October = Migration !!! (Part II)

In my last post, I wrote about the impressive diurnal migration of hawks and vultures over Panama City in october... but october is also the peak of the migration of many other birds, including many song birds (passerines),  and the Ancon Hill is also an excellent site to watch them as well.

Sometimes, it is not clear if you are watching a migrant or a resident bird... for example, I know that the Zone-tailed Hawks nest in Panama, but definitively I see them around more often during the migration season, like the one pictured above at the Ancon Hill.  Other times, it is obvious you are seeing resident birds... like the Keel-billed Toucan... who paints these birds anyway?

It is nice to see how our common species share their food sources with the migrants.  For example, several Scarlet Tanagers were feeding in the same bush with a group of ubiquitous Social Flycatchers.

During the migration, some species are way more easy to see than in other seasons... this Mourning Warbler was hoping around merely three feet of me! 

Sometimes, the migrant species resemble the resident ones.  Take for example this Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher.  They are transient migrants (that is, they do not winter in Panama), temporarily quite common all over Panama, where they share habitats with our resident Streaked Flycatchers... the only reliable field mark to tell apart these two is the black chin of the migrants!

Well, this is Panama in migration... I still need some migrants in my life list... so this is not my last time in Ancon Hill looking for them (and yes, I am talking about Black-billed Cuckoos)!

Visiting an old friend

Do you remember the Cape May Warblers that took residence at the Panama Audubon Society's office in Panama City? For several weeks now, nobody have reported them, so I went this afternoon to the office to try it. The neighborhood where the office is located have many common and tame birds, easily photographed, so the warblers are not the only attraction. The presence of gaudy tropical birds like toucans, parrots and trogons surely is due to its proximity to forested areas. For example, the first thing I noticed was a group of Gray-headed Chachalacas crossing the street and perching on a palm tree. These birds look like Spielberg's Velociraptors when they run in the ground! In others places, where they are still hunted, they can be shy... but is not the case there. After saying hello to Rosabel (the only one in the office), I waited in front of the warblers' preferred tree. A pair of Social Flycatchers were the only ones in that place, calling and flying to one side to another. I did not hesitate because it was still early in the afternoon, the Cape May Warbler usually appears around 6:00 PM. Despite I was completely focused on the preferred tree, a movement in a nearby mango tree caught my attention: two Blue-headed Parrots were feeding on the mangos. These parrots are quite common in the city, but you usually gets them flying. Not too far, a multicolored Keel-billed Toucan was doing its croacking call. They are simply beautiful, and I'm glad that we can call them as common "city birds" here in Panama. At the expected hour, the adult male Cape May Warbler showed up in the expected tree! Come on, how can you get tired of such an impressive warbler! The bird checked the middle and upper levels of the tree and then flew to the mango tree where I took my last photo. It was nice to see this old friend again, and if you are in the city and still need this rare warbler for your Panama list, you still have time!

A day in the foothills

Yesterday, I went to Cerro Azul with Osvaldo Quintero and Rafel Luck looking for colourful birds to photograph. The foothills of Cerro Azul are less than a hour-drive from Panama City, and it holds a completely different arrange of birds to what we are used here in the lowlands. Camera in hand, we visited first the section known as Altos del Frente, where we eventually found some activity in a now-usual spot where you can also have a great view of the city in the distance. There, two pairs of Crimson-crested Woodpeckers were displaying, making a lot of noise and flying from one trunk to another chasing each other. We also saw tons of Scaled Pigeos flying all over the place, with some of them calling and others perched atop bare branches, but never allowing us to approach enough to get good pictures. These are spectacular pigeons, with a very conspicuous red to the base of the bill and showy scales to the underparts. A flock of Keel-billed Toucans appeared, announcing their presence with their croacking calls. All these birds were a little far away, but Rafael found a male Masked Tityra close enough to see all the details of its plumage, and for some to take very good photos (not my case as you can see). A little farther in the road, we found a mixed flock with lots of tanagers, euphonias, flycatchers, woodcreepers, among others. The place is very good for tanagers... in that flock we saw Plain-colored, Golden-hooded, Bay-headed, Rufous-winged, Blue-gray and Palm Tanagers. Another tanager was accompanying the flock, at first glance it was dull gray, but then it perched in a Cecropia tree where I saw the white tufts at the sides of the chest: a Sulphur-rumped Tanager! This species is quite local and seldom reported for Cerro Azul, and the most recent reports come from that place precisely. My distant shots (two of them) show the white tufts... and barely part of the sulphur-yellow rump. Those marks are unique in this part of Panama. The flock also included a Black-cheeked Woodpecker and an endemic for Panama, a Stripe-cheeked Woodpecker that we heard first and then saw it briefly. The place became quiet when the flock left, so we moved on, this time to Birders' View, also a hot spot in these foothills. The property keeper, Nando, already told us about a Rufous-crested Coquette he saw the day before, so we waited there for it, watching closely the flowered bushes in the backyard. In the meanwhile, many others species showed up, including a migrant Black-and-white Warbler creeping a trunk close to us. It was an adult male, as you can see by its black cheeks. We also saw many more tanagers, and former tanagers in the form of Summer and Hepatic Tanagers. The former is migratory, the latter is a resident species. Both male and female were working the trees surrounding the backyard. It is hard to imagine these birds as cardinals, but I have to accept that the Piranga tanagers share many characteristics with their now-close relatives (overall coloration, beautiful voices, sexual dimorphism, etc...)... they are simply cardinals with specialized beaks! The first photo is a male, still with some yellow feathers in the body. You can separate them from the similar Summer Tanager by its darker red overall and dark lores. The females of both species are yellow, the head close-up of this female Hepatic Tanager shows well its dark lores, and also its dark bill. After all, we saw no less than 13 tanagers and former-tanagers, even more if we include the species of honeycreepers that we also saw. The coquette did not show up... so we tried another spot, this time the feeders at the Ahrens' place... but that is another story.