Posts in Category: Panama
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.
White-faced Capuchin
White-faced Capuchin Monkey: Panama Canal, Gamboa, Panama, July 2022 — While we took the tour boat on the Canal mostly to see birds, most people take a boat out of the marina at Gamboa to see monkeys. There are a few small islands just as the channel opens out into lake Gatun which are called, collectively, the Monkey Islands. On a good day, you can see three species of primates from a small boat. This is the White-faced Capuchin, with its impressive tail and expressive face. I am not certain just what the face expresses, but this is the typical Capuchin “look.” 🙂 Very serious. Perhaps a bit worried? We also saw the Mantled Howler, but we did not spend a lot of time looking for the Geoffory’s Tamarin on their island, since Tamarins are daily visitors to Canopy Tower where we were staying. I have to say, the views I got of Capuchins on the Canal were among the best I have ever gotten of this species. Sony Rx10iv at 447mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Proboscis Bat
Proboscis Bat: Panama Canal, Gamboa, Panama, July 2022 — I have seen Proboscis Bats from Honduras to Panama, and I probably saw them over the water at night on the Amazon in Peru. They live along streams and rivers all through the American tropics…and their unique roosting pattern…in a long line, nose to tail, down the underside of a branch over (or next to) water, makes them easy to identify. I have never been out with a river guide in Central America who does not have at least one roost to show off. 🙂 They are also sometimes called “Long-nosed Bats” but there are both Lessor and Greater (Mexican) Long-nosed Bats who already “own” that name. They do not have the interesting pattern of lines on the back that the Proboscis has, and are indeed both separate species. Sony Rx10iv at 207 and 600mm equivalents. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1600 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Greater Ani
Greater Ani: Panama Canal, Gamboa, Panama, July 2022 — Another new bird for me on this trip to Panama, the Greater Ani is a mostly South American bird who’s range reaches just to the Canal in Panama. This is one big ani! And, in good light, it has an interesting blue sheen to the body and wings. In Panama its range overlaps with both Smooth-billed and Grove-billed Ani, but it seems to be more closely associated with slow moving water…shallow lakes and rivers. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Limpkin!
Limpkin: Panama Canal, Gamboa, Pamana, July 2022 (near Canopy Tower) — From the numbers of Limpkins and Snail Kites seen along the Panama Canal, you would suspect that the waters are rich in Apple Snails…and indeed they are. The Limpkin is a tropical bird, common from the Amazon basin to Florida, wherever there are significant concentrations of Apple Snails…and it’s beak is adapted specifically to extract snails from their shells. It is the only member of its family…most closely related to rails and cranes. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Unexpected birds on the Canal: Magnificent Frigatebird and Brown Booby
Magnificent Frigatebird and Brown Booby: Panama Canal, Gamboa, Panama, July 2022 — Frigatebirds are common in the air over the Pacific coast of Panama but I did not expect to see them sitting on a buoy in the middle of the Canal. And even our guide did not expect to see the Brown Booby sitting with them. 🙂 That is part of the fun of birding of course…expecting the unexpected. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Frigatebird ISO 200 @ f4 @ 1/500th, Booby ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/800th.
Striated Heron
Striated Heron: Panama Canal, Gamboa, Panama (near Canopy Tower), July 2022 — I might have said this before, but I was surprised by the number of new birds I saw in Panama this trip. I have birded in Panama twice before, in Bocas del Toro both times, and I birded in extreme southern Costa Rica last December, but still there are a lot of birds I either missed, or that reach their northern limits in area of the Canal Zone in Panama. Turns out the Striated Heron is found pretty much all around the world in the tropics on either side of the equator, ranging further south in South American and Africa, and further north in Pacific Asia. It used to be considered the same species as the Green Heron, and if you lump the ranges of both birds that would extend the range to all of North America and Europe. Truly a bird found on every continent. I actually saw this same bird, according to some authorities, on the Galapagos, where it is called the Galapagos Heron. Those who still consider this heron to be a single species, wherever it is found, still call it the Green-backed Heron, which, if your birding memory goes back beyond the 1990s, is what we used to call the Green Heron when we saw one in North America. 🙂 Interestingly, on the Canal we saw both Green Herons and Striated Herons. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.