in colombian llanos and amazon region

After a great, but quick, birding trip to northwestern Ecuador, Rafael Cortes and your blogger host were again in Colombia's capital city, Bogota, making our bags in order to start the last part of this epic trip... we were heading to the eastern lowlands, to the llanos and the amazonic region around San José del Guaviare, in the department of Guaviare (and where the road actually ends!).  For this part of the trip we were joined by Mauricio Rueda, a friend of Rafael who only counts the birds he photographs... and is very good doing that!  We left the busy Bogota city and took the same highway that we used for our first birding trip out of the huge city some weeks before (with Oswaldo).  The winding road runs parallel to a rushing river, and I was searching it, trying to find the Fasciated Tiger-Heron that we saw the last time, but no luck on that (photo from that day).  However, we saw several others birds from the car, including Cliff Flycatchers, Lesser Swallow-tailed Swifts, Crested Oropendola, Magpie Tanager (near the Monterredondo), and many more.

It was mostly a travel day... but that doesn't mean that we didn't see any bird... as soon as we left the andean slopes we started to see species typical of the lowlands: Roadside Hawk, Pale-vented Pigeon, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Carib Grackle, Oriole Blackbirds, tons of herons and ibises.  Definitively, the bird of the day was the Scarlet Ibis.  Mauricio spotted a flock so Rafael stopped the car in order to have better views... it was a spectacular lifer for me, that color is unreal!  Compare it with the abundant Bare-faced Ibis in the second photo (also a immature Wattled Jacana in the same frame).

We arrived at night, left our thing at our rooms in the hotel and then had dinner with our guides Luis Fernando Galindez ("Lucho") and Derly Blandon (who is training in order to become a guide)  at a tiny restaurant by the main square.  Very early the next day, we left San José del Guaviare and drove all the way to the community of Playa Guio, our home for the next three days.  The cabins were in the opposite of the Caño Negro creek, so we left the car and loaded the boat with all the bags and photographic equipment.  We started birding immediately... the first birds being hordes of ancient-looking Hoatzines (we were no longer in the Andes anymore!).   

Right in the dinning hall, I got my first lifers for the day.  A pair of attractive White-eared Jacamars were flycatching while a gang of noisy Thrush-like Wrens inspected every single branch around the house.

A Ruddy Pigeon started to call right in front of us and soon we were having good views of this canopy dweller.

I'm used to the heat... but in Playa Guio, it was suffocating... however, we enjoyed the beauty of the forest and the river.  A pair of Scarlet Macaws flew in front of us... they turned out to be semi-pets of the house, but they wander freely in the forest (I'm not including this species in my list, of course).

At our cabin (powered by solar panels), we have a close encounter with a young Rufescent Tiger-Heron that allowed some VERY nice photos!  This was our second Tiger-Heron for Colombia.

And all this even before our first walk through the forest!  Stay tuned for more!