into the lowlands

After a few days birding the highlands and mid-elevations we dropped down to Rio Silanche.  A little rain fell as we arrived, but mostly it was a day for sunscreen.  The birds were new.

Swallow Tanager is a fairly unique bird that I knew we had at least a shot at in Panama last year.  We didn't find it there but we did see it briefly here.

Pacific Antbird is another bird that is in the Central American books but we'd never seen.

We saw a few Hook-billed Kites here at these lower elevations, I think I'd seen 2 in my life before this walk

In addition to Swallow Tanager, there were a number of Dacnises (currently lumped with tanagers though this bird acted more like a chickadee) that were only possible for us here.  This is a female Yellow-tufted Dacnis that was one of the highlight birds for me on this walk.

Hornero's are open field birds that struck me as a cross between a Killdeer and a robin.

Finally a view of a female Thick-billed Seedfinch.