The other side of Embera Vija

We returned to our canoes after birding the Dusky-backed Jacamar trail and disembarked at the Embera village - where the kids were photographed - on the other side of the river.  After a pre-lunch snack and a look over and purchases of a variety of woven pieces made by Embera women - (I'll post photos of my purchases in a later entry) - we walked another, again quite degraded, trail beyond the village.  By this time it was really hot and already beyond noon.  Our destination was a surprisingly large, and long, lagoon for a couple of target birds at the lagoon.   

Enroute another posed and cooperative Black-tailed Trogon (Trogon melanurus).  What a regal bird.  As I was clicking photos of this bird, I recalled a comment made by a participant on my first Costa Rica trip.  "I think trogons are boring.  They just sit there."  Well, I love trogons and I don't think they're boring.    

Three-toed sloth in the mid-day heat.  You can't really tell from my photo, but it was sitting directly in the sun.  I was so hot and sweaty that I wondered why any creature would select such a resting spot. Then I recalled that sloths need to stay warm and that this creature was basking - not unlike a painted turtle stretched out on a sunny log.

Above and below:  this was not my life American Pygmy Kingfisher (Chloroceryle aenea), but it was, by far, my best look and will probably remain my best lifetime look.  We were relatively close to this little bird - we on one side of a narrow part of the lagoon and the kingfisher perched on the other side.  But the light was poor and my photos of a little bird perched in deep shade are correspondingly poor.  Never mind; one of my favorite moments of the trip.

We did not find our other target bird, the Agami Heron (Agamia agami), for which the lagoon seemed to be perfect habitat. Paradoxically, some of us had already seen an Agami Heron where we should not have seen one on my first Costa Rica trip.

If the Agami Heron was a miss, we did see Cocoi Heron (Ardea cocoi) and Rufescent Tiger-Heron (Tigrisoma lineatum), neither of which I was able to photograph.

Above and below:  arguably our best bird along this trail, Bare-crowned Antbird (Gymnocichla nudiceps).  Thank goodness for this bird's bright blue head and black body visible in this blurry mess ...

... but below I resorted to my next best option.  The bird was vocalizing and I got video of this - one of my favorite video subjects.  Another nearby vocalizing bare-crowned antbird can also be heard.  And, especially in the beginning, my breathing is also heard.

The heat and time of day made the birding slow but we also saw butterflies and an interesting mantis that I'll post in separate entries later.

We returned to the village for lunch and more photos and then departed the Embera village after a completely great day.  It was hard to imagine how things could possibly be better.  On the canoe trip back Rhoda was sitting in the seat behind me and made a comment that I'll never forget.  "Cathy, if I ever call you up to complain about my life, please remind me of this day."

Embera Vija before lunch

The power came back on Sunday, the 12th, at 8:00 pm - after three nights of cold, bleak darkness.  It took me at least the next three days to warm up.  Needed to also catch up on picking up the storm debris, the laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, bill paying, work, etc., etc. Now it's St. Patrick's day.  Happy St. Patrick's Day.  I've torn myself away from the TCM channel where St. Patrick's Day is being celebrated.  It's time to blog again. 

To be chronological about this, I should have put this post before the kids because this was our first stop on our river boat ride.  But it doesn't matter.

Above and two below:  Dusky-backed Jacamars (Brachygalba salmoni) - one of our target birds and we saw them nearly straightaway after stepping out of the canoes and a short walk along the trail.

Above and two below (again, none are good, but I think the middle photo is best):  Maybe one of my favorite birds from the trip - Gray-cheeked Nunlet (Nonnula frontalis) - amazingly cute little bird.  We saw it again the following day, but this was my best photo-op.  It was tucked very nicely into tangles that had little openings for all to get photos.

The bird above is clearly a flycatcher, but I am not sure which.  I am going to stake my guess on Dusky-capped Flycatcher (Myiarchus tuberculifer).

Above and below:  Rufous-tailed Jacamar (Galbula ruficauda).  I was surprised when I actually studied the range map for this bird and saw how limited it is in Panama.

Perched so nicely and occasionally making its vocalization, I thought the Rufous-tailed Jacamar would make a good video subject, but my efforts above led to hilarious results - documented here for posterity.

There were a lot of good birds to see in this relatively small and quite botanically damaged area.  Above:  female Crimson-crested Woodpecker.

Above and below: my woefully inadequate photos of a very hard bird to see - White-bellied Antbird (Myrmeciza longipes).

  

This trail was our first stop (after the kingfisher boat ride) of an action-packed day.  We seemed to stay on it for only a short time and we saw the Dusky-backed Jacamar - one of our targets here - almost immediately.  Our other target, the Rufous-tailed Jacamar, was so cooperative that I think we were all left a little speechless.  Seeing such special birds so well is remarkable and memorable.   

No matter where you go ...

... kids are kids.

Little beauties.  I had a favorite from this group but won't say which.

Chucunaque River

Each morning began with a departure, often still in darkness, where we turned right from the Canopy Camp entrance road on to Carretera Panamericana - in Darién, una carretera bajo construcción mayor.

On Tuesday morning, February 7th, we drove to a small Embera village where we two boarded canoes (I guess properly classified as dugout canoes) with uniquely crafted seats.

Village dog.

Village home.

A swim before doing the laundry.

In the middle, our fantastic and fearless leader Domi Alveo.

Perhaps my favorite (tied with flycatchers) class of birds - this was our kingfisher morning.  Only six species of kingfishers are found in the Americas, all of which occur in Panama (p. 168, The Birds of Panama), and four of which we saw on this day.  Above:  Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryl americana) with fish - can't tell if male or female.  

Cattle in the Chucunaque River.

Male Green Kingfisher (C. americana).

This poorly photographed Whooping Motmot (Momotus subrufescens) is a testament to how few motmots we saw on this trip when compared with our canal zone trip last year.  It's also a reminder that all of these photos were taken from a motorized canoe...

... including this Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos).  I honestly don't know how I got this photo!

Above:  female Ringed Kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata).

Above:  can't tell if male or female Ringed Kingfisher.

Above:  Pied Water-Tyrant (Fluvicola pica), the only one we saw on the trip.

Above female and below male Amazon Kingfishers (C. amazona).  

  

While motoring on the river, I wasn't completely sensitive to the field marks of Amazon and Green kingfishers.  Size is the easy field mark that separates Amazon from Green kingfishers with Amazon being the much larger bird.  Unfortunately, size is not a good field mark for these photos.  Green kingfishers have wing speckles that do not show up in the two photos I have identified as green kingfisher.  I have a better photo of that here from our Tarcoles River trip in Costa Rica. Hopefully I guessed it correctly and identified both of my birds accurately.  

Camino a El Salto

This was another great road we drove for approximately 1.5 km out and back in the afternoon following our teak farm morning - full of good birds.  In just shy of three hours we found 35 species - and most of these very accessible for good views.

Above and four below:  a few of my selection of many White-necked Puffbird (Notharchus hyperrhynchus) photos.  Puffbirds often offer great photo opportunities as is evident with this bird.  It perched beautifully in the open about 15 feet from our vehicle.  It stayed and stayed, seemingly unperturbed, while eight birders in an open air truck all snapped photos.  Arguably this was my best photo-op of the whole trip.

The above photo is not cropped to reveal the background and openness of the bird.

I'm not sure how I missed taking a photo of the open truck - I'll call it our bush truck - that we rode in to bird these roads - a re-configured flatbed with two benches each facing the opposite direction, each bench fitting 4-5 people comfortably.  It was a clever design and very fun to bird from - especially in moments like those with our white-necked puffbird.

Another very cooperative viewing from the bush truck - adult Roadside Hawk (Buteo magnirostris).  This bird didn't stay quite as long at the puffbird, but we all managed a series of nice photos.

Cuipo tree - a very important tree in Panama.

Where the opportunities were good, we left the truck and walked. Above and below:  the mind-blowing male Blue Cotinga (Cotinga nattererii) offered gorgeous viewing.  It was perched high up so my photos are distant and not great, but through the spotting scope it appeared fantastical.  There were actually two; the other a male juvenile bird.  These are just two, one cropped the other not, of the innumerable photos taken as we walked closer and closer.  In fact, I don't recall that either bird ever did fly.  I think we left them.

Later in the week a female Blue Cotinga was seen by several others in the group.  I never did get on the female bird, but apparently it is as striking as the male bird, albeit differently so.

A pair of active Long-tailed Tyrants hunting for insects near their cavity nest site (Colonia colonus) competed for great viewing directly across the road from the Blue Cotingas.  Again, from many photos; none good, I selected the one above.

Near the cotingas and the tyrants we came to a stand-still spot where we picked out a variety of different birds; flycatchers, woodpeckers and others - none photographed by me because of height and challenging light conditions.  Arguably, the best of these was Streaked Xenops (Xenops rutilant).  Domi had seen streaked xenops only twice before. The range identified for streaked xenops in The Birds of Panama is teeny-tiny, but it is more likely that its range is poorly understood.  We saw another on our last day.  As eBird is more widely used by Panama birders, the Streaked Xenops' range may become larger.  

Above: hazy flyover Blue-headed Parrot (Pionus menstruus).

Above and below:  poor photos for sure, but I was thrilled they were this good.  As the sun set and we ended our day of birding on El Slato Road, Domi heard nearby Black-chested Jays (Cyanocorax affinis) and eventually called in five.  

I thought we saw far fewer sloths this trip and all were Three-toed. Perhaps it was just that the forests are larger and the sloths had more habitat in which to spread out.

Now it was truly dusk and as we transferred from the bush truck to the van we saw this pair of Lesser Kisskadees (Pitangus lictor) in a scrubby patch at the roadside and I got a few salvageable shots.  

Above:  the cab of our bush truck sans truck bed and benches.  I was trying to photograph the house across the street because there seemed to be a party going on.

The moon rose and our spectacular day of birding ended.