Pipeline Rd outskirts

After birding the Ammo Dump Ponds, our guide Jose led us along a driveable section of Pipeline Rd.  This was much more edge-type habitat than the traditional Pipeline Rd trail (allowing the bus to catch up to us at intervals with water and beverages from the cooler).

Birds came in dribs and drabs, a mix of both the birds we're familiar with as well as species that never leave the neotropics.  Baltimore Orioles foraged next to Golden-hooded Tanagers and Oropendolas, Tennesee Warblers next to Lesser Greenlets and Red-legged Honeycreepers.  This Cinnamon Woodpecker was relatively cooperative.

Purple-throated Fruitcrows were quite common, often announcing their presence with their bizarre calls.  Some of us had had a few looks at this species the day before, but this bird gave us an extended view

They're actually some kind of cotinga, though I'm not sure how narrow the definition of a cotinga is.  None of the others I've encountered were anything but silent, these were very vocal.

I'd actually forgotten what this bird was the first time I went through the pics.

Not sure?  It's patterned like a flycatcher but has the bill of a tanager.  Always go with structure.  It's a female White-shouldered Tanager, a bird that couldn't look more different from the nearly all black males.  They were one of the more common birds of the treetop edges.

 

A Streaked Flycatcher teed up though views were through fairly narrow windows in the tree in front of it. 

We spent a bit of time trying to coax a Golden-collared Manakin and Long-billed Gnatwren out into the open unsuccessfully.   We did find a little aggregation of antbirds, first this Ant-tanager (I don't actually remember whether this is Red-throated or Red-crowned)

 and then a couple Dusky Antbirds, a species that typically disappears pretty quickly into thick brush; this one was a little more confiding.

I assume this is some kind of Sister butterfly.

I'm certainly open to correction or any ideas to the species.

Kicking the trip off with a caption contest

Everyone on the trip arrived a day early and we birded on our own the first evening and full day.  The official trip started at the Ammo Dump ponds just outside the entrance to Pipeline Rd.  We've all birded sewage ponds, but an ammunition dump, well there have to be good birds there right?

A couple of Southern Lapwings walked right past us.  It wasn't until I looked at the pics that I noticed the fairly remarkable feature (err, features) of the male as he strode past.

Are those spurs on your wings or are you just happy to see us?  You didn't think it was cold in Panama did you?

We called out a number of the common edge birds, Pale-vented Pigeons would become a familiar part of the soundscape.

Among others,  Blue-gray tanagers, a couple Prothonotory warblers, a nesting Red-crowned Woodpecker, and a not very cooperative Southern Beardless-tyrannulet appeared, as did a new hummingbird, Black-throated Mango.

We started seeing and hearing our first of many Yellow-crowned Tyrannulets.  We would hear the soft but distinctive fwee-beeerr call of this small stub-billed flycatcher every day in the lowlands.

Panama Flycatcher would be much less common.  This was my best view of this rather dull myarchid though they would be seen a couple other times on the trip

Rufescent Tiger-heron is one of the sought after species at the Ammo Dump and it didn't disappoint.  I think nearly every time we drove past it a couple were in view.

Wattled Jacanas would be very common throughout the trip, seen in basically every wet spot, both young and old.

Anis (as well as a couple Snail Kites and a couple Purple Gallinules) foraged about the periphery of the wet grassy stuff.  This is a Smooth-billed.

Greater Ani seems to be closer kin to a dragon than a bird.

A couple of us had had poor views of a Tamandua, a small anteater, the day before along Pipeline so I was pretty excited to spot another here which the group enjoyed.

Discovery Center Passerines

We spent about 2 hours in the afternoon heat at the Discovery Center, the first hour content to rest our feet and watch the hummingbirds.  The hummers weren't the only birds around.  A couple of fruitcrows worked through though I'd get better pics the next day.  Caciques were quite common.  I wrote down both Yellow-billed as well as Scarlet-rumped but in retrospect I wonder if they were all Scarlet-rumped, like this bird.

 If the wings were folded tight you don't see the scarlet at all; and at distance it can be hard to tell if the eye is light blue (Scarlet-rumped) or pale yellow (Yellow-billed).  Here's the same bird (just) showing the scarlet...

I was excited to see a Black-striped Woodcreeper work its way through.

 While possible in Costa Rica, they're a lot more common in Panama, and as a fairly distinctive woodcreeper it was a bird I wanted to see.

 It would turn out to be the only one I saw, though I think most (if not all) of the group would see at least one other one.  Contrast him with the much more common Cocoa Woodcreeper, a widespread bird in southern Central America.

This one was along the Discovery Center trails.  We could only wait so long hoping the coquette would make an appearance before temptation to search for an antpitta overcame us.  We ended up having to be satisfied with a little antflock with a handful of checker-throated antwrens, at least one Spotted Antbird, and the every present Slaty Antshrikes (below).

 We went up to the top of the canopy tower, but didn't find much activity out in the exposed sun, another place that would have to wait another day or so... 

Discovery Center Hummingbirds

We'd asked the cabbie who dropped us off at the Pipeline Rd trailhead to pick us back up at 4pm.  He seemed pretty incredulous and we went back and forth in his quite broken English and my probably irreparable Spanish confirming that time.  He was clearly betting on either a communication deficit or that the gringos would wilt in the tropical heat and humidity because he was waiting for us when we got back to the beginning of the trail at 2.  We waved and continued on.  Why?  Because next to Pipeline Road is the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center, and they have hummingbird feeders.  And no one who reads this blog fails to understand the siren song that tropical hummingbirds have on anyone who enjoys photography.

While I'm not sure any Central American set-ups can compete with the Fiery-throateds and friends at Paraiso Quetzal in Costa Rica, these didn't disappoint.

White-necked Jacobin were the most common.

 Above is a male and a female, below a close-up of a female.

I didn't spend a ton of time with the Jacobins having focused on them pretty extensively at Rancho in Costa Rica.

Much less common was Blue-chested Hummingbird, a fairly understated species that doesn't show much of a gorget from the side or below.  I've never seen this (or its sister species Charming) come in to feeders; views had been limited to birds perched fairly high.

 However, if you look at it head-on (especially if a little above it) the bright crown comes out.  This species used to be known as Beryl-crowned Hummingbird before it and Charming were split.

 With the exact right angle the blue (or in this case purplish) upper breast comes out.

Long-billed Hermits were more common

I probably would have taken more pics of these if not for the next bird which was a lifer.

We saw a female Violet-bellied Hummingbird in the morning, but this was my first exposure to the males.

 They were very small, probably 2/3 the length and half the bulk of the jacobins.

A female...

One last look at the male

This is one of the better places in the world to see Rufous-crested Coquette, but that one would have to wait for another day...

Fasciated Awesomeness

After the antflock dissipated we headed back to the trailhead, but not before a couple more birds appeared trailside.  This male Fasciated Antshrike was about 3 feet off the trail, only the 2nd I'd ever seen and definitely my most prolonged view.

 I'm not sure what flavor of insect they target with that bill, but I'm going to guess cicada sized creatures or bigger.

The next bird's bill is probably about as opposite as you can get, Long-billed Gnatwren.  It's also the best pic I'd managed of one up to that point...

 OK, so all you can see is the tail.  What can I say.  They move fast.
Fortunately Plain Xenops moves a little slower.  This bird was also right on the edge of the trail

Finally a couple more looks at one of the Golden-collared Manakins that was still displaying at the Pipeline Rd entrance as we left.

the Antgasm

Tropical birding is not for the impatient.  For the most part you're working to pull out birds in ones and twos from dense jungle vegetation.  However, now and then, a person can come across a mixed flock, and there is no more exciting a mixed flock than an antswarm.  I'd never found one before, but that was about to change as we headed back to the trailhead in the heat of the early afternoon.

A pair of Bicolored Antbirds heralded the flock, flying out from the undergrowth to land next to the trail, give a couple of harsh call notes, and then dive back in.

 Unlike the Chestnut-backed's we'd seen earlier in the morning, Bicoloreds are professional antswarm birds, only uncommonly found without ants.  When a couple Song Wrens started beat-boxing we knew we were onto something good.

 Song Wrens are unique creatures.  The book describes their song as a haywire cuckoo clock, which is fairly apt.  They alternate clear Beet-Boop whistles with a rollicking soft buh-duh, buttah-buttah base line to create a song that really is like nothing else.  It's well worth pulling up on Xeno-cantu if you haven't heard it. 

I'm not sure I can really paint the picture of the antswarm.  Different species worked the forest floor, mostly staying at the periphery and then darting into the area that the army ants must have been scouring.  A Black-faced Antthrush ran atop the leaf litter while the Song Wrens would actually duck under to forage rapidly beneath the leaves.  The antbirds moved much more methodically, stopping to preen or remaining in a secluded dark perch before dashing out after an espied disturbed insect.  Our lifer Ocellated Antbird favored the latter approach, staying well hidden.

A Chestnut-backed allowed slightly better views.

 The sounds were a study in contrast between the harsh alien cries of the Bicolored's, the semi-manic Song Wren, and the slow crescendo-decrescendo song of a hidden Streak-chested Antpitta singing up and down a clear clean minor-key scale.  The pipsqueak calls of antwrens added a layer to the visual and aural experience as they moved about the midstory.

Checker-throated Antwrens were common.

 This is a fairly freshly fledged juvie.

We wouldn't encounter White-flanked Antwren again until the last full day of the trip.

A Barred Woodcreeper was about triple the size of the antwrens.

And above the mid-story, interior forest flycatchers peered down looking to snap up insects attempting to completely bug-out.  This odd little bird is a Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher.

 And perhaps odder still, an Olivaceous Flatbill.

While the Antpitta would remain hidden for this day at least, and there was no Ground-cuckoo miracle (though you're as likely to find that rarity on Pipeline as just about anywhere in the world), the hour or so we spent with this antswarm before it dissipated was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in the natural world.