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| Sandwich and Royal terns at Santa Clara |
Our final full day of birding in Panama will take us from our quarters in the Canopy Lodge down to Anton, around Juan Hombron, and on to the seaside village of Santa Clara. It promises to be a full day ending up back at Panama City for our final evening in this most beguiling country.
We'll begin by traveling down Highway 71 south with numerous stops along the way to find specialties we have not yet viewed in our first 5 days of birding. Our team of the Bakers, Patsches, Fitzpatricks and Anthonys along with our guide John Coons are in for another day of amazing new species which Panama still has in store for us.
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| Wedge-tailed grass finch |
One of the first birds we come upon is another which we swear John has tethered to a tree the evening before. Site loyalty plays a big part in finding these birds as well as a thorough understanding of the preferred habitats of the individual species. Such is the case as we pull over to the side of the road to search for the Wedge-tailed grass-finch. These are one of those species that are generally heard more than seen, being secretive in deep grasses. The males will occasionally hop to the crown of a shrub to sing loudly, however, and this was the case with this fine specimen. All of were able to see the bird and in spite of early morning overcast lighting, I was able to capture an image of documentary quality if nothing else.
The site of the grass-finch also afforded us with a spectacular view of the surrounding landscape. We were traveling through the Central Mountain Range of Panama and around each corner, each vista seemed to be more spectacular than the last.
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| Central Mountain Range of Panama |
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| Striped cuckoo |
Scanning the horizon at our next pull-off, we spotted a new cuckoo for our check-list. The Striped cuckoo was once again distant, but with the help of the scopes and a 500mm lens bounced up to 750mm on a "DX" camera
body, the bird was easily viewed on its open perch.
The Striped cuckoo has a wide range extending all the way from Mexico to Argentina and yet, the bird is notorious for being much easier to hear than to spot. Not so in our case as the bird chose to sit out on an open bare branch affording us very nice looks. Once again, we were blessed to find yet another of Panama's charismatic icons. That being said, the bird is one of those "dreaded" brood parasites, but for some reason he seemed so much more affable than our home-grown Brown-headed cowbirds. Familiarity breeds contempt as the old adage goes.
Our next new species was again found along the roadside by our sharp-eyed and all-knowing guide John. The Rufous-browed Peppershrike can be difficult for new visitors to Central American inasmuch as it has wide geographical variations in plumage. Cornell's Lab of Ornithology description of the Peppershrike's plumage mentions this variation but goes on to say ,"yet most subspecies are to some extent white below, olive above with rufous lores and supercilium". Our subspecies had a bit more extensive yellow on the underside, but the facial features certainly fit the bill.
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| Rufous-browed Peppershrike |
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| White-tailed kite |
One of the true "Hot Spots" of Panama's birding venues is Laguna de Juan Hombron. After birding in the mountains these past five days, we are now at an elevation of 12 feet above sea level. With so many wonderful birds found in this area, I suggest you go to eBird's hotspot finder for Panama and check out our check-list for March 24 for a complete list with photos of the birds we saw here on this day. I will highlight just few here. One of my favourites was the White-tailed kite. It's markings are distinctive and in the bright sunshine of the day, the bird literally glistened as it hovered over the grasslands in search of small mammals.
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| Savanna hawk |
Another raptor of note was the Savanna Hawk. The Savanna is a wide-spread hawk of open country lowlands throughout Central and South America. This hawk's long legs and cinnamon plumage are distinctive. It is one of those rare birds which basically says, "If it moves, I'll eat it". This bird has a very diversified diet and has even been observed walking behind grass fires picking out and eating roasted prey! Now that's a bird with exquisite taste.
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| Lesser Yellow-headed vulture |
A bird with less discriminating taste is the vulture. Back home in the states, we commonly find the Turkey vulture and the Black vulture. Down here in Panama, there are two more varieties, the King vulture and the Lesser Yellow-headed vulture. While the King vulture is found throughout Central and South American, it is sparsely distributed and therefore difficult to find. We did not see any Kings, but we did see plenty of Lesser yellow-headed vultures in the area of Laguna de Juan Hombron. These vultures closely resemble Turkey vultures in their manner of feeding and locating food by smell, but they rarely soar high up in the air as do the Turkey vultures. Identify these birds was quite simple as you only need to look for a vulture with a yellow-head (really?)
Of course, the hummingbirds were still quite the attraction. With so many varieties, it was hard not to study each new individual to see if it was a repeat or something new for the life or year-list. Among today's newbies were the following......
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| Veraguan mango |
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| Sapphire-throated hummingbird |
Sadly, one of the most sought after hummers, the White-tipped Sicklebill, was not photographed by yours truly. Although seen clearly on the final day for a total of about 5 seconds by all of our group (after a minimum of 5 hours of watchful waiting!), the vision was so fleeting that none of our number recorded the desired image. You can see by looking at this 1911 lithograph by William Dwight Witney that the actually seeing this bird was certainly worth the wait. Guess we'll just have to revisit Central America to get another chance at capturing a good image of this gorgeous specimen.
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| White-tipped sicklebill |
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| Fork-tailed flycatcher |
Among the last of our Panama beauties was the Fork-tailed flycatcher. This flycatcher is migratory in Panama and is a resident only as far south as southern Mexico. It loves to sit on high conspicuous perches from which it makes its sweeping efforts to catch passing insects on the wing. We watched this individual repeatedly lurch from its position, seize an unsuspecting victim from the nearby airspace and return to its perch once again. It made for wonderful entertainment (providing you were not on the menu).
Our luncheon stop was a stunning setting to say the least. The owner of the lodge where we had spent our week owns a beach house on the Pacific in Santa Clara and it was here that we had a "working lunch", birding and dining at the same time. The most predominant bird on the beach was the Sandwich tern as seen in the opening photograph of this blog. Magnificent frigatebirds continually soared overhead and out on the far islands, Brown pelicans and boobies could be observed. Truly a wonderful place to wrap up our journey before heading back to Panama City where we enjoyed yet another wonderful meal in the company of some wonderful friends and fellow-birders. All good things must come to an end, but I hope these last half dozen or so blog entries have allowed those in the group to relive some of our most wonderful memories. And for those not fortunate to have been with us, I hope you had the chance to bird vicariously with our number on our fantastic birding trip to Panama.
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| Our final night in Panama |
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