Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

Monday we spent at Los Altos de Maria, another retirement community not yet completely built up relatively high in the mountains. But first we pulled over in the El Valle where some swallows were swooping including #752, Blue-and-white Swallow

I got three more lifers pulling out along the road to Los Altos de Maria including

753. Common Bush-Tanager
754. Black-and-yellow Tanager (spotted by me)
755. Ochraceous Wren
756. Gray-breasted Wood Wren

And then in Los Altos de Maria itself 11 more:
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The last couple of days had been slowing down a bit as we increasingly ticked off more and more of the species around the Canopy Tower. However today we hit new habitat and elevations and things picked up again. Even before we left the lodge we added #734 Rufous Motmot at the feeders, and then #735 Lineated Woodpecker, atop a nearby tree. I missed the Grey-necked Wood Rail though; and indeed I missed it repeatedly throughout my stay, even though it was haunting the grounds.

We then drove further inland to near the top of the mountains (i.e. near the edge of the extinct volcano we’re in the middle of) to Los Minas Road, and in a few hours of casual strolling we added nine new species:

736. Silver-throated Tanager
737. Tawny-capped Euphonia
738. Scarlet-thighed Dacnis
739. Ornate Hawk-Eagle (perched in the distance through a scope)
740. Tufted Flycatcher
741. Orange-bellied Trogon
742. Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher
743. Olive-striped Flycatcher
744. Plain Antvireo

But we weren’t done yet.
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On Satrurday, after a couple of hours of driving (half of which I slept through), we arrived at the Canopy Lodge in time for lunch. And I got upgraded to a large room. Yay! My room at the Tower was the size of a large closet. And I have a balcony that has a good view of a tree popular with birds waiting for the feeder. Good for photography. On the downside the Wifi is much less reliable at the Lodge than the Tower. I don’t know why.

The lodge has feeding platforms that attract a different group of birds since we’re further west and higher up. However there were, a bit surprisingly, no lifers at lunch. After lunch though, we walked up the road and explored a bit in the Canopy Adventure, and this added four new species:

1. Rufous-capped Warbler (one of my target birds)
2. Common Tody-Flycatcher
3. Streaked Saltator
4. Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush (good find; these are secretive and usually hard to see

Today we leave for the Canopy Lodge, but there are still birds to be seen here. I added three more species from the top of the tower this morning:

728. Mealy Parrot
729. Semiplumbeous Hawk
730. Blue-headed Parrot

We whiffed on King Vulture though. Maybe we’ll get lucky on the road.

Before heading back to the Tower for lunch, we made a brief stop at Costa del Este to once again scope for shorebirds on the Pacific Ocean. Again it was mostly common North American species wintering down south. However we did pick up a couple of really good birds including a rare (for Panama) Long-billed Curlew that I spotted. Possibly this one bird has been returning to this site for the last ten years or so. And then the leader found a more Southerly bird too far north, #727, Collard Plover! It’s a lot like a a Semipalmated Plover or Snowy Plover.
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Friday was our last full day in the vicinity of the Tower. We drove down into Panama City to visit Metropolitan Park, their “Central Park” though it’s much more wild than either Manhattan’s or Huntington Beach’s. We got some good birds here, and lucked into a really big mixed flock toward the end.

716. Gray-chested Dove
717. Yellow-crowned Parrot
718. Forest Elaenia
719. Lance-tailed Manakin (a Panama endemic!)
720. Rufous-and-white Wren
721. Red-crowned Ant-Tanager
722. Rufous-breasted Wren
723. White-tipped Dove
724. Yellow-green Tyrannulet
725. Bright-rumped Attila
726. Orange-billed Sparrow

We also got the best looks I’ve ever had of Mourning Warbler and Kentucky Warbler, which for some reason seemed a lot less shy here than in New York. I was hoping for Little Tinamou here, but we whiffed on that. :-(
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