Some nemesis bite the dust!!!

Guido, Jan, Noah and Yari

Why so happy?  Well, not everyday you see strange, enigmatic (and nemesis) species accompanied by skilled and famous birders!  On his quest to see 5000+ birds species in one calendar year, Noah Strycker visited Panama for three full days this week (you can track his progress following "Birding without Borders").  He has a quite tight agenda, and of course had to focus on regional specialties of every site he visits, trying to balance quality and quantity of birds observed to reach his goal.  The best way to make this is by birding with the locals.  Noah is not only a lucky guy (as you can read on his blog), he also was wise enough to contact Guido Berguido, and old friend of mine and birder extraordinaire who runs Advantage Tours Panama... as he says: "birding with the local advantage"!  Guido was kind enough to invite me to join them on their trip to Nusagandi, in the wet foothills of Guna Yala in eastern Panama during Noah's second full day in Panama.

Pelican Island, Guna Yala

Guna Yala ("Home of the Gunas") is best known by its paradise islands in the Caribbean Sea and the rich culture of its people.  In fact, just few days before, I visited the archipelago with my family enjoying my last days of vacations... but that is another story!  Of course, we were more interested on the steep-sided valleys and wet ravines of the mostly-undisturbed cloud forest close to the Continental Divide.  This protected area is home of some range-restricted species... and we were after them!

Cloud forest along El Llano-Carti road

As you can see, the El Llano-Cartí road that runs through the area is in very good conditions... the days when powerful 4WD vehicles were required are gone.  So I met with them on Tuesday afternoon at the start of the road in the dry Pacific slope.  They just had an amazing day in eastern Panama province... not only Noah managed to ID his 2000th bird species for the year (Shining Honeycreeper), but also was the biggest day so far regarding birds species recorded (184 when we met... then we added Mottled and Crested Owls after dinner, making it a 186-birds day!).  Impressive, considering that it was not the intention... they started at dawn (not at midnight), birded mostly one site (San Francisco Reserve), took a long nap and Noah even managed to give an interview for a live Colombian radio show!

Noah's 2000th Year Bird (which we found later again in Cerro Azul)

We stayed in Garduk, a known restaurant with modest charming cabins just minutes away from the reserve, popular stop among those seeking the sun and breeze of the Caribbean Sea.  The huge rain storm that hit us during the night worried me... but it stopped right on time before breakfast.

Handcrafts at Garduk restaurant

Yari, our hostess, agreed to join us. According to Guido, she has very good eyes and is like a good luck charm.  I'm absolutely sure it is true!  After a short drive, we started to bird along the main road, finding almost immediately new year-birds like Black-and-Yellow and Sulphur-rumped Tanagers in the same mixed flock, and Brown-hooded Parrots perched quite close.  After a while, we entered one of the forest trails, looking for the great rarities for which this area is famous.  Another mixed flock inside the forest produced Tawny-crested and Carmiol's Tanagers, Spot-crowned Antvireo, Red-capped Manakins and Stripe-throated Wren.  Streak-chested Antpittas and Chestnut-backed Antbirds sounded in the background while we walked along the trail, eventually reaching a clear-water stream.

Crossing the stream

Shortly after our arrival, we started to hear our main target.  As we walked towards the calling bird, I simply could not believe I was about to see one of the most enigmatic species of the New World: the Sapayoa.  The call was louder and louder... then, Guido pointed us THE bird... a lonely Sapayoa was flycatching mere three meters from us!

Sapayoa!

Its latin name says it all: Sapayoa aenigma.  This species is placed in its own monotypic family and genus, with no close relatives in the New World... in fact, it is most closely related to the Old World's Broadbills (Eurylaimidae).  It was a life bird for Noah and for me... very special due to its restricted range and uncertain affinities!  However, it was not over.  While seeing the Sapayoa, Guido told us that a Dull-mantled Antbird was calling behind us.  I replied "WHAT?¿!*`?!!!!... I don't hear it"!  In fact, I was the only one not hearing the bird... I don't know if I was programmed to simply ignore it... after all these years looking for this supposedly common (almost thrash) bird and dipping miserably, I was simply unable to hear it.  Thanks God the Sapayoa flew away after some minutes, so we were able to walk towards the stream... then I started to hear the bird, closer and closer.  Then, my nemesis materialized: a majestic male Dull-mantled Antbird was walking on the banks of the stream.

Dull-mantled Antbird!!

I managed to approach the bird very close, just few feet, to photograph it and to record its call. 
Look at those fiery red eyes... amazing!  That's the way to see a Nemesis!!!  Trust me, I wanted so hard to see this species that all my friends tagged me on their own Dull-mantled Antbird photos (yes Jose Pérez and Rafael Luck, I'm talking about you guys).  But the surprises did not ended yet.  Did you hear my embed recording?  Something else was calling in the background, and Guido recognized it immediately.  While I was admiring my Dull-mantled Antbird, Guido, Noah and Yari found the bird making the call slightly above eye-level few feet from my position.  Eventually, I joined them and was able to take some shots:

Speckled (Spiny-faced) Antshrike!!!

A female Speckled (Spiny-faced) Antshrike!!!  This bird was calling spontaneously (no playback used) and alone, foraging in low and mid-levels of the forest along the stream, sometimes looking like a foliage-gleaner more than an antshrike.  This was probably the rarest of the species seen that day.  Almost endemic to Panama (barely reaching northwestern Colombia), this very range-restricted species also have uncertain affinities.  Its latin name, Xenornis setifrons, literally means spiny-faced strange bird!  This bird was Guido's nemesis... so even Guido managed to get a lifer that day!  Now you can see why the happy faces at the start of this post!  We saw these species in a 10-minutes lapse, saving us hours of search on the trails (especially for the Xenornis).  Without targets to seek, we decided to move.  After saying good-bye to Yari, we headed to the foothills of Cerro Azul, close to Panama City.  It was late in the afternoon, and time was gold, so we checked first a backyard with several feeders attracting 13 different species of hummingbird, including Brown Violetear, Rufous-crested Coquette and the near-endemic Violet-capped Hummingbird, which was a new year bird for Noah.

Brown Violetear

Violet-capped Hummingbird (file photo)

With the last rays of sun we birded Maipo, finding the endemic Stripe-cheeked Woodpecker and hearing Black-eared Wood-Quail, both new year birds for Noah too.  We ended at Birders' View hearing again Mottled and Crested Owls in the distance.  Guido and Noah spent the night in the comfortable property while I returned home after a hard day of birding, finding several Common Pauraques at the entrance road.

Common Pauraque

Birding with these two guys was amazing.  And Noah is a great guy... not only smart and lucky, but humble as well, and I wish the best luck on his quest for the rest of the world!  BTW, thanks for the lifers!

Nusagandi and Bayano day trip

Nusagandi is an area protected by the Kuna people (under the name of Nargana Widlands Area) located at the western corner of the Kuna Yala reservation accesing through the now-improved El Llano-Carti road, starting in eastern Panama province. It protects humid forest from the foothills at the border with Panama province to the coast and is home of many range-restricted species difficult to find anywhere else in Panama (and, in some cases, in the world!). So I picked up Euclides "Kilo" Campos for then meeting Rafael Luck at his home in order to begin another of what he denominates "FJ Cruiser trips" to this bird-rich area. After 1.5 hours on the road, we finally reached the reserve. The road has a heavy traffic by people looking to escape during the weekend to the pristine waters of the Caribbean coast or to one of the paradisiac islands of the Kunas. We began to do some road birding, but curiously, the sunny day became to hot, and the activity was low (although it was an EXCELLENT day for all the beach lovers!). Anyway, I found at least one new year-bird in each stop we made, thanks to my companions. At the first one, a flock of Brown-hooded Parrots; in the second one, a mixed flock with White-vented Euphonia, Sulphur-rumped and Rufous-winged Tanagers; in the third, a mixed flock of antwrens with a pair of Russet Antshrikes and in the last one, a Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle soaring not so high, showing its distinctive white edge to the wing. We failed to locate the Slate-throated Gnatcatchers that are very local and scarce in Panama... but despite the heat, we had an already impressive bird list before we decided to walk the trails at the headquarters. After paying the fee for using the trails, we followed Kilo to the Igar Nusagandi (Igar = trail in the Kuna lenguage). We found a Western Slaty-Antshrike (female in the pic) near the entrance of the trail, but the big surprise (literally) was a Crested Guan that showed itself for a brief moment, to stay undercover after that, inspecting us nervously. These big birds have learned to be aware of the humans, and always are cautious and alert (compare this photo with that of a Black Guan in Altos del María some time ago). The rest of the trail was almost devoid of birds. We followed the trail to the iber (waterfall) after passing the entrance of the Wedar Igar and then the trail became very inclined and slippery to a little creek where we heard a covey of Black-eared Wood-Quails and a Stripe-throated Wren. A Rufous Piha appeared for a while, always behind a cover, making its loud call Pi-HAA! Then, we heard the bird of the day (so far), a Speckled (Spiny-faced) Antshrike. We crawled through the muddy slope to a flat area with dense cover where we found both male and female of this enigmatic species. We got excellent unobstructed views of this Panama near-endemic bird, but the site was so dark that my pictures barely show the bird (I'm sorry about these pictures, but you can check Rafael's photos -which are MUCH better- here). It is indeed a weird bird, just like its Latin genus states: Xenornis, no doubt about why Darien named his website of latest reports of rare birds after it. In Panama, we all call this bird simply the Xenornis, but if we have to use an english name, we use Speckled Antshrike instead of Spiny-faced (the setifrons part of its Latin name), for obvious reasons (enlarge the images and tell me, can you see the tiny spine-like bristles around the beak?... me neither!). If this is the only country where you have a chance to see and enjoy this bird, why don't call it like all the natives do? We were so happy that we almost forgot the very inclined slope behind us, but we quickly remember it. Exhausted (well, Rafael and me, Kilo must be a marathon runner or something), we left the place and drove to the town of Cañita to have a well-deserved cool drink and our lunch. The day became cloudy but fresher, so we were optimists in that it would be good for birds and birding. We explore the side roads beyond the Bayano bridge. In the first one we found, almost immediately, a pair of near-endemic Black Anthrikes (a male in the picture, and the fourth species of antshrike for the trip), plus Gray-headed Tanagers, White-flanked Antwren and an immature male Red-capped Manakin. Then, we tried another road, finding a nice mixed flock right by the entrance. Some birds attending were both Cinnamon and One-colored Becards, Ruddy and Blue Ground-Doves, Boat-billed, Piratic and Dusky-capped Flycatchers, Streak-headed Woodcreeper, Black-cheeked Woodcreeper and a pair of Orange-crowned Orioles (adult and juvenile). Then, Kilo found the bird of the day after hearing it: a female Golden-green Woodpecker. This rare woodpecker is found locally in just few sites in Panama, and the subspecies found here (and Colombia) is almost unknown, ornithologically talking. What a bird, and a lifer for me and Rafael! Its bright yellow crown, malar stripe and throat are unique among our woodpeckers. At this point, we were debating about the bird of the day (as you can imagine), but I stick to my decision toward the woodpecker (the Xenornis was not a lifer, just the first time I saw it after 12 years!). A quick stop at the Rio Mono bridge only produced Bat Falcons, Rufous-winged Antwren (heard), a pair of Barred Puffbirds vocalizing (its call is SO funny) and a troop of White-faced Capuchin monkeys. What a great day!