Wednesday we woke up in time for a 4:30 AM breakfast, and a 5:00 AM departure to Cerro Azul, a weekend and retirement community west of Panama City and relatively high up in the mountains so it picks up different species than are found in the lowlands. We started at the home of a local Audubon member who puts out several Hummingbird feeders. In her yard alone we managed over 20 species including nine life birds of which five were hummingbirds including this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird:
Long-billed Starthroat
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer
Yellow-eared Toucanet
Violet-headed Hummingbird
Long-billed Gnatwren
Black-faced Antthrush
Scaly-breasted Wren
We then drove off to a different section of the community, and walked along a road where we tallied another 30+ species, including 15 more life birds:
Short-billed Pigeon
Carmiol’s Tanager
Yellow-crowned Euphonia
Bay-headed Tanager
Speckled Tanager
Hepatic Tanager
White-ruffed Manakin
White-vented Euphonia
Dusky-capped Flycatcher
Fulvous-vented Euphonia
Paltry Tyrannulet
Bicolored Antbird
Ocellated Antbird
Northern Barred-Woodcreeper
Plain-brown Woodcreeper
Ruddy Woodcreeper
Particularly lucky was encountering an army ant swarm that pulled in the last five of these, all of which we could have easily missed otherwise.
We also heard a Little Tinamou.
Then it was back to the house. This time though we walked down the mountain into the adjacent national park to a White-tipped Sicklebill lek. These are specially adapted Hummingbirds with long curved bills that only feed on Lobster-claw Heliconia flowers. And besides this we also added a couple more species around the house:
Green Hermit
White-tipped Sicklebill
Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant
After a late lunch of Arroz con Pollo, we started the drive back, but on the way the driver spotted #679, an Amazon Kingfisher, perched over some water.
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