Bocas Del Toro, Panama, March 2024: Part 3, Tropical Forest.

Female Blue Dacnis, Tranquilo Bay Lodge, Bocas Del Toro, Panama, March 6, 2024.

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In early March my wife and I traveled to Panama to visit the Bocas Del Toro region   on the northwest side of Panama on the Caribbean ocean. This post is the third and last on our trip, and covers some of the more remarkable birds we saw in the tropical forest regions.

Let's start with a pair of Blue Dacnis, foraging for insects near the lodge.

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Blue Dacnis

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Canon R6 with RF 100-500mm @ 472mm, 1/400 sec., f/7.1, ISO 4000, +0.33 EV.

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Blue Dacnis are members of the tanager family that live from Nicaragua through Panama and into  South America. They occupy wet forests and semi-open areas with scattered trees and shrubs. The range map from eBird it's to the right.

The male and female shown here are foraging for fruit and insects inside the open area of a large tree adjacent to the lodge, nicknamed "the magic tree" after the birds that seemed to suddenly appear there! 

The male, shown in the frames above and below, is a bright turquoise blue with  a black tail  and black markings on the wings with black around the eye and throat.

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This male is looking at the underside of the leaves for fruit, seeds, or insects. This tree, which really looked more like a gigantic bush, was relatively open on the inside making photography easier.

Blue Dacnis are non-migratory year round residents, as are most of the species featured in this post. 

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Canon R6 with RF 100-500mm @ 472mm, 1/640 sec., f/7.1, ISO 6400, +0.33 EV.

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Above and below is a female, green overall with a bluish head and paler throat. Blue Dacnis are quite brilliant with an almost neon appearance, even in subdued light.

Blue Dacnis frequently forage in pairs or small groups, and this case a female is joining the male.  

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 A lot of fun to watch and photograph!

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Jabiru

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Canon R7 with RF 100-500mm @ 500mm, 1/640 sec., f/9.0, ISO 2500, +0.67 EV.

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On March 3 we sailed across the bay to the mainland and rode in a Toyota Coaster partway up the mountain, spending a lot of time birding the fields and meadows. We were lucky to find this Jabiru in a swampy wetlands area.

Jabiru are huge storks of wet lowland areas of Central and South America. The species is relatively rare in Panama and we were very fortunate that our guides spotted him. See the eBird map to the right. 

Jabiru have a massive black bill  that curves slightly upwards at the tip. They have a bare black neck (no feathers) with a large red patch of the base, and entirely white plumage on the body. ​Jabiru are the tallest flying birds found in South and Central America,  and for the continent have the second largest wingspan after the Andean condor. Reference: Wikipedia.

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Jabiru feed on a variety of aquatic animals, including fish, frogs, snakes, young caimans and crocodiles, crabs and turtles.  They move their head and bill actively in shallow water splashing water to flush  prey which they then locate by sight or touch, clamping down on them with their large bills. They will eat critters up to several feet in length by throwing their heads back and swallowing them whole!

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Jabirus are solitary nesters, building massive platform nests in large trees which they often use year to year. They are often seen in pairs during the off-season suggesting a lifelong pair bond. Reference: Wikipedia.

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Mangrove Cuckoo

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Canon R7 with RF 100-500mm @ 200 mm, 1/640 sec., f/8.0, ISO 800, +0.33 EV.

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Mangrove Cuckoos are quiet, secretive residents of mangrove and lowland tropical forests from southern Florida to the Caribbean islands, coastal Mexico, and Central America. See the range map to the right. They are mostly brown with a yellow or gray eye-ring, a black mask, and a warm buff belly. 

Like other cuckoos, the Mangrove Cuckoo has four toes on each foot in a zygodactyl configuration, with two toes forward and two behind, unlike many other birds who have three-forward and one-back. Reference: Birds of the World. Recall that the Greater Roadrunner is also a cuckoo, leaving a distinctive "X" footprint, making one wonder if it is coming or going! Note that some birds, such as the Great Horned Owl, can pivot the fourth toe forward or back depending on their needs.

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The Mangrove Cuckoo is secretive and quiet, and very difficult to spot. We were fortunate on March 8th when our guides, Roger and Brenda, maneuvered the skiffs close to the mangrove trees and spotted this bird foraging in the trees. 

Mangrove Cuckoos eat insects, spiders, frogs, lizards, eggs and nestlings, as well as fruit, doing most of their foraging in the tree canopy where they quietly look for prey and then hop or fly to the spot to pick it off of the vegetation. Reference: All About Birds.
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Cocoa Woodcreeper

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Canon R6 with RF 100-500mm @ 500mm, 1/500 sec., f/7.1, ISO 5000, +1 EV.

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Cocoa Woodcreepers are song birds in the Furnariidae Family, also known as Ovenbirds. This family is a diverse collection of songbirds from Central to South America with a variety of nest types, bill shapes, and habitats. These woodcreepers should not be confused with the Brown Creeper we see in Arizona which is in the family Certhidae, consisting of small bark probing birds found in forests across the northern hemisphere. 

The Cocoa Woodcreeper lives in the lowlands of Central America and northwestern South America. See the eBird map above.  They eat insects and other arthropods taken from tree trunks and occasionally frogs and small lizards. In the images above and below our subject is "creeping" up the tree looking for lunch!  (References: Wikipedia and Birds of the World). 

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White-browed Gnatcatcher

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Canon R7 with RF 100-500mm @ 500mm, 1/400 sec., f/7.1, ISO 3200, +0 EV.

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White-browed Gnatcatchers are in the family Polioptilidae along with other gnatcatchers in North, Central, and South America. See the eBird map to the right.

They feed on small insects in subtropical and tropical forests hopping from branch to branch in constant motion, cocking up their tails, as seen in these images.  Males have a black crown extending to the eye, nape and sides of the neck. The female's crown is gray, blending in with the back. The bird shown here is a male.

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Red-capped Manakin

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Canon R7 with RF 100-500mm @ 500mm, 1/400 sec., f/7.1, ISO 16,000, +0.33 EV.

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The Red-capped Manakin is in the family Pipridae (manakins), colorful birds found in neotropical forests where they feed largely on fruits. (Reference: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology, Third Edition). The species is probably best known for the male's courting behavior whereby he shuffles rapidly backwards across a branch akin to a speedy moonwalk. (Wikipedia). Unfortunately moonwalking was not on his schedule this day!

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The males are velvety black with a bright red head and bright yellow thighs (not seen here), a powder yellow chin and wing linings. The female, (not shown here) looks distinctively different, being olive green above with yellow green underparts and a brown Iris, in contrast to the white iris seen here on the male.

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Red-capped Manakins are frugivores, feeding almost exclusively on fruit. For more on frugivores, see my first post in this series,  . . .Part 1, Mountains

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Photographing a black bird with a bright red head in low light is a challenge! The series shown above and below attempts to show detail in both the head and the body. 

​For the Photo Geeks: This is where a stacked sensor with low noise and high dynamic range would be really helpful.

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Prothonotary Warbler

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Canon R7 with RF 100-500mm @ 363mm, 1/1000 sec., f/8.0, ISO 12,800, +0.33 EV.

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All the birds we have seen so far are residents of the tropics of Central/South America, with no definitive migratory patterns.  However, here we see a migrant, the Prothonotary Warbler, who winters to the south on the Atlantic coast and breeds in the N.E. United States. See the range map to the right, from All About Birds.

The Prothonotary Warbler is golden yellow with a black eye and blue-gray wings. It is a cavity* (tree) nester along rivers of the northeast U.S. and is a denizen of mangrove forests in its southern reaches.  

Prothonotary Warblers eat insects, as well as snails and mollusks. During the non- breeding season they will eat fruit and seeds as well. 

The male is brilliant yellow as shown in the first frame above, the female is similar but a bit paler with a crown and nape washed with green (Ref: All About Birds). Below we may be seeing two males, or perhaps a female to the left. Although their main fare is insects, they are enjoying the bananas put out each day at the lodge. 

* There are only two species of warbler that are cavity nesters, the Prothonotary Warbler and, one of Tucson's favorites,  Lucy's Warbler. 

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Below, the careful observer will notice that the gray and yellow bird on the left does not look like a Prothonotary Warbler, rather it is a Bananaquit. The name derives from its yellow color (banana) and the English world quit, referring to a small passerine (songbird) of tropical America.  

Bananaquits were in abundance at the lodge feeders. They feed on primarily on nectar, with some fruit and a few insects. 

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Tropical Kingbird

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Canon R7 with RF 100-500mm @ 500mm, 1/1000 sec., f/7.1, ISO 1000, 0 EV.

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Our last bird is the Tropical Kingbird, a resident of coastal Mexico, Central America and large areas of South America, with just enough northern migration to make it into Arizona each summer! 

Note the range map to the right (All About Birds). Blue is for year round populations, with orange representing breeding. Of interest is that for this species breeding extends both north and south into cooler summer climes.​

Tropical Kingbirds are tyrant flycatchers, catching insects on the fly from a prominent perch. The images here were captured near our hotel in Panama City, close to the Panama Canal. 

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Canon R7 with RF 100-500mm @ 500mm, 1/2500 sec., f/7.1, ISO 5000, +0.33 EV.

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Panamanian White-faced Capuchin

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Canon R6 with RF 100-500mm @ 238mm, 1/1600 sec., f/7.1, ISO 32,000, 0 EV.

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Let's close with a family photo of two of the early morning regulars at the lodge as we sipped coffee and ate breakfast. Panamanian White-faced Capuchins are New World monkeys native to the forests of Central America. They eat fruit, invertebrates and small vertebrates. Like other frugivores they are important for the ecology of the forest as dispersers of seeds and pollen. 

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Well, that's it for Panama!  
Be back posting on SE Arizona soon. Spring is here and summer is approaching! 

​Happy Trails! 

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