DAY 10: Boquete Tree Trek In the morning I walked around the hotel grounds for a little bit, which were very bird-rich. Apart from more sightings of the birds from the day before, I got another good amount of additions - really fun birding here! The first agouti since the ones in Panama City was a great sight as well. 545) Orange-billed nightingale-thrush, Catharus aurantiirostris 546) Flame-coloured tanager, Piranga bidentata 547) White-throated thrush, Turdus assimilis 548) Lesser goldfinch, Spinus psaltria 549) Rufous-capped warbler, Basileuterus rufifrons 550) Lesser greenlet, Hylophilus decurtatus 551) Rufous mourner, Rhytipterna holerythra 552) Isthmian wren, Cantorchilus elutus 553) Buff-throated saltator, Saltator maximus 554) Lesser elaenia, Elaenia chiriquensis The plan for this day was to head to the Boquete Tree Trek and have a guided walk there over a set of fairly famous hanging bridges. The Boquete Tree Trek area has two main attractions: a walk over the bridges with a guide talking about the nature, and a climbing trail that had various zip lines. While they are always fun, the hanging bridges interested us more, so we joined the guided walk which proved to be very exciting. The guide knew a lot about plants and animal marks (we saw a few armadillo holes - no armadillos, though!), and also knew a fair bit about the birds in the neighbourhood, which was fun. Apparently the area of forest the bridges and ziplines are in also gets visited by quetzals, but our guide told us we were here in the wrong season. I feel like this is probably a good moment to explain the dynamics of seeing quetzals in Panama. Overall they're a fairly easy bird to connect with in the country, but there is a catch - they are only really straightforward to see from February until May. This corresponds largely with the tourist high season in Panama, and also with the season that is generally seen as favorable for birders, so most people don't have many issues with seeing quetzals. Outside this season, though, the fruit trees closer to the birding trails and villages stop providing them with food so most of them move further away into more difficult and less-known areas. They also become solitary and a lot less active from May onwards, to avoid being seen by predators - being huge, slow and colourful of course has its negatives as well. Two of the guides near the visitor center told me I shouldn't expect to see any quetzals around Boquete during this time of the year, and they were right - we didn't see any quetzals on the walk. We did see a lot of other great birds though, and especially for hummingbirds this place is definitely one I can recommend: besides the Panamanian endemic white-throated mountaingem we also saw 7 other species of hummingbird. Overall this was a very informative and interesting walk, with a lot of good birds despite a fairly quick pace with a fairly large group. 555) Blue-and-white swallow, Notiochelidon cyanoleuca 556) White-throated mountaingem, Lampornis castaneoventris 557) Lesser violetear, Colibri cyanotus 558) Scintillant hummingbird, Selasphorus scintilla 559) Green-crowned brilliant, Heliodoxa jacula 560) Purple-throated mountaingem, Lampornis calolaemus 561) Yellow-bellied elaenia, Elaenia flavogaster 562) Dark pewee, Contopus lugubris 563) Black-faced solitaire, Myadestes melanops 564) Violet sabrewing, Campylopterus hemileucurus 565) Scarlet-thighed dacnis, Dacnis venusta Normally we were going to visit a coffee plantation in the afternoon, but unfortunately it was no longer possible to do a tour after we came back from the tree trek. This meant that the coffee plantation visit would have to move over to the next day (which definitely was responsible for a few issues - more about that in the next post). It also meant that I could spend a bit more time birding the hotel grounds, however, which was still great and still got me some new great species. The swallow-tailed kite was definitely a big highlight for me, and one that I had been looking for ever since arriving in Panama! 566) Swallow-tailed kite, Elanoides forficatus 567) Rufous-and-white wren, Thryophilus rufalbus 568) Mountain elaenia, Elaenia frantzii 569) Scarlet-rumped tanager, Ramphocelus passerinii Overall it was a fantastic day with many great new additions in the form of the only endemic bird species of the trip and a good amount of near-endemics. However, I was starting to get a bit concerned about the one bird this trip was really centered around, as we were going to leave early in the morning in two days. It'd all have to happen tomorrow, and chances weren't looking that great...
I had the luck to see one at Boquete Tree Trek. On the other hand, your hummingbird list for this location is very nice, as I saw a few and was able to identify only one...
Interesting! I found that the best place for the hummingbirds was right in front of the 'visitor center' where we had to sign up, that's where I had the highest amounts of the entire trip (mainly of white-throated mountaingems, but also a few scintilliant hummingbirds, snowy-bellied hummingbirds, rufous-tailed hummingbirds and lesser violetears there). The rest was in the forests themselves, and a lot tougher to photograph and identify indeed!
Just curious, did you try putting up any hummingbird feeders yourself, like near where you were staying? I had heard this can be an easy way to tick of species.
Not really, no! I did cut open a few oranges that I laid on tables outside of our rooms a few time for other birds, but they never seemed to gather that much attention. I've noticed with feeders that you have to give birds the time to find them, and in most places we were only there for a few days so never really long enough for it to be worth the effort. Of course I'm not used to the dynamics of hummingbirds though, so they might be the exception! However with a total of 19 species over the 19 days we were there, I don't think I can really say I'm lacking in the hummingbird department after this trip!
DAY 11: Sendero Los Quetzales This day was going to have to be the day that it all happened. We were leaving right after breakfast in the next morning to go to the Bocas del Toro in the North, so this was going to be the last day in the mountains, and the last day in the range of the superb, magnificent and indeed resplendent quetzal. But the odds weren't looking that great. Family holidays are incredibly fun, and I am of course extremely grateful to have been able to come along, but the one thing they're not that great for is the planning of birding trips. This is of course logical when travelling with non-birders, and not their fault at all! It's normal that not the entire world would like to get up at 4AM just to arrive at a certain place that might be favorable for potential views of a distant bird. However, while having a very elaborate breakfast well into the morning I was growing more and more anxious. When we arrived to the "Sendero los quetzales" ("Trail of the quetzals" in English) it was already 9AM, and because we hadn't been able to visit the coffee plantation the day prior that meant that at 11AM we'd have to start turning around to arrive at the coffee plantation on time. Two hours for a bird in the wrong season, for which the best place of the trail was a two hour walk away from the entrance... I wasn't liking my chances. Interestingly enough, for such an interesting and beautiful habitat, the birding here was actually fairly slow. We didn't really see that many species, and a vast majority of them gave only very distant, short views. Here, possibly more than anywhere else in Panama, was where the mixed species foraging flocks really came into play - you wouldn't see anything for half an hour, and then suddenly a small mixed flock would appear. The species in them were always great, though, with the highlights being woodcreepers, treerunners, tapaculos, chlorospinguses and a single solitaire. When we suddenly saw another family that had passed us on the beginning of the trail stop and look at a largeish bird, I started to really get excited. Not quite quetzals yet, but in front of me were two black guans! A female and a young, giving some good but short views. It's super weird to see how arboreal they actually are, never really coming down to the ground at all and instead spending most of the time climbing very quickly and easily through the thick foliage at eye level or above. Later we encountered another two birds, of which one gave very nice views and allowed for some decent pictures. Most of the other species seen here were definitely also some of my favourite birds of the trip overall, definitely the treerunner and nightingale-thrush were fantastic sightings. 570) Slate-throated whitestart, Myioborus miniatus 571) Vaux's swift, Chaetura vauxi 572) Acorn woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus 573) Elegant euphonia, Euphonia elegantissima 574) Ruddy treerunner, Margarornis rubiginosus 575) Silvery-fronted tapaculo, Scytalopus argentifrons 576) Black guan, Chamaepetes unicolor 577) Ruddy-capped nightingale-thrush, Catharus frantzii 578) Sooty-capped chlorospingus, Chlorospingus pileatus 579) Spot-crowned woodcreeper, Lepidocolaptes affinis During all this birding, however, the clock was ticking. We had only just crossed the final stream that'd take us into the area where the quetzals would be most likely in the right season, and it was already dangerously close to 11AM. I decided that for the next 20 minutes it would probably be best to walk and bird the trail as quickly as I could, to maximize the area I'd see and to maximize the amount of time I'd have while walking back to the entrance. At 11AM on the clock I still hadn't seen anything so I decided to wait for the rest of my family at a bench in a space that seemed the most likely to give quetzal sightings - a well-covered canopy with very little medium-sized plants, that made it possible to see very far into the jungle. On the day prior I had heard the guides whistling the quetzal's very simple song, so in a last ditch effort I tried that... And it worked! In the distance I could see a large, green bird swooping down from behind a bush and onto another branch, where it ruffled its feathers for a few seconds and then stayed completely and almost unnaturally still, except occasionally turning its head. A beautiful, still fairly long-tailed male quetzal, in plain (but very distant) sight. What a sight! This might be cliché, but it is easily one of my favourite birds, they definitely live up to their reputation. It stayed there, almost motionless, until long after my family arrived, and I was able to show the bird to both my family and the family that had found us the black guans. Needless to say, the idea of turning back at 11AM was thrown out of the window and half an hour later I was still looking at this bird. 580) Resplendent quetzal, Pharomachrus mocinno On the way back to the entrance we got another few nice sightings, the nicest of which a trogon I had been hoping for. Collared trogon is an interesting case, because until recently it was split into two species by most authorities - collared trogon and orange-bellied trogon. However, recently it was found out that orange-bellied is very probably only a subspecies, or perhaps even just a colour morph of collared trogon. Both collared (with the red belly) and orange-bellied occur in Sendero los quetzales, but I only saw one with a red belly. 581) Collared trogon, Trogon collaris 582) Tufted flycatcher, Mitrephanes phaeocercus 583) Green kingfisher, Chloroceryle americana 584) Black phoebe, Sayornis nigricans Because we had spent a lot of time at the quetzal we had to hurry a little bit to have lunch before getting to the coffee plantation, but everything ended up working out in the end. The coffee plantation was a very interesting experience as well, and the guide there told us about the entire fair trade debate, and it not necessarily being as fair as the name would suggest, followed by a tour of the place and a coffee tasting afterwards. Interesting and informative, and definitely something I'd recommend to anyone - but prioritize properly on seeing a quetzal first if you're in the area!
That was the spot I saw a purple-throated mountaingem, just before leaving. The others were in the forests. Great you saw a quetzal at last! Black guan is also a very nice sighting (as is the rest of your species list). I haven't seen that species in the wild, but I did see some crested guans that are also quite arboreal.
Excellent! Crested guan is one I would really have liked to see as well, but I'm happy I got to see the black guans - both are amazing birds! I was really blown back by the way they ran and hopped through the trees, almost more cuckoo- or turaco-like than anything else! I had seen chachalacas do this in captivity, but all guans I've seen in zoos have either been 'terrestrial' because of the lack of tall foliage in most aviaries, or inactive in the zoos that did have them in large exhibits with tall plants (Toronto, Burgers, Leipzig, Paris). It was really cool to see them doing what they do best!
DAY 12: Travelling to Bocas del Toro Another quick tour in the morning didn't fail to impress - Boquete still had three new great species to offer! One of those was the first "real" vireo of the year, after seeing having seen 4 other species in the Vireonidae family, none of which called vireo! White-winged tanager was another great one because it meant I had less pressure to make it back to Avifauna for theirs, and the pigeon was one I had been hoping to see as well. Great birding here! It felt a bit disappointing to have to leave already to the much less birdy lowlands again, but at the same time new places always mean new birds, and the islands we were going to held quite a few good ones. 585) Band-tailed pigeon, Patagioenas fasciata 586) White-winged tanager, Piranga leucoptera 587) Brown-capped vireo, Vireo leucophrys The drive from Boquete to Bocas del Toro was a quite uneventful one. The only real highway in the country is the Pan-American Highway in the Southern half of the country, and all of the roads in and towards the North were a lot less easy to drive - most of the way was driving through curvy roads down the Caribbean foothills. I believe that in July most of these foothills would be full of altitudinal migrants headed from the mountains to the lowlands, the most notable of them being the loudest bird on the planet, but as there isn't a whole lot to do between Boquete and Bocas we didn't really stay here for long. Along the way I did see a few more sloths and a pair of bicoloured hawks, which was a nice addition and the only Accipiter of the trip (even though half of the Buteonine raptors in the neotropics look more like Accipitrine raptors to begin with - I'm starting to understand why Americans just call all medium-sized raptors 'hawks'!). 588) Bicoloured hawk, Accipiter bicolor The first few hours near and in Bocas del Toro were a bit hectic. The Bocas del Toro are a group of islands off the Caribbean coast, and to get from each island to the other there's an intricate system of water taxis. On most islands, except for on the largest two, there aren't really any roads, meaning that everything is only really accessible by boat. We arrived in the evening and hadn't realized that there would be no restaurants or shops anywhere on the island we were staying, so shortly after we arrived in the hotel we took a boat back to the main island to have dinner (candle-lit, because the lights fell out in the entire island chain) and buy supplies so we could cook the next few days. Fairly quickly I got a few more additions, including some very nice ones like the mango, bananaquit and tanagers. Bananaquits are tiny! Probably the rarest bird of the entire trip (though I didn't realize it was that rare while seeing it) was an olive-throated parakeet on the main island, which is apparently a hard bird to see and not much about the species on the islands is known. 589) Green heron, Butorides virescens 590) Green-breasted mango, Anthracothorax prevostii 591) Tropical pewee, Contopus cinereus 592) Bananaquit, Coereba flaveola 593) Plain-coloured tanager, Tangara inornata 594) White-lined tanager, Tachyphonus rufus 595) Olive-throated parakeet, Eupsittula nana
As you will see this post includes three whole days, as I wasn't able to do a whole lot of wildlife-watching on these islands - the birds there are great, but fairly limited in number of species. DAY 13: Bocas del Toro - Isla Solarte The first day was a bit of a resting day, so we stayed on the island of the hotel (Isla Solarte). As mentioned in the previous post there weren't really any roads connecting the various buildings/resorts/hotels on the island so we were sort of stuck here, but overall it was still a nice day with some good additions. By this time my life list was somewhere in the 990's and my year list somewhere in the 590's, so I knew that it'd be possible to reach both today. There were a few paths headed into the mangroves and lowland forests, which I birded in the morning and where I saw a couple of nice species - Montezuma oropendola probably taking the crown. Giant cowbird was "officially" my 1000th wild bird species ever, though that has since been reshuffled a bit with re-identifications (it is now the seedfinch, but I'm sure it will keep changing as taxonomy keeps changing - cowbird will definitely be remembered as the 1000th). Both a ringed and a green kingfisher were nice sights as well, as were the large amounts of rainforest rocket frogs and strawberry poison dart frogs! 596) Thick-billed seed finch, Oryzoborus funereus 597) Montezuma oropendola, Psarocolius montezuma 598) Giant cowbird, Molothrus oryzivorus 599) Blue-chested hummingbird, Amazilia amabilis The hotel, even though fairly basic and limited for the price we paid (we couldn't even lock one of the two doors...), was fun because it had kayaks we could use to our own liking. The water between the islands apparently holds a fairly large population of bottlenose dolphins and there were still a few water birds I was missing here, so I was definitely excited to do some kayakking. It got even better when we found a weird patch of mangrove through which we could manoeuvre our kayaks (a really cool place, though I think the 'path' we took had been man-made because near the end of it were some trash bags... sigh). At the end of the mangrove, as it transitioned into a lowland forest, there was an open clearing that looked promising and rightfully so, as suddenly a pair of manakins flew by right in front of me! I didn't get great views, but I did hear the snapping of the male's wings and see various flashes of a tiny yellow-green-black bird - I wish I had had my camera with me! 600) Golden-collared manakin, Manacus vitellinus In the afternoon I went out for another walk in the same place as the day before and got a few more additions, including three fairly unique species - the band-tailed barbthroat being a fairly evolutionary distinct species of hummingbird, the bay wren a very colourful and large species of wren, and the spadebill a really cool-looking tyrant-flycatcher. Good stuff! 601) Tropical gnatcatcher, Polioptila plumbea 602) Band-tailed barbthroat, Threnetes ruckeri 603) Bay wren, Cantorchilus nigricapillus 604) Stub-tailed spadebill, Platyrinchus cancrominus DAY 14: Bocas del Toro - Cayo Corales & Isla Zapatilla II On this day we did a fairly typical touristy Bocas del Toro day, which consists of getting someone with a boat to take you to multiple different islands. We briefly stopped by Isla Perezosos to see a three-toed sloth up close (check), did some snorkelling in Cayo Corales where we saw a few nice fish with the highlight being a tiny yellow stingray, and then spent some time doing nothing on a beach on Isla Zapatilla II. Ideally I had wanted to combine this trip with a quick visit to Isla Pajaros, the only place in America with nesting tropicbirds, but unfortunately there was no more time by the end of the day. I'll have to see those elsewhere! Luckily I had already seen brown boobies on the Pacific side, otherwise I would have missed those as well. What almost made up for not seeing the tropicbirds were two dolphins on our way back to Isla Solarte that gave quite a show and played in the waves created by our boat. The dogs owned by the person driving the boat were very confused and kept barking every time one of the dolphins showed itself, which was a weird but interesting sight! No new birds or mammals for the year on this day, which marks the first (and only) day of this trip without additions, but I did see a brown pelican which is a different subspecies here than on the Pacific coast. DAY 15: Bocas del Toro and travelling to El Valle de Anton This was a fairly uneventful day, that mainly consisted of the very long drive back to the Central part of the country. Originally our plan was to hire a car in Panama City, drive up to Bocas del Toro and then fly back to the city, but the flights were fairly expensive and dropping off the car near Bocas would also be a bit of a problem, so we decided to drive back. However, since Panama lacks many big roads pretty much the entirety of the way back would be via the same roads that we had already driven in the opposite direction to get here. There weren't many potential stops, so we decided to just do the entire drive in one day and get it over with, arriving at El Valle de Anton by the evening. I was scared that this would turn into another day without additions, but a flyby muscovy duck on Isla Solarte and a large flock of parakeets seen on a quick stop made sure that didn't happen. Interesting were two seabirds loosely following the boat from the island to the mainland that I couldn't quite identify - I'm fairly sure they were large terns, but getting your binoculars on a flying bird while on a speedboat isn't easy! 605) Muscovy duck, Cairina moschata 606) Crimson-fronted parakeet, Psittacara finschi
I just missed this one! The guide saw one as well as some in the group I did the walk at Quebrada Sal, but I was a bit behind and at the time I arrived at the spot the "Michael Jackson bird" was no longer visible en could only be heared... Tropic birds and boobies (I had seen seen a brown booby in the Pacific region briefly, but multiple boobies including youngs and breeding ones was something completely different) were my bird highlights for Bocas del Toro.
That's always annoying! I suppose it's an inherent part of birding together with others though, there will always be some species that not everyone in the group can see quickly enough, but it's not fun when those species are some of the better ones around. I'm jealous of the nesting tropicbirds and boobies! Did you see large amounts of them there, or only a few?
I think I saw two tropicbirds on the rocks of Isla Pajaros and a couple of them flying. Boobies were more numerous. Photos of both species are in the gallery, by the way. After Isla Pajaros, I went by boat to Canal de Soropta, what turned to be one of the best birding spots of my Panamanian trip. Among the birds seen, was a belted kingfisher, the only species of southern Central American kingfisher I was still missing on my list at that point.
Nice! I didn't end up getting that lucky with the kingfishers, with 'only' 4 observations of green and 2 of ringed - still two great species of course! It's interesting how common kingfishers seem to be everywhere in the world except for Europe - even with loads of birding close to water I only ever see about 10 kingfishers in Europe each year...
DAY 16: El Valle de Anton - Visiting Zoos On this first day in El Valle de Anton (or just El Valle, as it is locally known) I walked around in the neighbourhood for a while and saw a few species I hadn't seen in a while! It was good to see chestnut-headed oropendolas and keel-billed toucans everywhere again, and I was really happy when suddenly I saw a pair of chachalacas with a chick running around on some vines above the path! They were very common in El Valle, and I ended up seeing them on the hotel grounds and throughout the entire village fairly regularly after that. 607) Grey-headed chachalaca, Ortalis cinereiceps After breakfast, we decided to visit the three small zoos this small city had to offer today. First up was El Nispero Zoo and Botanical Garden, the only traditional zoo of the day and by far the biggest of the three. El Nispero is quite similar to some of the Asian zoos I've visited in the past, probably the most similar to Gembira Loka zoo even though that is a lot bigger. It's not good or up to modern standards at all and there are a lot of horribly bad things, but at the same time they have obviously tried their best with the newer enclosures and it isn't all bad either. Most of the bird aviaries (and there were quite a lot!) were fairly decent with expected amounts of foliage and perches, but most of them also had full concrete flooring. The bird aviaries were usually not too overstocked, though there were a few exceptions (two emus in a tiny aviary and a large group of amazons in an aviary that should probably only have had 3 or 4). Open-topped enclosures for larger animals like the domestic animals, tapirs, storks etc were decent, and a pair of spider monkey enclosures was even good, with lots of space to climb and even the possibility of (brief) brachiation. Much worse were tiny cages for the carnivores like jaguars, coyotes, raccoons and tayras. Two absolutely appalling cages for capuchin monkeys were probably the worst thing in the zoo, and one of the capuchins (a juvenile) was kept alone and was obviously very close to death; not really something you want to see as a visitor! Despite its very obvious shortcomings and sometimes rather questionable and outdated husbandry, the place did have a few interesting species. The biggest highlights for me were a few local raptors (common black hawk, savanna hawk, white hawk, short-tailed hawk, grey-lined hawk, collared forest falcon), great tinamou, American crocodile, Geoffroy's tamarin, grey fox, coyote, crab-eating raccoon, and the local subspecies of tayra. I've read in other reviews that the best part of the entire zoo is the independently-run amphibian rescue center in a building in the middle of the zoo keeping many rarities, but unfortunately that closed this year... A new wild bird seen in the zoo was a small group of wonderful golden-hooded tanagers. 608) Golden-hooded tanager, Tangara larvata After that we grabbed some lunch in town and went to Butterfly Haven, a small butterfly garden with a very nice interactive presentation about everything butterflies, and a quick tour through the wonderfully decorated aviary with about two dozen species of native butterflies. A very well-designed and clean park, and definitely a fun place to spend half an hour or so, or more if you like photographing butterflies! In the aviary was a single rufous-tailed hummingbird, a species I hadn't seen in captivity before (but one that is very common in the wild throughout the entire country). Finally we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in Serpentario Maravillas Tropicales, a local serpentarium. I was hoping to potentially get a few amphibians here, but no luck either - just a few outdoor enclosures for Geoffroy's tamarins, American crocodiles, green iguanas and turtles, and a snake house. The snake house did have a few rarities though, the most interesting being Ruschenberger's tree boa, Phrynonax poecilonotus, yellow ratsnake, Central American coral snake, fer-fe-lance and Lansberg's hog-nosed pit viper. This seemed like a nice enough place, but we had the misfortune that we were there on one of the most stormy days of the entire trip and that everyone in the park was standing in the crowded snake house, meaning you couldn't really see or photograph anything. After this we wanted to go back to the hotel, but there was one big issue: rain. Entire roads were flooded and there wasn't any sign that it was going to stop soon, so we made the decision to bike back (we had used bikes from the hotel to get to all the different places) through all the rain. This was by far the least fun part of the entire trip and extremely frustrating because I didn't know to what regard my backpack's rain cover would protect my camera, phone and bird guide, and because I fell in the mud at least once, completely drenching everything. The rain did obviously stir up activity with a few birds, though because even though it was only around 5PM I saw a pair of wood rails hastily crossing the road and even a pauraque flying around in broad daylight! Two great additions that did manage to put a smile on my face while biking the rest of the way to the hotel. 609) Grey-necked wood rail, Aramides cajaneus 610) Pauraque, Nyctidromus albicollis
I would be very interested in a list of native species, if it's not to much effort. Until recently, there were two facilities in Panama for amphibian conservation and breeding projects, EVACC (El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center) at the grounds of Zoo Nispero for western species and one at the grounds of Summit for eastern species. The two facilities are now merged into one center at Gamboa. I don't know if it contains a public section, but (part of) the amphibians at Punta Culebra came from those centers.
I didn't make a species list in the zoo, but I'll do my best to make one retroactively! I'm not sure if I'll post them in this thread or in another one but they should be up fairly soon. I had heard about the amphibian species moving, yeah! I was hoping the zoo would have kept the building open with perhaps a few more common species or something, but it was closed and out of use, unfortunately.
DAY 17: El Valle De Anton - Town and Cerro Gaital A quick walk in the morning got me more of the same things as the day before, with some more good views of a wood rail and the same toucans, chachalacas and oropendolas as the day before. A seedeater right as we got back to the hotel was the only addition, but quite a nice one at that! 611) Yellow-bellied seedeater, Sporophila nigricollis After this we headed back into town and visited a local orchard garden. We were there at the wrong time of the year to see them all flowering, but it was still a very impressive fun little place with large amounts of orchids, mainly Panamanian native ones. It looked like it could attract some birds at the right time of the year but it was raining so I didn't see much except for the usual blue-grey tanagers, palm tanagers and rufous-tailed hummingbirds, until I saw a vireo that I couldn't quite place at first. 612) Yellow-green vireo, Vireo flavoviridis We then drove to the El Chorro Macho waterfalls which also seemed like they'd be a really good place to see some birds, but all I saw here were some more toucans. The waterfalls were impressive though, but perhaps not really worth paying seperately for. The next stop was Cerro Gaital, a very beautiful national park in which we spent about an hour or so. The area right after the entrance had a very unique vegetation type and proved to be excellent for wildlife, with large amounts of really interesting invertebrates and also good amounts of birds. The highlights here were two species of hermit giving amazing views, an antwren, a group of grosbeaks and a group of green honeycreepers. If we had had more time I would definitely have loved spending it here as it truly was a fantastic place with lots of great species! 613) Green hermit, Phaethornis guy 614) Slaty antwren, Myrmotherula schisticolor 615) Black-faced grosbeak, Caryothraustes poliogaster 616) Green honeycreeper, Chlorophanes spiza By the end of the afternoon we were then headed to the India Dormida trails to see the Piedras Pintadas, rocks with mysterious petroglyphs. We didn't end up going pretty far along the trail (there were a bit too many suspicious people around the entrance area to our liking) but the petroglyphs were interesting and there were some decent birds around here too, a trio of flyover parakeets being the most interesting. We ended up making the right call earlier when we decided not to walk further along the trail, as when we got to the hotel we heard a story of someone getting robbed further up the trail while we were there... If you visit, definitely pay attention to the people waiting next to the parking lot and even right next to the ticket booth. 617) Brown-hooded parakeet, Pyrilia haematotis
DAY 18: El Valle - Guided Birding Tour I suppose I've never really talked about it much, but I mainly like birding abroad for the challenge of it and for the aspect of discovery. I understand why people would pay expensive (or even cheap) guided tours abroad and tick insane amounts of species in a small amount of time, but I don't think it will ever be something for me - the planning, the figuring out where to go next, the identifying, and the finding things yourself is what I love most about travelling somewhere. For this reason I had never really considered doing any guided bird walks throughout this trip, the only two walks where we did have a guide was because it was necessary to have one to access the area, and neither of those guides were really birders. On this last full day in the country, though, we had practically already done everything we had wanted to do in El Valle, the rest of my family was getting a bit tired of the constant bird obsession, and the hotel offered guided bird walks with a professional birding guide. I figured I'd do the half-day birding tour and see how well I had been able to do on my own in the past 17 days! Overall the experience was very interesting, and I'm very happy I did do it but I'm also very happy I waited to do it until I knew a lot about the Panamanian wildlife. The guide made some glaringly obvious mistakes in bird identification which, of course, is very important that a guide doesn't do but is also understandable because of his probably mainly non-birding audience. The average person probably doesn't want to pay money to hear the guide say they don't know what they're looking at from time to time, so I get that while guiding you'd rather identify a bit too many birds than too little. However, from a birder's perspective it is sort of weird to call species the wrong name instead of just being honest and saying you don't know what you saw - which is perfectly fine, and a normal part of birding. For this reason I took everything he said with a grain of salt, and only counted what I saw well enough to identify. This is also the main reason I was happy that I waited until the last day to do a birding tour like this, because on day one I wouldn't have had the knowledge nor courage to correct the guide when he was wrong. It also made it possible for me to look beyond what he was pointing at and find other species than ones he found, making it more of a collective birding experience than a guided walk. Despite a few identification mistakes he was a fantastic guide, though, that knew the local bird calls very well, and also knew the theoretic information about when to head to which areas depending on the weather situation. Local knowledge for specific spots is also something guides are very useful for, and he took us to a few fantastic and very birdy places, where we saw loads of great species, the best of the day being a group of spot-crowned barbets, an emerald tanager and a plain xenops that I found and a group of boat-billed herons, a black-headed saltator and a spectacled owl that he found. 618) Boat-billed heron, Cochlearius cochlearius 619) Rufous-breasted wren, Pheugopedius rutilus 620) Shiny cowbird, Molothrus bonariensis 621) Yellow-crowned euphonia, Euphonia luteicapilla 622) Black-striped sparrow, Arremonops conirostris 623) Lemon-rumped tanager, Ramphocelus icteronotus 624) Spot-crowned barbet, Capito maculicoronatus 625) Spectacled owl, Pulsatrix perspicillata 626) Black-headed saltator, Saltator atriceps 627) Mistletoe tyrannulet, Zimmerius parvus 628) Plain-brown woodcreeper, Dendrocincla fuliginosa 629) Plain xenops, Xenops minutus 630) Emerald tanager, Tangara florida Overall this was a fantastic day of birding with a bunch of great new species, and I'd be lying if the wonderful guide, despite a few mistakes, didn't help with seeing a lot of these species. Definitely the Spectacled owl is a species I'm sure I'd never have seen without him, and also definitely one of the species I'll remember the best from the entire trip. Throughout the entire holiday I also submitted practically every bird I saw on the website https://observation.org, which automatically keeps lists and makes it possible for me to say that this day was by far the one with the most species seen (73 bird species, with the next best day having 59). Guided walks are definitely fun and relevant for large lists, but by no means necessary and in my opinion it's more rewarding to find things yourself! DAY 19: Travelling Back Home Day 18 was the last full day of the trip and in many ways a perfect way to end it all off, but this day was the actual last day, in which we drove from El Valle to Panama City and flew back home. This was a fairly uneventful day, but luckily from the car I saw a bird that I had been scanning the skies for a while for - a white hawk! I had seen one up close in captivity a few days prior, but hadn't gotten a wild one yet. Great way to end it all off! 631) White hawk, Pseudastur albicollis
I decided I'd make a list of all species I saw chronologically, starting at 1 from the first species, up to 222 for the last species and including the species I had already seen elsewhere this year prior to the trip. Spoiler BIRDS: 1) Western cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis 2) Great egret, Ardea alba 3) Black vulture, Coragyps atratus 4) Great-tailed grackle, Quiscalus mexicanus 5) Grey-breasted martin, Progne chalybea 6) Neotropic cormorant, Phalacrocorax brasilianus 7) Tropical mockingbird, Mimus gilvus 8) Wood stork, Mycteria americana - 9) Clay-coloured thrush, Turdus grayi 10) Great kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus 11) Feral pigeon, Columba livia 12) Ruddy ground dove, Columbina talpacoti 13) Rufous-tailed hummingbird, Amazilia tzacatl 14) Variable seedeater, Sporophila corvina 15) Crimson-backed tanager, Ramphocelus dimidiatus 16) Palm tanager, Thraupis palmarum 17) Orange-chinned parakeet, Brotogeris jugularis 18) Tropical kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus 19) House wren, Troglodytes aedon 20) White-collared swift, Streptoprocne zonaris 21) Blue-grey tanager, Thraupis episcopus 22) Barred antshrike, Thamnophilus doliatus 23) Pale-vented pigeon, Patagioenas cayennensis 24) Social flycatcher, Myiozetetes similis 25) Red-crowned woodpecker, Melanerpes rubricapillus 26) Lineated woodpecker, Dryocopus lineatus 27) Blue-headed parrot, Pionus menstruus 28) Buff-breasted wren, Cantorchilis leucotis 29) Streaked flycatcher, Myiodynastes maculatus 30) Turkey vulture, Cathartes aura 31) Keel-billed toucan, Ramphastos sulfuratus 32) White-shouldered tanager, Tachyphonus luctuosus 33) Thick-biled euphonia, Euphonia laniirostris 34) Whooping motmot, Momotus subrufescens 35) Red-crowned ant-tanager, Habia rubica 36) Fasciated antshrike, Cymbilaimus lineatus 37) Red-throated ant-tanager, Habia fuscicauda 38) Dusky-capped flycatcher, Myiarchus tuberculifer 39) Short-tailed swift, Chaetura brachyura 40) Fork-tailed flycatcher, Tyrannus savana 41) Magnificent frigatebird, Fregata magnificens 42) Brown pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis 43) American darter, Anhinga anhinga 44) Southern rough-winged swallow, Stelgidopteryx ruficollis 45) Mangrove swallow, Tachycineta albilinea 46) Garden emerald, Chlorostilbon assimili 47) Striated heron, Butorides striata 48) Lesser kiskadee, Pitangus lictor 49) Yellow-headed caracara, Milvago chimachima 50) Common tody-flycatcher, Todirostrum cinereum 51) Yellow-crowned night heron, Nyctanassa violacea 52) Southern lapwing, Vanellus chilensis 53) Laughing gull, Leucophaeus atricilla - 54) Red-lored amazon, Amazona autumnalis 55) American white ibis, Eudocimus albus 56) Long-billed hermit, Phaethornis longirostris 57) Slaty-tailed trogon, Trogon massena 58) Checker-throated antwren, Epinecrophylla fulviventris 59) Grey-headed tanager, Eucometis penicillata 60) Cocoa woodcreeper, Xiphorhynchus susurrans 61) Scarlet-rumped cacique, Cacicus microrhynchus 62) Yellow-rumped cacique, Cacicus cela 63) Broad-billed motmot, Electron platyrhynchum 64) Black-throated trogon, Trogon rufus 65) Masked tityra, Tityra semifasciata 66) Black-bellied whistling-duck, Dendrocygna autumnalis 67) Scaled pigeon, Patagioenas speciosa 68) Ringed kingfisher, Megaceryle torquata 69) Roadside hawk, Rupornis magnirostris 70) Yellow-crowned amazon, Amazona ochrocephala - 71) Streaked saltator, Saltator striatipectus 72) Saffron finch, Sicalis flaveola 73) Panamaian flycatcher, Myiarchus panamensis 74) Northern crested caracara, Caracara cheriway 75) Little blue heron, Egretta caerula 76) Willet, Tringa semipalpata 77) Black-crowned night-heron, Nycticorax nycticorax - 78) White-tipped dove, Leptotila verreauxi 79) White-tailed kite, Elanus leucurus 80) Brown booby, Sula leucogaster 81) House sparrow, Passer domesticus 82) Groove-billed ani, Crotophaga sulcirostris 83) Spotted woodcreeper, Xiphorhynchus eryhtropygius 84) Boat-billed flycatcher, Megarynchus pitangua - 85) Smooth-billed ani, Crotophaga ani 86) Collared aracari, Pteroglossus torquatus 87) Black-chested jay, Cyanocorax affinis 88) Yellow-faced grassquit, Tiaris olivaceus 89) Black-cheeked woodpecker, Melanerpes pucherani 90) Chestnut-headed oropendola, Psarocolius wagleri 91) Crowned woodnymph, Thalurania colombica 92) Bay-headed tanager, Tangara gyrola 93) Silver-throated tanager, Tangara icterocephala 94) Southern nightingale-wren, Microcerculus marginatus 95) Shining honeycreeper, Cyanerpes lucidus 96) White-necked jacobin, Florisuga mellivora 97) Stripe-throated hermit, Phaethornis striigularis 98) Spot-crowned antvireo, Dysithamnus puncticeps 99) Pale-vented thrush, Turdus obsoletus 100) Purplish-backed quail-dove, Zentrygon lawrencii (heard-only) 101) Rufous motmot, Baryphthengus martii (heard-only) 102) Squirrel cuckoo, Piaya cayana 103) Tawny-capped euphonia, Euphonia anneae 104) Tooth-billed tanager, Piranga lutea 105) Tawny-crested tanager, Tachyphonus delatrii 106) Common black hawk, Buteogallus anthracinus 107) Savanna hawk, Buteogallus meridionalis 108) White-winged dove, Zenaida asiatica 109) Grey-capped flycatcher, Myiozetetes granadensis 110) Bat falcon, Falco rufigularis - 111) Blue-black grassquit, Volatinia jacarina 112) Sapphire-throated hummingbird, Lepidopyga coeruleogularis 113) Lesser yellow-headed vulture, Cathartes burrovianus 114) American oystercatcher, Haematopus palliatus 115) Bronzed cowbird, Molothrus aeneus 116) Lance-tailed manakin, Chiroxiphia lanceolata 117) Brown-throated parakeet, Eupsittula pertinax 118) Snowy egret, Egretta thula - 119) Wattled jacana, Jacana jacana 120) Scaly-breasted hummingbird, Phaeochroa cuvierii 121) Yellow warbler, Setophaga petechia - 122) Bare-throated tiger heron, Tigrisoma mexicanum 123) Short-billed pigeon, Patagioenas nigrirostris 124) Crested oropendola, Psarocolius decumanus 125) Piratic flycatcher, Legatus leucophaius 126) Rufous-collared sparrow, Zonotrichia capensis 127) Blue ground dove, Claravis pretiosa 128) Red-legged honeycreeper, Cyanerpes cyaneus 129) White-naped brushfinch, Atlapetes albinucha 130) Chestnut-capped brushfinch, Arremon brunneinucha 131) Lesson's motmot, Momotus lessonii 132) Mountain thrush, Turdus plebejus 133) Snowy-bellied hummingbird, Amazilia edward - 134) Orange-billed nightingale-thrush, Catharus aurantiirostris 135) Flame-coloured tanager, Piranga bidentata 136) White-throated thrush, Turdus assimilis 137) Lesser goldfinch, Spinus psaltria 138) Rufous-capped warbler, Basileuterus rufifrons 139) Lesser greenlet, Hylophilus decurtatus 140) Rufous mourner, Rhytipterna holerythra 141) Isthmian wren, Cantorchilus elutus 142) Buff-throated saltator, Saltator maximus 143) Lesser elaenia, Elaenia chiriquensis 144) Blue-and-white swallow, Notiochelidon cyanoleuca 145) White-throated mountaingem, Lampornis castaneoventris 146) Lesser violetear, Colibri cyanotus 147) Scintillant hummingbird, Selasphorus scintilla 148) Green-crowned brilliant, Heliodoxa jacula 149) Purple-throated mountaingem, Lampornis calolaemus 150) Yellow-bellied elaenia, Elaenia flavogaster 151) Dark pewee, Contopus lugubris 152) Black-faced solitaire, Myadestes melanops 153) Violet sabrewing, Campylopterus hemileucurus 154) Golden-browed chlorophonia, Chlorophonia callophrys (heard-only) 155) Scarlet-thighed dacnis, Dacnis venusta 156) Swallow-tailed kite, Elanoides forficatus 157) Rufous-and-white wren, Thryophilus rufalbus 158) Mountain elaenia, Elaenia frantzii 159) Scarlet-rumped tanager, Ramphocelus passerinii - 160) Slate-throated whitestart, Myioborus miniatus 161) Vaux's swift, Chaetura vauxi 162) Acorn woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus 163) Elegant euphonia, Euphonia elegantissima 164) Ruddy treerunner, Margarornis rubiginosus 165) Silvery-fronted tapaculo, Scytalopus argentifrons 166) Black guan, Chamaepetes unicolor 167) Ruddy-capped nightingale-thrush, Catharus frantzii 168) Sooty-capped chlorospingus, Chlorospingus pileatus 169) Spot-crowned woodcreeper, Lepidocolaptes affinis 170) Resplendent quetzal, Pharomachrus mocinno 171) Collared trogon, Trogon collaris 172) Tufted flycatcher, Mitrephanes phaeocercus 173) Green kingfisher, Chloroceryle americana 174) Black phoebe, Sayornis nigricans - 175) Band-tailed pigeon, Patagioenas fasciata 176) White-winged tanager, Piranga leucoptera 177) Brown-capped vireo, Vireo leucophrys 178) Bicoloured hawk, Accipiter bicolor 179) Green heron, Butorides virescens 180) Green-breasted mango, Anthracothorax prevostii 181) Blue-chested hummingbird, Amazilia amabilis 182) Tropical pewee, Contopus cinereus 183) Bananaquit, Coereba flaveola 184) Plain-coloured tanager, Tangara inornata 185) White-lined tanager, Tachyphonus rufus 186) Olive-throated parakeet, Eupsittula nana - 187) Thick-billed seed finch, Oryzoborus funereus 188) Montezuma oropendola, Psarocolius montezuma 189) Giant cowbird, Molothrus oryzivorus 190) Golden-collared manakin, Manacus vitellinus 191) Tropical gnatcatcher, Polioptila plumbea 192) Band-tailed barbthroat, Threnetes ruckeri 193) Bay wren, Cantorchilus nigricapillus 194) Stub-tailed spadebill, Platyrinchus cancrominus - 195) Muscovy duck, Cairina moschata 196) Crimson-fronted parakeet, Psittacara finschi - 197) Grey-headed chachalaca, Ortalis cinereiceps 198) Golden-hooded tanager, Tangara larvata 199) Grey-necked wood rail, Aramides cajaneus 200) Pauraque, Nyctidromus albicollis 201) Tropical screech owl, Megascops choliba (heard-only) - 202) Yellow-bellied seedeater, Sporophila nigricollis 203) Yellow-green vireo, Vireo flavoviridis 204) Green hermit, Phaethornis guy 205) Slaty antwren, Myrmotherula schisticolor 206) Black-faced grosbeak, Caryothraustes poliogaster 207) Green honeycreeper, Chlorophanes spiza 208) Brown-hooded parakeet, Pyrilia haematotis - 209) Boat-billed heron, Cochlearius cochlearius 210) Rufous-breasted wren, Pheugopedius rutilus 211) Shiny cowbird, Molothrus bonariensis 212) Yellow-crowned euphonia, Euphonia luteicapilla 213) Black-striped sparrow, Arremonops conirostris 214) Lemon-rumped tanager, Ramphocelus icteronotus 215) Spot-crowned barbet, Capito maculicoronatus 216) Spectacled owl, Pulsatrix perspicillata 217) Black-headed saltator, Saltator atriceps 218) Mistletoe tyrannulet, Zimmerius parvus 219) Plain-brown woodcreeper, Dendrocincla fuliginosa 220) Plain xenops, Xenops minutus 221) Emerald tanager, Tangara florida - 222) White hawk, Pseudastur albicollis MAMMALS: 1) Central American agouti, Dasyprocta punctata - 2) Brown-throated three-toed sloth, Bradypus variegatus - 3) Variegated squirrel, Sciurus variegatoides 4) White-nosed coati, Nasua narica 5) Red-tailed squirrel, Sciurus granatensis - 6) Hoffmann's two-toed sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni - 7) Mantled howler monkey, Alouatta palliata 8) White-faced capuchin, Cebus capucinus - 9) Western dwarf squirrel, Microsciurus mimulus - 10) Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops aduncus Pheasants and Primates unfortunately weren't all that relevant during this trip, so instead I'll choose to specifically lay a focus on hummingbirds! Panama Hummingbird Count - 19 Long-billed hermit, Phaethornis longirostris Green hermit, Phaethornis guy Stripe-throated hermit, Phaethornis striigularis Band-tailed barbthroat, Threnetes ruckeri - Blue-chested hummingbird, Amazilia amabilis Snowy-bellied hummingbird, Amazilia edward Rufous-tailed hummingbird, Amazilia tzacatl Sapphire-throated hummingbird, Lepidopyga coeruleogularis Scaly-breasted hummingbird, Phaeochroa cuvierii Scintillant hummingbird, Selasphorus scintilla - Purple-throated mountaingem, Lampornis calolaemus White-throated mountaingem, Lampornis castaneoventris - Green-breasted mango, Anthracothorax prevostii Violet sabrewing, Campylopterus hemileucurus Garden emerald, Chlorostilbon assimili Lesser violetear, Colibri cyanotus White-necked jacobin, Florisuga mellivora Green-crowned brilliant, Heliodoxa jacula Crowned woodnymph, Thalurania colombica
