Panama Day 3: #651 to #679 at Los Altos de Cerro Azul
Wednesday we woke up in time for a 4:30 AM breakfast, and a 5:00 AM departure to Cerro Azul, a weekend and retirement community west of Panama City and relatively high up in the mountains so it picks up different species than are found in the lowlands. We started at the home of a local Audubon member who puts out several Hummingbird feeders. In her yard alone we managed over 20 species including nine life birds of which five were hummingbirds including this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird:
- Long-billed Starthroat
- Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
- Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
- Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer
- Yellow-eared Toucanet
- Violet-headed Hummingbird
- Long-billed Gnatwren
- Black-faced Antthrush
- Scaly-breasted Wren
We then drove off to a different section of the community, and walked along a road where we tallied another 30+ species, including 15 more life birds:
- Short-billed Pigeon
- Carmiol’s Tanager
- Yellow-crowned Euphonia
- Bay-headed Tanager
- Speckled Tanager
- Hepatic Tanager
- White-ruffed Manakin
- White-vented Euphonia
- Dusky-capped Flycatcher
- Fulvous-vented Euphonia
- Paltry Tyrannulet
- Bicolored Antbird
- Ocellated Antbird
- Northern Barred-Woodcreeper
- Plain-brown Woodcreeper
- Ruddy Woodcreeper
Particularly lucky was encountering an army ant swarm that pulled in the last five of these, all of which we could have easily missed otherwise.
We also heard a Little Tinamou.
Then it was back to the house. This time though we walked down the mountain into the adjacent national park to a White-tipped Sicklebill lek. These are specially adapted Hummingbirds with long curved bills that only feed on Lobster-claw Heliconia flowers. And besides this we also added a couple more species around the house:
- Green Hermit
- White-tipped Sicklebill
- Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant
After a late lunch of Arroz con Pollo, we started the drive back, but on the way the driver spotted #679, an Amazon Kingfisher, perched over some water.
