Night Monkey!
Panamanian Night Monkey: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — On a good night, the Night Monkeys also come to the bananas the kitchen staff put out at the Canopy Tower. They will not come if the Kinkajou or Olinguito is there, as both are more aggressive (and larger as well). They are very active, so photography is difficult, and they don’t come every night, so these are my best shots. Sony Rx10iv at 573mm and 247mm equivalents. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frome noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Nominal exposures ISO 6400 =@ f4 @ 1/160th.
Kinkajou
Kinkajou: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — The kitchen staff at the Canopy Tower have a little pulley system that allows them to run bananas out to a tree at eye-level from the third floor dinning hall, just below the canopy. During the day they attract a couple of families of Geoffroy’s Tamarins…smallish monkeys of the rainforest. After dark they hope to attract Olinguitos and Night Monkeys, as well as the Kinkajou. The Kinkajou is somewhat related to raccoons, but with a long prehensile tail. I have mostly seen Kinkajous as reflections of the eyes high in the canopy of Honduras and Costa Rica, so it was a real treat to see them at eye-level in light of our powerful flashlights. Sony Rx10iv at 214mm equivalent (the tree is close). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Nominal exposure ISO 6400 # f4 @ 1/200th and 1/60th.
Whooping Motmot
Whooping Motmot: Rainforest Discovery Center, Pipeline Road, Panama, July 2022 — Once upon a time, not so long ago (certainly when I first visited Central America) there was a bird called the Blue-crowned Motmot that had an extensive range from Mexico south through all of Central America and down the southern reaches of the Amazon basin, from lowland rainforest to the highlands of the Andes. Then in 2014 a study was published suggesting that the Blue-Crowned Motmot was actually 5 different species, with several dozen subspecies among them. The split became official in 2016, when it was recognized by the American Ornithological Union. (The Motmots had already been split a few times before that.) It appears that motmots have difficulty crossing any kind of substantial water barrier…lake or even major river…and this contributes to the fragmentation of the motmot complex into isolated populations, sub-species, and species. If our guide had not been there to correct me, I would have called this bird, which hopped out into the road where we were stopped by a mixed feeding flock on our way back from the Rainforest Discovery Center, before we got to Pipeline Road, a Lesson’s Motmot, which I have seen in Honduras, Costa Rica, and far north-western Panama (though on the Caribbean side). At first look, there is very little to distinguish it as a separate species. It is, however, at least east of the Canal in Panama, a Whooping Motmot. The Whooping Motmot ranges from eastern Panama down through northern Columbia and just into Venezuela, with an isolated population in lowland Equator and Peru west of the Andes. (Yes, that is strange, but that is the motmot mess in a nut-shell.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Nominal exposure: ISO 5000 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .7EV exposure compensation.
Black and White Owl for International Owl Awareness Day
For International Owl Awareness Day: A Black and White Owl from Gambo, Panama, July 2022. Sitting in a tree in a residential area of the old US Military Base. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. May increased awareness inspire intelligent conservation of these amazing creatures.
Black and White Owl for International Owl Awareness Day
For International Owl Awareness Day: A Black and White Owl from Gambo, Panama, July 2022. Sitting in a tree in a residential area of the old US Military Base. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. May increased awareness inspire intelligent conservation of these amazing creatures.
Blue-chested Hummingbird
Blue-chested Hummingbird: Rainforest Discovery Center, Pipeline Road, Panama, July 2022 — there were Blue-chested Hummingbirds coming to the feeders at the base of the Canopy Tower, so, even though it was a new hummer for me this trip, I was not surprised to see it at the Rainforest Discovery Center on Pipeline Road. They seem to be relatively abundant, and among the more aggressive defenders of feeders. And, they seem to have favored perches where they return time and time again. This one was determined that I get its “best side” in the photo while it did its display. Sony Rx10iv at 567mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Nominal exposure: ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/200th. Plus .7EV exposure compensation.
Violet-bellied Hummingbird
Violet-bellied Hummingbird: Rainforest Discovery Center, Pipeline Road, Panama, July 2022 — The star of the afternoon hummingbird show at the Rainforest Discovery Center in Panama would have to be the Violet-bellied Hummingbird. Of course it helps that it was the only “new” hummingbird for me on the visit, but is is certainly a stand-out no matter how often it is seen. In good light the brilliant green of the head and the contrasting rich violet of the chest and belly are an eye-full. As you might be able to tell from the photos, by the time the Violet-bellied became active around the feeders, we were loosing the light to the on-coming thunder storms, but still! Sony Rx10iv at 485-600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Nominal exposures all at ISO 6400 @ f4 with plus .7EV exposure compensation.
Bonus bird: Long-billed Hermit
Long-billed Hermit Hummingbird: Rainforest Discovery Center, Pipeline Road, Panama, July 2022 — One afternoon, we visited the Rainforest Discovery Center, on Pipeline Road (near Canopy Tower) in Panama…mostly for the hummingbird feeders. There is nothing much I like better than spending a few hours watching hummingbirds coming to the feeders, and especially, perching in the foliage around the feeders. Except for a few chance encounters in the deep undergrowth of the rainforest, this is my only experience of a perched Long-billed Hermit. As you can see, this one kept returning to perch within sight, and I was able to get a few photo, despite the increasingly dim light under the canopy as the afternoon rains came in. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Nominal exposure: ISO 3200 and 4000 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .7 EV exposure compensation.
White-faced Capuchin (#2)
White-faced Capuchin Monkey: Panama Canal, Gamboa, Panama, July 2022 — We had a second encounter with a White-faced Capuchin…this one a juvenile, on a second island among the Monkey Islands of Lake Gatun. This one was curious enough to come right out to the ends of the branches overhanging our boat, where he (or she) interrupted foraging for long enough to have a good look at us. I was not even at full zoom for these shots. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 586-599mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 200 and 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Bonus Bird for today: Great Pootoo
Great Pootoo: Pipe-line Road, near Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — Birders worldwide know about the Pipeline Road in Panama. It is just a stretch of dirt road up and over a range of hills, alongside the remains of a pipeline that the US started to build during World War Two as an alternative route to get oil to the Pacific Fleet if the Canal should be blocked or taken by Japan. The war ended before it was completed and the project was abandoned, but the road is still there. Most of the traffic on it is birders. Half way up you come to the Rainforest Resource Center, a well known birding destination in itself, but one of highlights of any birding trip to Panama is to walk the Pipeline Road in search of mixed feeding flocks and tropical specialities. If you are at the Canopy Tower for a 7 night bird experience, you will spend at least three mornings on the Pipeline Road, and probably visit the Ammo Ponds (along the road) for night creatures as well. I was only at the Tower for 5 days, and I did the Pipeline Road twice. My own experience of the Pipeline Road was disappointing, as both times it rained so hard we had to hike quickly back to bird-mobile, and then some of us had a very wet ride home in the open back of the truck, but that is the way birding Panama in the green season sometimes. We did manage (or our guide did manage) to find the roosting Great Pootoo along the lower section of the road…not in it usual spot. I have no idea how he saw it were it was, as there was only a tiny widow in the foliage where you get a clear view. He put the scope on it, and after everyone had had a good look, he moved the scope so I could stand in the one spot for this photo. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm, cropped and enlarged to get this image scale, and shot with multi-frame noise reduction to get detail in the low light of the canopy. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Nominal exposure ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .7EV.