Around Penonome

Every time I go to Penonome (Cocle province, central Panama), I try to wander around, taking photos not only of birds, but of every interesting stuff I can find... however, this is a bird-photos post from Penonome.  I traveled with Gloriela, Gabrielle and some relatives, starting around the "finca", in the outskirts of the town, where Gloriela's dad have a cabin surrounded by fruiting trees, including many papayas trees with mature fruits.  It turned out to be a natural feeder for a big bunch of Red-legged Honeycreepers, including several males in alternate plumage (very colorful).

Around the cabin, a little creek surrounded by a not-so-tall gallery forest holds several pairs of Blue-crowned Motmots.  I already posted a rationale about calling these birds Whooping Motmots... they have a distinctive voice; however, the AOU do not recognizes the split, neither the Panama Audubon Society.

We then visited a stretch of the mighty Zaratí river, in a place called Barrigon.  The rapid-flowing river in this part is bordered by huge barrigon trees (Pseudobombax sp.),  with some understore... a perfect habitat for this Cocoa Woodcreeper, despite we usually think on this bird as a forest inhabitant.

Back to our house, even the live fence have its own birds.  The only antbird present in this part of town is the Barred Antshrike.  This species exhibit a strong sexual dimorphism, the male is totally barred white and black, while the female (pictured here) is rufescent.

The White-tipped Dove is very common (but quite shy)... its voice is a familiar sound of the coclesian savanna... reminiscent of blowing through a bottle.

Well, it is always nice to wander around Penonome!

Penonome Motmots revisited

Some months ago, I adressed the Blue-crowned Motmot of Cocle province (central Panama) because this could be a potential intergrade zone between two distinct forms that have been considered as separate species by the South America Classification Committee (posted here). The day after Gloriela's Baby Shower, all the family went to the finca at the outskirts of Penonome city to have a BBQ and to breathe fresh air. With my camera, I walked to the creek and, as soon as I got there, two dark silhouettes flew from the banks to a nearby tree and immediately I heard a whoo-hoop, typical of a Blue-crowned Motmot, answered by a single hoop! by the second bird. They were incredible shy, always hiding behind foliage and flying away whenever I tried to approach them. Nevertheless, I did saw some important field marks, all of them matching the description of the conexus form, which is the expected form of Blue-crowned Motmot in that part of the country (part of the Whooping Motmot complex). They had some mud in their bills, so I think they were probably excavating a nest in the banks of the creek. In spite that the first vocalization I heard had two notes, it lacked the pause between them, characteristic of the lessoni form from western Panama and Central America (the Blue-diademed Motmot). There are still many questions about these motmots... is there any area of contact between these two forms? Are the motmots of the coclesian foothills conexus like the lowlands birds? Is there any hybrid reported? And so on... I'm pretty sure this is not the last time we hear about these guys!

Blue-diademed and Whooping Motmots

It is official, what we used to know as the Blue-crowned Motmot now consist of, at least, five species. This after the approval of proposal 412 by the South American Classification Committee (SACC), based in the published work of F. Gary Stiles. Of those species, two occur in Panama: the traditional and well recognized (by most panamanian birders) Whooping Motmot (Momotus subrufescens) of central and eastern Panama (CO, RE, OL, AR, SU, SP and OS at the map); and the Blue-diademed Motmot (Momotus lessoni) of western Panama (LE in the map). Now, I have a question considering that the range illustrated for the Whooping Motmot doesn't includes the Cocle province... what about the motmots I have been watching this month along the Zarati river in Penonome and the one I photographed some years ago in El Valle? According to their vocalizations, and the fact that lessoni has only been registered up to Herrera province (which not appears in the map either), those birds belongs to the Whooping Motmot species. Saying this, I only have photos of the Whooping Motmot, and the only sighting that I can remember of a Blue-diademed Motmot was MANY years ago in the road to Caldera (Chiriqui province). Two things caught my attention back then: the motmot was greener and it was perched on a barbed wire, in cattleland (not forest!). It seems that my life list grew by one!

The other three species are the Amazonian Motmot, Momotus momota (MI and MO at the map); the Highland (Andean) Motmot, Momotus aequatorialis (AQ at the map); and the Trinidad Motmot, Momotus bahamensis (BA at the map).