At the feeders!

As promised in my last entry, this post is about my birding day, last sunday, at the foothills of Cerro Azul, to the east of Panama City, with Osvaldo Quintero, Osvaldo Quintero Jr and the Cerro Azul's residents Leslie and Cindy Lieurance (The Petrels in Panama) and Claudia Ahrens.  Our intention was to look after a local speciality, the Black-eared Wood-Quail which Leslie videotaped at close range in the Calle Maipo trail entrance one week ago or so.

We walked all the trail, watching some forest interior birds and hearing at least two or three different coveys of wood-quails, but they were reluctant to show off for us... instead, we had a great time birding at the more open areas at the entrance of the trail and the main road, where mixed flocks with tanagers and warblers were the main stars.  The Fulvous-vented Euphonia offered a nice show... two adult males  were engaged in full courtship display.  The one I pictured above perched vertically with wings dropped making lots of noise!  Notice its fulvous vent... the female was more interested in eating juicy berries... she is so different to the male, but still distinctive!

After doing some exercise at the trail, we did what every smart birder would do: sit in front of feeders!  Both the Ahrens and the Lieurance keep feeders at their houses, and the diversity is awesome.  At the Ahrens, we checked a banana feeder where the first visitor was this male Hepatic Tanager.

Notice its dark lores and beak, which separates him of the similar looking Summer Tanager, which is a common winter visitor to Panama... this male was waiting its chance to grab a piece of banana.  Also note that the Summer Tanager is lighter red in general, compared with the Hepatic Tanager.

Soon, the action at the feeder became insane, with Bay-headed, Palm and Plain-colored Tanagers fighting for a space on it against Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, this female Green Honeycreeper and this young male Thick-billed Euphonia.

But the most aggressive bird at the feeder was the Clay-colored Thrush; however, in spite of the size difference, this male Red-legged Honeycreeper was not intimidated and took its part of the prize.  Notice that this male is in non-breeding plumage.

Curiously, at the Lieurance feeders, there were males Red-legged Honeycreepers in full or almost-full breeding plumage... they glow!

The Lieurance also have banana feeders, we checked the hanging feeder during the couple of minutes that we stayed, enjoying their hospitality... it is quite curious to see migrants Tennessee Warblers eating banana in the tropics... though it is not the first time!

Well, perhaps we didn't see the wood-quails... but what a great day we got!  Thank you Claudia, Leslie and Cindy! 

Lazy birding ?

Last saturday, Osvaldo Quintero, Itzel Fong and your blogger host visited the foothills of Cerro Azul, one hour to the east of Panama City. The bird activity was SO intense that we saw, heard and/or photographed at least 40 species in a single garden (at Birders' View, thanks Rosabel) and then added some more in the garden at the Ahrens' place (thanks Bill & Claudia). That is why I ask if this is lazy birding... all these birds were seen with VERY little walking and without wakening too early! At Birders' View, after finding my year-bird # 600, we noticed that the berries of two plants (Ortiga - above with white/pinkish berries in a purple florescence and a bonus female Green Honeycreeper on top- and Ortiguillo -with yellow berries- according to Nando, the house's handy man and keeper, but also an excellent birder) were attracting tons of birds, including no less than 12 tanagers species! My favorites were the six Tangara tanagers, with all their contrasting patterns and brightly-coloured plumage, including the Plain-colored Tanager that I'm not picturing here, but have a look at the other five (all of them in the Ortiguillo), starting with the Golden-hooded Tanager... common but gorgeous!

This Emerald Tanager is showing that the guys that named it were absolutely right!

The Speckled Tanager was a little shy. Notice its yellow face and blue margins to the wings.

Despite its commoness, I got my first close-up shot of a Bay-headed Tanager that day.

The Rufous-winged Tanager is regular in that garden. Compared to the Bay-headed Tanager, it has more yellow on the back, less blue in the underparts and, of course, rufous in the wings.

OK, I know that the Hepatic, Summer and Scarlet Tanagers are not tanagers, but cardinals... but we still need to assimilate that. This female Scarlet Tanager was very cooperative while feeding at the Ortiga berries.

The euphonias (former tanagers) and the honeycreepers were well-represented as well. Here, in quick succession, I'm showing the Fulvous-vented and Tawny-capped Euphonias (all males) and a male Green Honeycreeper... all at the Ortiga.

We DID walk a little... but only 15 minutes in one of the well-kept trails, finding several White-tipped Sicklebills in an Heliconia patch inside the forest. Returning to the natural feeders at the house, Itzel noticed that a new bird joined the party at the Ortiga below us... a female Yellow-eared Toucanet just feet from us!

She eventually got VERY close, less than a meter from me and Osvaldo was able to photograph her with his cell phone!

Some books mention that the Selenidera toucanets are shy... certainly she did not read those books!

We barely left the place due to such amazing activity, but it was getting late. In the way out, we visited our friends Bill and Claudia at their beautiful place, where they showed us the furious activity at the hummingbird feeders (that is a male Violet-capped Hummingbird -year-bird # 601) and the technique to dissappear a bunch of bananas in few seconds (just left it at their feeders, the Palm Tanagers and the Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, among maaaany others, will take charge).

What a great day... full of colourful birds in close proximity and good friends sharing them with you... this is birding all about!

Thorntails at Cerro Azul

I received an e-mail from my friend and former PAS president Rosabel Miró. While leaving her house in Cerro Azul yesterday's evening, she saw a male and two females Thorntails at a flowering tree in her parking lot. What surprised her was that they were not leaving the place, defending themselves from the others hummingbirds attending the banquet. The Green Thorntail is a beautiful hummingbird, but kind of erratic and unpredictable in Panama. It has been a target bird for me since many years ago, actively searching for it in such places like El Valle (Cocle province), El Montuoso (Herrera province), the western highlands, and so on. In one occasion, I was seeing an American Dipper in Fortuna (central Chiriqui province) while the guy just behind me was seeing a male Thorntail... I didn't saw it of course. I was pretty sure that my luck was about to change when I read the e-mail this morning. I picked up Gloriela in the airport (she was arriving from Nicaragua after a week attending a congress), have lunch and then we headed to the foothills of Cerro Azul. After an one-hour drive, we reached Rosabel's house at 4:15 pm, finding almost immediately the tree, when suddenly I saw a longish tail appearing among the flowers. It was raining, so we took our umbrellas and start searching. We didn't wait too much before finding a male Green Thorntail graciously flying around with its long tail elegantly cocked up!!!, a lifer for both of us. It was not alone, the tree was attracting many little and medium-sized hummingbirds, all of them fighting for the right to be there...but as Rosabel noted, the Thorntail was not getting scared easily, always coming back to the flowers, or to a distant perch (that's why my rather poor pics) despite the almost constant assaults of the Snowy-bellied, Violet-headed and Violet-capped Hummingbirds (specially the aggresives Snowy-bellieds). What a show, but it was not over. Then, a second and third bird appeared, this time an adult female and a female-plumaged individual with longish tail. They were not so aggresive as the male, visiting the flowers for few seconds and then perching on a very distant skinny stick against the sky, in backlight (again, sorry for the rather poor pic, but an awesome bird anyway... only for the record). Occasionally they made a kind of ritual display, facing eye-to-eye while elevating on the air, sometimes joined by the male. By this time the rain stopped, and we started to hear and see many others birds. Just behind us, a bush was covered in tanagers!, with Golden-hooded, Bay-headed and Blue-and-grays, but it was a Green Honeycreeper that stole the show. Its ultramarine green body contrasting with the black mask, and its photo-friendly behaviour was all what we needed to admire it for many minutes, while a pair of Fulvous-vented Euphonias tried to pass unnoticed... they were feeding low and in silence, but very close. We decided to visit the hummingbird feeders at the backyard, welcomed by an agressive Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer. The action was intense, with lots of hummingbirds trying to suck the last sip of nectar for the night. Besides the Plumeleteer, there were also White-necked Jacobins, Snowy-bellied and Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, Green Hermit and, occasionally, a female Violet-capped Hummingbird. In the way to the parking lot, I pointed a female Purple-crowned Fairy to Gloriela... realizing that it was a lifer for her according to the big WOW that she expressed. The bird is worth admiring, with its immaculate white underparts and the long tail (longer in females). It was our 10th species of hummingbird for the evening. Back in the parking lot, we were still amazed with the Thorntails, we watched them until it was too dark to see anything. Well, nice collection of birds, plus several lifers for both of us, in only 1.5 hours of backyard birding in Cerro Azul (I need a backyard like that one). Thanks Rosabel!