2014 First lifer!

Last weekend, my friend Osvaldo showed me a photo of a warbler he found in the Metropolitan Natural Park.  The bird puzzled me a little, but after much thinking I declared it a female Mourning Warbler.  He showed the photo to some local experts later, and some red flags started to appear... Osvaldo photographed a rare (for central Panama) MacGillivray's Warbler!  Not only that, he re-found the bird at the same site last friday and took new photos.

I took advantage of a tiny gap in my agenda and went to the park around 1:00 pm.  In spite of the hour and the heat of our dry season, the place was alive with tons of birds attending a flowering Erythrina tree.  These trees are special for both resident and migrant birds.  In fact, I saw many migrants, including both Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, eight warblers species (!) and this Yellow-throated Vireo.

Among the warblers, the most obliging were the Chestnut-sided Warblers.  The bright green back and the lemon-yellow wingbars are distinctive.

Of course, the Golden-winged Warbler wins the prize of the most beautiful warbler in the flock.  A distant male made a short appearance... my distant photo is useful to identify the bird at least.

Then, I saw a bird skulking in the understore exactly where Osvaldo described me.  Soon I notice it was a female Geothlypis (formerly Oporornis) warbler, but most important, in the dark of the forest, the broken arcs above and below the eyes were quite conspicuous.

The call was different to the sweet chip note I'm used for Mourning Warbler, it was harsher and rougher, but still a chip note.  The yellowish throat made me doubt... but then I see that this is quite variable (and some photos in the web show this feature in immature males MacGillivray's Warblers).  The broken eye-ring was definitively more prominent than those of the females and immatures Mourning Warblers, and the gray surrounding the throat made a complete breast band above the yellow belly, all consistent with MacGillivray's Warbler... my life MacGillivray's Warbler! 

More migrants and skulkers in Metro Park

The Ovenbird was not the only bird we found and photographed during our last visit to the Metropolitan Natural Park in Panama City yesterday. In fact, despite we did not walk a lot, we found many species taking advantage of the fruiting trees in the first part of the Mono Titi trail. In a single tree, hordes of migrant tanagers, warblers and vireos were taking the fruits desperately, in preparation for the upcoming flight to their breeding grounds in the north. A cooperative Yellow-throated Vireo stayed enough for photos. It was singing, something rarely heard for this species in Panama. Others migrants at the same tree were the vocal Summer Tanagers, Yellow, Bay-breasted and Chestnut-sided Warblers. Also, some residents were in the same tree, with Yellow-green Vireos, Scrub Greenlets, Northern Scrub-Flycatchers and White-shouldered Tanagers being the most numerous. We walked a little uphill along the Mono Titi trail, hearing the distrinctive scolding calls of the Red-throated Ant-Tanagers, the only birds that really pay attention to my insistent "pishing". You can see in the photo the contrasting red throat of the male of this species. However, the Red-crowned Ant-Tanager is also found in the park (probably the most reliable site for this species in central Panama), and coincidentally, we managed to find a group of three of these birds. My photo shows a young adult, still with some yellowish feathers, but already showing the more uniform red color to the body, without a contrasting throat (the males of both species have red crowns). These furtive tanagers have little, if any, to do with ants. More often are found in small groups or with mixed flocks, but rarely following army ants or alikes. Also confusingly, these birds are not exactly tanagers, they are more related to the grosbeaks, buntings and allies than to the tanagers, and some authorities consider them part of that family (Cardinalidae). Not too far, a mixed flock with more warblers included a rare, but regular, Blackpoll Warbler, a Canada Warbler and a Worm-eating Warbler only heard. Despite my photo of the Canada Warbler is out of focus, it is evident the diagnostic collar and the spectacles of this attractive warbler. Back to the entrance, we took El Roble trail, heading directly to the Ovenbird's spot, finding not only the Ovenbird, but also a male Kentucky Warbler exactly in the same place, very active and constantly chipping. My poor photo in the dark interior of the forest shows the facial pattern with the distinctive black mask (and I'm posting the photo here to continue the bad-photos-of-good-warblers festival). After a while, after loosing the warblers in the dense undergrowth, we detected more movement in the fallen leaves of the forest floor: a mixed flock of skulkers was passing by, including Rufous-and-white and Rufous-breasted Wrens, Dot-winged Antwren, Dusky Antbirds and a male White-bellied Antbird that was inspecting the area looking for something to eat. This antbird is handsome, with its black throat and chest contrasting with the white belly and the chestnut-rufous back. At least that individual allowed good pictures, a great end to a day full of skulkers and never-resting birds in the city!

Short stroll after the work

So far, this has been a GREAT season for migratory birds in Panama. Some days ago, Carlos Bethancourt, the famous guide of the Canopy Tower, reported in the social network a White-eyed Vireo at the entrance of the Summit Ponds (central Panama). Two days ago, Osvaldo Quintero and Euclides "Kilo" Campos went to the site and found that the bird was still in the same place. So I went yesterday after finishing my work at the hospital, chasing the rare bird. The White-eyed Vireo is a vagrant migrant to Panama, with only few reports, mostly from sites near the Caribbean coast. I reached the place around 3:30 PM and the first bird I saw from the window of my car was a Yellow-throated Vireo working high in the trees. False alarm... or a sign of the good things to come? The place was very quiet, surely due to the heat, but anyway, I saw many migrants in the surrounding trees. Representing the warblers, present were Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided and Yellow Warblers, plus a Northern Waterthrush. A fruiting tree had no less than three males Rose-breasted Grosbeak and a Great Crested Flycatcher. I even saw another Yellow-throated Vireo and several Summer Tanagers too. Around 4:00 PM, I detected a movement in a tangle. I saw with my binoculars the white underparts, two white wing bars, yellow spectacles... THE White-eyed Vireo!!!! WOW, just like that, it materialized in front of me! The bird did not vocalize, and it moved actively always in the tangled parts of the trees. Like Osvaldo stated, it was not easy to photograph, and my marginal photos only show the neccesary to have a positive ID. I'm very impressed with the conspicuous white eye... just look at the picture (you may need to enlarge it). A HUGE lifer, and I'm very grateful with Carlos for sharing it! After a while, I detected another bird skulking in the same tangles. About the same size of the vireo, I recognized it immediately as a warbler because it was moving even more actively than the vireo. After a while I got decent views, confirming it was a Magnolia Warbler, an immature considering its gray breast band. Curiously, this is the sixth species of warbler that I see this year and that I missed last year. Both birds foraged very close to each other, without noticing a single interaction between them. I stayed for 30 more minutes, and the birds stayed in the same general area. Again, only marginal photos of the warbler, but I'm very happy with them (at least the bird is recognizable). Well, as I said: GREAT season for migrants!