FIELD REPORT – Panama’s Canopy Tower and El Valle’s Canopy Lodge January 4-16, 2019 Orange-bellied Trogon © Ruthie Stearns Blue Cotinga © Dave Taliaferro Geoffroy’s Tamarin © Don Pendleton Ocellated Antbird © Carlos Bethancourt White-tipped Sicklebill © Jeri Langham Prepared by Jeri M. Langham VICTOR EMANUEL NATURE TOURS, INC. 2525 WALLINGWOOD DR., AUSTIN, TX 78746 Phone: 512-328-5221 or 800-328-8368 / Fax: 512-328-2919 [email protected] / www.ventbird.com Myriads of magazine articles have touted Panama’s incredible Canopy Tower, a former U.S. military radar tower transformed by Raúl Arias de Para when the U.S. relinquished control of the Panama Canal Zone. It sits atop 900-foot Semaphore Hill overlooking Soberania National Park. While its rooms are rather spartan, the food is Panama’s Canopy Tower © Ruthie Stearns excellent and the opportunity to view birds at dawn from the 360º rooftop Observation Deck above the treetops is outstanding. Twenty minutes away is the start of the famous Pipeline Road, possibly one of the best birding roads in Central and South America. From our base, daily birding outings are made to various locations in Central Panama, which vary from the primary forest around the tower, to huge mudflats near Panama City and, finally, to cool Cerro Azul and Cerro Jefe forest. An enticing example of what awaits visitors to this marvelous birding paradise can be found in excerpts taken from the Journal I write during every tour and later e- mail to participants. These are taken from my 17-page, January 2019 Journal. On our first day at Canopy Tower, with 5 of the 8 participants having arrived, we were touring the Observation Deck on top of Canopy Tower when Ruthie looked up and called my attention to a bird flying in our direction...it was a Black Hawk-Eagle! I called down to others on the floor below and we watched it disappear into the distant clouds. About that time, the group being led by Alexis came up to see it, and he spotted an adult King Vulture flying in our direction! What a great start for those already here today. At the feeders at the bottom of Canopy Tower we saw White-necked Jacobin, White-vented Plumeleteer, Blue-chested and Violet-bellied hummingbirds and Long- billed Hermit. Our walk down Semaphore Hill was very productive, bringing us a cooperative pair of Fasciated Antshrikes, Black-crowned Antshrike, Dot-winged and Dusky antbirds, a dazzling male Blue-crowned Manakin, diminutive Black-headed Tody- Flycatcher, Blue-black Grosbeak, and many more. After the snacks, we ran into an army ant swarm with its attendant species signaled by the Bicolored Antbirds chattering away. In attendance were Plain-brown and Cocoa woodcreepers; Northern Barred- Woodcreeper; two Slaty-tailed Trogons; a very cooperative pair of Broad-billed Bicolored Antbird © Don Pendleton White-whiskered Puffbird © Don Pendleton Motmots; Gray-headed and White-shouldered tanagers; Checker-throated Antwren; White-whiskered Puffbird; and, best for me, the Ocellated and Spotted antbirds. This flock kept us racing back and forth until Tatiana arrived at noon to drive us back up to the Canopy Tower for lunch and a siesta. Upon arrival at Metropolitan National Park, we soon had a female Brown- throated Three-toed Sloth in view and I gave a mini lecture on the life cycle of the moths in the fur on its back. We picked up Yellow-backed Oriole and a juvenile Double-toothed Kite before heading up the hill and seeing another Great Tinamou. A Black-throated Trogon pair was seen by the first curve. As we reached the resting area, Carlos put us Great Tinamou © Dave Taliaferro Blue Dacnis © Dave Taliaferro on a Common Potoo that allowed photos. Further up the hill we found a male Gartered Trogon and as we watched it, a Crane Hawk flew in and chased it off. As we entered the flat stretch we had a nice flock that included Blue Dacnis, Green Shrike-Vireo, Tropical Gnatcatchers, White-winged Becard, Streaked Flycatcher, and more. A nice male Red-throated Ant-Tanager let most of us see it. Our visit to the Discovery Center and Pipeline Road began with a Rufous-crested Coquette above the entrance fee building and Purple-throated Fruitcrows that were called in as we approached the locked gate. Usually, the Streak-chested Antpitta takes a long time to call close enough to try to see, but today Carlos spotted one on the forest floor as we were walking. On a subsequent visit to Pipeline Road a few days later Streak-chested Antpitta © Carlos Bethancourt Pheasant Cuckoo © Carlos Bethancourt Carlos found the Pheasant Cuckoo that we only heard two days ago. We were all able to see it and get photographs, too. I have only seen this species once and only heard it once in the previous 22 tours, so this was an incredible treat for all. Pipeline Road is one of the best places to locate a number of difficult-to-see Neotropical specialties. The next rare one was a Great Potoo as we crossed the first bridge. We saw the Common Potoo yesterday, so this lucky group has now seen both. This was our day to see two new trogons: Black-tailed and White-tailed, but we would also see Black-throated and hear Gartered again. Having seen Slaty-tailed a few days ago we now have seen all possible trogons in this area of Panama. Common Potoo © Don Pendleton Black-throated Trogon © Carlos Bethancourt All chugged up the 175 steps of the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center’s Observation Tower where we spent about 2 hours seeing such species as Blue-headed and Red-lored parrots; Keel-billed Toucan; Scaled Pigeon; White-necked and Black- breasted puffbirds; Crane Hawk; an immature Yellow-headed Caracara; Moustached Antwren; Yellow-backed Oriole; and a flyby Capped Heron. At 9:00 a.m. we made our way down and then began our walk to Lake Calamito, and shortly we were looking at the smallest passerine bird in the world, Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant. This species is usually seen up in the top of the highest trees, so we were very lucky to call it down for closer looks. We had not expected to run into another army ant swarm with its attendant birds but what a show they put on for us over the next hour with Red-throated Ant-Tanagers, Bicolored, Spotted, and Ocellated antbirds, Gray- headed Tanager, and from the observation deck at Lake Calamito Greater Ani, Lesser Kiskadee, Muscovy Duck and Wattled Jaçana. Gray-headed Tanager © Don Pendleton Wattled Jaçana © Don Pendleton We rode in the open vehicle to Summit Ponds finding single Rufous and Broad- billed motmots together on the way down the hill along with a Panamanian Night Monkey looking out of its home in a tree cavity. Then the wonderful day became better as Carlos spotted an Agami Heron. I have only seen one other in my 22 previous tours. It has the longest bill of all herons in the world. We saw four species of kingfishers, with the tiny American Pygmy Kingfisher being my favorite. Further down the trail we saw Slate-colored Seedeater (3rd seen in 23 years), Jet Antbird, Purple-crowned Fairy, and Cinnamon Woodpecker, and we heard White-bellied Antbird. What an incredible afternoon outing. Panamanian Night Monkey © C. Bethancourt American Pygmy Kingfisher © Don Pendleton The wonderful home of Jerry and Linda Harrison, along with its fantastic setting and the nectar, rice and banana feeders by the back porch, provides a hummingbird show that defies description. Dozens of hummingbirds were fighting for space at the 10 nectar feeders during our visit. Diversity was excellent as we saw 7 hummingbird species: Crowned Woodnymph, Bronze-tailed and White-vented plumeleteers, White- necked Jacobin and Rufous-tailed, Blue-chested, and Snowy-bellied hummingbirds. The dazzling colors of several Red-legged, Shining, and Green honeycreepers were stunning. Thick-billed Euphonias, Bananaquits, and Hepatic Tanager added to the Red-legged Honeycreeper © Dave Taliaferro Green Honeycreeper © Carlos Bethancourt spectacle. Black-cheeked Woodpeckers and several Yellow-faced Grassquits, as well as Blue-gray, Palm and Crimson-backed tanagers, made it difficult to leave this little paradise. Black-cheeked Woodpecker © Carlos Bethancourt Crimson-backed Tanager © Ruthie Stearns Today we did our checklist before dinner because it was our night to do the spotlighting adventure. It was super productive as we started with a sleeping Great Tinamou, and before returning we saw Common Opossum (2), Olingo (2), Kinkajou (1), Central American Wooly Opossum (1), Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth (2), Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth (1), sleeping Mealy Parrots (2) and heard one Common Pauraque. Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth © J. Langham Mantled Howler Monkeys © Dave Taliaferro I was up on the Observation Deck by 6:00 a.m. since it was our last morning at the Canopy Tower. A number of Mantled Howler Monkeys were howling to proclaim their family group had survived the night and two were very close to the tower. Several Collared Forest-Falcons and one Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon called in the distance. As always the “can’t see me” Green Shrike-Vireos were calling and indeed we saw none. A close Scaled Pigeon was photographed and then all Hell broke loose as I spotted a huge raptor in a tree below the ridgeline across from us. I immediately thought it would be a young Harpy Eagle since they have been seen from the Observation Deck. But the field marks of the perched bird and the underwings when it flew away confirmed it was a Crested Eagle, a bird never reported from the Canopy Tower! Crested Eagle © Don Pendleton Crested Eagle © Jeri Langham Our first stop today in the Altos del María area near Canopy Lodge was incredible.