2010's Pacific Christmas Bird Count

Yesterday, the Panama Audubon Society carried out the first (of three) Christmas Bird Counts in central Panama, with a great assistence and some good birds showing up. Like last year, I counted in the Farfan/Veracruz area (Panama Canal's west bank) in the morning... but this time alone because Gloriela stayed in home with a cold. I started very early, as usual, finding many of the specialties for the area (shorebirds, waders and open land birds). First, I checked Veracruz beach walking along the tide line in rubber boots finding tons of Willets and Whimbrels in the same flock along with a White Ibis, a Ruddy Turnstone, and some Collared, Wilson's and Black-bellied Plovers. I also found two Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures (so far the only two of the count) and heard a Striped Cuckoo in an adjacent grassland. Then, I checked Farfan beach, finding maaany herons and egrets, including my new-for-the-year Boat-billed Heron inside a mangrove and several Great Blue Herons. The highlights were two American Oystercatchers spotted far away in the rocky shores, also the only two for the count. Other birds related to the aquatic environment were the Amazon and Ringed Kingfishers at the river, several Northern Waterthrushes, a single Prothonotary Warbler and a flock of Greater Anis making a guttural call. These are shiny and good-looking birds compared to the Smooth-billed Anis found before. I like its expressive yellow eyes... not to be confused with the abundant Great-tailed Grackle). I moved to Amador where I entered Punta Culebra, the most reliable site inside the count circle to find the Northern Scrub-Flycatcher... and one of these little friends was perched on the entrance sign! Notice its pattern, quite similar to the Myiarchus flycatchers. You can identify it by its smaller size, short bill and different voice. The site is also very good for Sapphire-throated Hummingbird (only one male seen), Garden Emerald (up to four different birds of both sexes present) and "Mangrove" Warblers (with several seen). I also saw both Brown and Blue-footed Boobies (following a ship entering the Canal!) INSIDE the count circle. By midday, all the groups met at the Chiva Chiva ponds (beyond the Miraflores locks) to compilate the preliminar list and to organize the plans for the afternoon journey. After checking the missing birds, I went to different sites with Darien Montañez (PAS president, this CBC main compilator and XENORNIS editor) looking to add more birds to the day list, with moderate success. The very first stop was at the first of the two Chiva Chiva ponds, were we scoped several Common Gallinules (aka Moorhens), an American Coot and four (probably more) Pied-billed Grebes, the latter two were new year-birds for me! At the mangroves of Diablo Heights, Darien showed me a female American Redstart (new year-bird!) and we saw a quite grayish Cocoi Heron (white thighs and solid black crown, so its grayness was probably age-related). We failed to locate the Cattle Tyrant at its former usual haunts in Amador, but added Shiny Honeycreeper and Black-tailed Flycatcher at the Metropolitan Natural Park (with Venicio "Beny" Wilson and Olmedo Miró). The day ended doing some owling at Beny's place in Ancon... 15 hours of intense birding! Great count with great birds!

City black birds

Driving around Panama City (after leaving Gloriela at the airport... she is in Mexico now) gave me some unexpected photographic opportunities, but also I realized that we have many all-black coloured birds in the city. Right at the parking lot of the airport (and perhaps elsewhere in Panama), the Great-tailed Grackles were feeding at the grass, looking for small insects and doing grackles stuff, harassing other smaller, all-black birds (Blue-black Grassquits). A curious young male (still with some brown feathers, dull yellow eyes and molting tail) got very close to me... surely he wanted a close-up photo, and I didn't denied it. The grackles were not the only black birds at the parking lot. In fact, other icterid was the most common one: Shiny Cowbird. A huge flock of more or less 50 birds, most of them adult males, were also at the grass and the fence, very close to the people and the cars. Is the first time I see so many cowbirds in the same place. I suppose that they are doing well considering the big number of individuals, or simply this is a favorite place for them, which is close to some pastures with cattle. Like many icterids, the females are duller, coloured in brown with streaks at the underparts. They are brood parasites of other songbirds, specially flycatchers, which are common too. In other places they are a big problem, reducing the populations of beloved songbirds, but that is not the case in Panama... yet. Anyway, they are expanding their range into the distribution of the ecological similar Bronzed Cowbird and now is not uncommon to see both species at the same sites (around Panama City, Cocle foothills, western Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui highlands, etc...). A third species of these parasites, the Giant Cowbird, is uncommon around the city, but I have seen it at the Summit Gardens, in the way to Gamboa where they laid their eggs at oropendola's hanging-nests. After leaving the airport, I passed through Costa del Este in my way to our apartment, detecting immediately the Smooth-billed Anis at their usual sites (the Groove-billed Ani is very uncommon here)... but what caught my attention was a group of six all-black birds with guttural calls flying from tree to tree in the middle of the main avenue... a flock of Greater Anis! This is the first time I see this species in Costa del Este, and they were not related with water at all. They can be confused with Great-tailed Grackles with a careless observation (similar size with long tail, bright yellow eyes), but note the completely different bill and different behavior (and vocalizations). So it is official, all three anis' species can be found at Costa del Este. The last black bird of this post is the only one called that way, and (ironically) the only one that is not completely black! A Red-breasted Blackbird (file photo) was perched conspicuosly behind the Parque Industrial when I left Costa del Este through the Corridor South highway. A bit of colour to this black-birds gallery!