Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

Wednesday we had another 4:00 AM wakeup call, 5:00 AM departure; this time heading north to Colon and then across the Canal at Gatun Lock; but we saw #681, a Savannah Hawk in a church field, before we even got to the Lock. Then we got stuck waiting for the drawbridge across the canal for about 45 minutes. Fortunately the area by the bridge is not yet completely built up so we tallied about 18 species awhile parked waiting for the boats to go through including 3 more lifers:

682. Pale-vented Pigeon
683. Ruddy Ground-Dove (probably seen on Monday as well from the truck, but this was a much better more certain look. Iooked for this bird in California once near the Salton Sea, but it’s rare there. Here it’s relatively easy to find in disturbed habitat.)
684. Scrub Greenlet

Then it was across the bridge and onto the road to Achiote Road in the San Lorenzo National Park. Within a couple of minutes of exiting the van, we spotted #685 White-headed Wren , and the birds kept coming:

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On the way back from Cerro Azul, we stopped in Panama City at Costa del Este to do a bit of shorebirding. Mostly, the birds there are the species we’re accustomed to from either the east or West Coast of the United States that have headed south for the winter. However we did spot one life bird here, #680 Cocoi Heron. This is similar to our Great Blue Heron (coincidentally also present.) This was one of my target birds for the tip (i.e. one I could remember from the field guide).

I also spotted three rare for Panama Black Skimmers. What’s rare-bird-alert worthy mostly depends on where you are when you see it. :-)

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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:

651. Long-billed Starthroat
652. Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
653. Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
654. Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer
655. Yellow-eared Toucanet
656. Violet-headed Hummingbird
657. Long-billed Gnatwren
658. Black-faced Antthrush
659. Scaly-breasted Wren

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Around 11:00 AM the rain started to break, so we loaded ourselves back into the truck and drove off to the actual start of Pipeline Road. We continued to tick off new birds for the next five hours or so, mostly one at a time including:

634. Great Potoo (harder to find than an owl)
635. Dusky Antbird
636. Double-toothed Kite
637. Squirrel Cuckoo
638. White-necked Puffbird
639. Rufous Mourner
640. Spotted Antbird
641. Streak-chested Antpitta
642. Black-breasted Puffbird
643. Chestnut-mandibled Toucan (a subspecies of Black-mandibled Toucan according to eBird)
644. Blue-black Grosbeak
645. Great Tinamou (heard the day before, but this was the first time I ever saw one. They hide in the deep forest, and don’t come out to the road. But we found one while searching out some Night Monkeys.)
646. Yellow-rumped Cacique
647. Black-throated Trogon
648. Royal Flycatcher
649. Bay Wren

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By now the rain was starting to come down fairly hard, so we made an adjustment in plans. Instead of going down Pipeline road we turned down the left fork toward the Rainforest Discover Center which has a lot of hummingbird feeders and, most importantly, a covered area to watch them from. We hung out there for about three hours from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM until the rain started to let up. Fortunately the birds kept coming, and I added 13 life birds from the relatively dry location. Plus, since we were staying put, it was a good place to practice tripod photography, including hummingbirds such as this male White-vented Plumeleteer, #621:

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After leaving the Ammo Dump Ponds we drove a just a little further down the road paralleling the canal and turned off to the right (away from the canal) and parked. It was starting to rain here so were birding from under umbrellas, but the birds were still singing. The first one we actually saw was #618, White-bellied Antbird, quickly followed by a Fasciated Antshrike. Then came #619, a Song Wren. I missed a Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher.

However the real surprise came after it started raining a bit harder, and we drove further down the road where one of the leaders spotted #620 a Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon perched in a tree just above eye level about 8 meters off the road. These birds are usually deep in the forest, and are far more often heard than seen.

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