Tocumen Rails, Agami Heron, Much More!
Bear with me, as we've got a ton of reports to share.... leading things off is continued news of the extraordinary rails at Tocumen Marsh, with Paint-billed Crakes and Spotted Rails found on several occasions since our last post. As the quantity of information has become too voluminous for this homepage, I have created a special Tocumen Rails Page to track current sightings and to provide some ornithological context regarding these extraordinary finds. Please also keep your eyes on the Xenornis website, which is often much more up-to-date regarding current bird sightings in Panamá, especially when The Canopy Report is out of the country!
Carlos Bethancourt sent in the beautiful photo above of an Agami Heron, found at the Summit Ponds on March 11th; this bird was found on almost the same date and exactly the same place as last year's dry season Agami Heron. Also noteworthy on the this day was a pair of Brown-throated Parakeets in the same area, a rare species in the Canal area, although abundant elsewhere in the Panamanian lowlands.
After much delay, I am finally happy to share my personal sightings, and some secondhand reports, collected on my trip to central Panamá that concluded on March 7th. I accompanied a Field Guides Inc. tour group, led by John Coons and Alexis Sanchez, to Parque Metropolitano on February 27th; among the highlights were great looks at the Panamanian endemic Yellow-green Tyrannulet, and a heard-only Olivaceous Woodcreeper, a good find anywhere in central Panamá. My best find of the day came, unfortunately, after the group had departed; a pair of Pheasant Cuckoos calling along the Cieneguita Trail. This was my second sighting of this reclusive species of the trip, one of four in total, great fortune regarding this rare and sought-after bird.
I finally recorded my first Semiplumbeous Hawk on Pipeline Road on February 29th, near the first bridge at the Quebrada Juan
Grande. This small forest raptor can be a tough find, but once spotted it was remarkably accomodating, waddling along nearby branches
in a penguin-like fashion, and seemingly checking me out. Carlos Bethancourt informs me that this bird has
been seen sporadically in the general area for the last few months, accounting for the relative preponderance
of recent reports of this rare species. A bit closer to the entrance, and in the mid-afternoon,
I enjoyed one of the most exciting sightings of my birding life. I found a Pheasant Cuckoo lying in the middle of the road
(see the image at top left below), and at first I thought it was merely a pile of leaves. But as I moved closer I realized it was
a Pheasant Cuckoo, engaged in some sort of unusual display activity. The bird fanned out its huge tail (top right image below)
and its wings, and dragged itself on the road as if dust-bathing. It called several times (photo bottom left) as I videotaped
at close range. I was concerned that the bird might have been injured (a fast-moving truck had rumbled by moments before), and I was creeping closer
to see if the bird needed help. I crouched down low, and the bird miraculously approached me, coming to within a couple of meters, accounting for the
quality of the video stills presented here. It eventually flew into the forest edge, but I could still see it displaying, and emitting a growling sound that
I was able to record. Other birders have reported unusual displays of this sort, but thus far I have not found anybody who can offer an explanation as to why this normally
shy species would be so brazen. By the by, this was one of five Pheasant Cuckoos I spotted in a six-day period at four different locations, a great run of luck with
a species that can be hard to find even in the dry season, when they are vocalizing and therefore more easily found.
The El Valle area, home to the Canopy Lodge, has yielded even more great sightings as of late. I shared time, and some great birds, with a VENT group led by Barry Zimmer and a full contingent of the Lodge's expert local bird guides. We started the trip off on March 2nd with a great look at a female Blue Dacnis on the Canopy Lodge grounds, found first by Tino Sanchez; this is the first record of this lowland species from the lower foothills of El Valle. Barry Zimmer, a fine tour leader with extensive experience in Panamá, gave me a short list of birds in the area that he had not yet seen, headed by Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo (a species with which I had enjoyed extraordinary luck last year)- I believe the exact offer was that my libations would be paid for if I found him this bird. I was a bit slow- on March 3rd Canopy Lodge guide Armodio Rodríguez found an army ant swarm at a good patch of forest in La Mesa, and a pair of Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoos were present, and calling in a soft, dove-like voice. All of the visiting birders got great looks at the bird, and I collected good audio of the call, although I still had to pay for my wine! Congratulations to Barry and his charges on this great find! After much of the group moved on, Domi Alveo, I, and a couple of intrepid souls enjoyed great looks at a Barred Forest-Falcon that came to visit the swarm, plus a calling Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, a rare species in the region. Another good find was a pair of flying (and calling) Montezuma Oropendolas spotted when I wandered away from my group; Tino Sanchez had seen them earlier in the day, and he says they are showing up with increasing frequency at La Mesa. The oropendola is a bird of the Caribbean-slope lowlands, but it seems to be moving to higher elevations and onto the Pacific slope in recent years; La Mesa is barely on the Pacific side of the Continental Divide.
My day was not over; in the late afternoon, birding on the road just above the Canopy Lodge, I found (and filmed).
an Emerald Tanager (at right) feeding in a fig tree as part of a good mixed-species flock. Emerald Tanager is a bird of the moist
foothills that was only recorded at the higher elevations at La Mesa within the last year or so; its presence near the village of El
Valle was quite unexpected, although Tino Sanchez tells me that it has been seen in the area for the last couple of months.
The species is a tough one to capture on film, as it is small, fast-moving, and a tree-topper, and this individual was framed against a sunny sky to boot!
Nonetheless, my video still of this Emerald Tanager was the best I could glean, and shows enough to document this species' presence in El Valle.
On March 4th we all piled into 4-wheel drive pickups to visit Altos del Maria, a great birding site that is sadly under assault by massive housing development. The undisturbed areas of the locale yielded some avian gems, including Dull-mantled Antbird, Snowcap, Russet Antshrike, Red-faced Spinetail, Spotted Barbtail, White-throated Spadebill, and a tremendously-accomodating Rufous-browed Tyrannulet (I captured excellent audio). Many of these species were unknown from the region until the Canopy Lodge guides started their explorations of Altos a couple of years ago. The VENT group got a bonus prize when they got back to the Lodge; Tino Sanchez spotted a male Rufous-crested Coquette at the Lodge gardens just before dinner, and those guests who were still birding got a great thrill out of this diminutive hummingbird. The coquette has been a regular dry season visitor to the Lodge in recent years, but had been inexplicably absent in 2007-2008 until this day. Raúl Arias tells me it has been seen irregularly in the last couple of weeks.
On March 5th I struck out on my own in La Mesa, taking my first walk up the beautiful Las Minas Trail. The highlight of the day
was a soaring Ornate Hawk-Eagle (also seen by the VENT group, from a different vantage point); this rare species has been
reported a few times from the same location by Canopy Lodge guides, leading me to believe it may be breeding very locally.
Back on the road to Cerro Gaital, almost exactly where the ant swarm had been found the day before, I enjoyed
an extraordinary burst of locally uncommon birds, including
great looks at a male Slaty Antwren, a very rare bird in the area; this was only my second sighting of the species. The
still at left is the best I could get, and is certainly of low quality, but I believe it sufficiently documents the sighting.
An hour spent at this spot yielded four species of antbirds (Spot-crowned and Plain Antvireos, Checker-throated and Slaty Antwrens),
an unusual tally in the lower foothills, and four woodcreepers (Plain-brown, Wedge-billed, Cocoa, and Spotted Woodcreepers),
also close to the maximum for the area. Such avian explosions are part of the joy of the hobby of birding!
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Several more species were seen that are of interest mainly because of the specific location in which they
were found, not because of their general scarcity in the region. On March 4th Domiciano Alveo and two Lodge guests
found a Panama Flycatcher at the head of the Las Minas trail in La Mesa; I saw what was probably the same bird at the same spot the very next day.
This species is known to occasionally range well into the foothills, but this is the first time any of us
can recall seeing it in La Mesa. On March 5th I found an Olivaceous Flatbill outside my cabin at the Canopy Lodge, the first time
I've recorded this species in El Valle. Lodge guides tell me they see this lowland bird every now and then, but Eye-ringed Flatbill
is much more common in the immediate area. On the same day a trio of White-thighed Swallows flew overhead just below the Canopy
Adventure entrance; this species was discovered to be breeding in the area a few years ago, but has since been seldom-reported.
I suspect the swallows are resident in the area and generally occupy a remote area that birders don't visit; reports are scattered
but frequent enough to suggest that the birds are present year-round. On March 6th I heard a Broad-billed Motmot
calling along the Aqueduct Trail in El Valle; west of the Canal area this species is mostly a Caribbean-slope bird, but I have
heard and seen the species at this location on several occasions. On the same trail I enjoyed a great look
at a Wood Thrush, an addition to my Panamá list- this is the least common of the North American migrant thrushes
that winter in Panamá.
Finally, El Valle offered one more gift on the morning of March 6th; just before I caught my bus to Panamá
City; I found, and collected good audio of, a Green Shrike-Vireo on the Aqueduct Trail.
This is probably a first record of this species from El Valle. The Aqueduct Trail is a short path that was substantially
altered by a serious landslide over a year ago, and the new landscape seems to have attracted new species of birds, including
Scaly-throated Leaftosser and Eye-ringed Flatbill (both seen by me at this location on this visit). Who knows what else might show up? On March 2nd I
walked quietly up the trail and surprised an Ocelot that was drinking at the trickling stream, a first sighting
of this beautiful cat on the Canopy Lodge grounds. The discoveries at the Canopy Lodge seem almost without end!
