Must Listen: Yellow-rumped Caciques

Check out this short clip of yellow-rumped caciques (pronunciation here) in full display mode--you must listen to this crazy sound! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_bDMRspdlU[/youtube]

I'm in the process of editing video and photos from Panama...wow, HD video takes up a lot of space on my poor laptop, but I got some cool stuff.  Panama is a birding wonderland. I've been to several places and I have enjoyed them all, but the birding at Canopy Lodge and Canopy Tower is top tier. I love it because you get a little of everything--natural history, mammals, plants, even cultural history if you want it.

I enjoyed it so much, that I'm going to put together a tour to head there next year. I'm looking at February 2011 but if anyone already knows that they'd love to go and wants to request dates, I'm open.  I have to go back and I love the idea of doing an International Birds and Beers.  If you are remotely on the fence about going to Panama, my future blog entries will change your mind. Definitely in my top three birding places.

Hot New Bird House

The new standard in bird houses: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u08oJJh5SKk[/youtube]

Stop! Coati Time!

A coati eating a palm fruit on the road outside of Canopy Tower: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yVNLEl8quE[/youtube]

Dear Non Birding Bill

Dear Non Birding Bill, We've given this whole marriage thing one heck of a try.  I'm a birder, you're not and hilarity ensues, we've put in a good eleven years and are closing in on 12--we've given it the old college try. However, after spending some time in Panama, I regret to inform you that I most likely will not be returning home.

First of all, the feeder birds are off the hook--here we have a green honeycreeper (creeping up on some bananas) that I got with the Wingscapes camera coming in to Canopy Lodge.  What can I say, I'm in love with this crazy green fella.  The temperatures at the lodge are surprisingly cool, although humid, but I think I can live with that for the sake of such colorful birds.

You might think that I'm bluffing since I love the brown birds so much, but never fear there are brown birds here too.  Above we have a couple of broad-bill euphonia next to a very brown clay-colored robin (with blue-gray tanagers in the back).  And look at the mashed banana stuck on the bottom mandible of the euphonia--such lovely bird shenanigans.

At the moment, I'm at Canopy Tower and this is the view from the top--look at those mountains covered in green.  I love snow, but living in Minnesota, I've experienced my share.  I think all this green will suit me.

And in the morning, there are toucans to serenade me.  They have yet to use their noses to direct me to sugary rings of cereal or to any dark Irish stout, but they are pleasant to see lurking about the canopy.  And life here is leisurely! We start with an early breakfast, do some birding, come back for lunch, have a siesta, do a tiny bit more of birding, have dinner, maybe a drink and then off to bed to begin the day anew.  I love this birding with breaks--it's so relaxing, no more of this go and go and go and go all day for me--I'm all for this imposed afternoon napping system.

I'm typing this to you from the comfort and security of my hammock, where my digiscoping equipment is at the perfect angle to catch whatever may fly by the open window...

...or swing by as did this howler monkey who is working its way in the trees around the tower.  So we are clear, it's not that I'm leaving you for Raúl Arias de Para ( the man who owns Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge and turned them into a birder's version of Disney Land) he has a lovely wife.  I'm not even leaving you for my guide Carlos (even though he did give me a great poptoo yesterday).

Think of this as me joining a birding order along the lines of a strange nunnery where all I do is go out into the rainforest, find birds and taking photos of them like this above linneated woodpecker (and in the case of the tinamou, take video).  It's been fun and I appreciate all the times you tried to enjoy birds. Go out and find yourself a nice girl who isn't covered in chigger bites.

Love, Birdchick

Sloth: The Cutest Of 7 The Deadly Sins

Because I have so many sloth photos, I have to post a bit more on them--right?  I know this is a birding blog, but c'mon--sloths are so cool, so iconic, attention must be paid!  I wonder, are they big enough to be considered charismatic megafauna?  They are bigger than many mammals and they have a lot of charisma...

We would have walked right under the sloth completely unawares by Tino our guide from Canopy Lodge.  In all the excitement, I forget what bird we had just been watching when Tino nonchalantly pointed upwards and said, "Sloth." Our small group went bonkers and rightfully so.  We jockeyed scopes and necks to get in the perfect position to view the sloth and I wanted to get photos.

First, it took a while to get an angle where the face was easy to see.  Second, being sloth, they move rather slowly, it's going to take awhile for that head to move your way. My first several photos are of sloth tocks.

But for a sloth, this one was incredibly active and thanks to him for being in this position, we found out he was a male--apparently male sloth have this kind of shaven patch with a stripe and orange fur.  It almost looked like he had some sort of odd tattoo.

But as I said, he was active and so when he would and face us, he had a knack obscuring that beautiful and aimiable looking face with leaves.  Dear sloth, you are doing a terrible job of living up to your species name.

Gradually, he moved to a more open spot, this time with branches, but at least no leaves and you could see that awesome sloth face.

Then he found a spot and began a slow errand of scratching various parts of his body.  He used those long three toes (incidentally, Tino said that he was a brown-throated sloth), you could practically hear him go, "Eh, eh, eh" as he scratched.

Incidentally and yet appropriately, the BBC has a story of a sloth that was probably killed by a spectacled owl in Panama.  Harpy eagles will go for sloth, but a spectacled owl is much smaller and this is quite interesting.  Follow the link to read more.

Birds Nomming Bananas

Thanks to that Wingscapes Cam, I now have an inordinate amount of clay-colored thrush photos--most of them om nom noming bananas.  I have so many that I may have to create a gallery or animated gif when I get home.  There will be other species too but my goodness--there are tons of big brown robins down here.

More Canopy Lodge Feeders

Here is a video from the Wingscapes Camera I put up at Canopy Lodge of a green honeycreeper and a pair of broad-billed euphonia eating bananas--how soon will that trend start sweeping the North American bird feeder crowd? [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9SQozoBiWQ[/youtube]

Canopy Lodge Feeders

Broad-billed Euphonias at the banana feeder at Canopy Lodge taken with the Wingscapes Cam: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0nARhNZtOc[/youtube]

Crowmageddon (feat. Shaz)

Hello all, NBB here. WCCO did a story about the crow roost in Loring park, featuring a brief exchange with our own Birdchick (via Skype in Panama). You can watch the story here.

I'd just like to point out that it was me who told le Shaz that the crows were roosting in Loring.

Leisurely Birding At Canopy Lodge

I am in love with birding at Canopy Lodge! Right now I am blogging from the outdoor library while being serenaded by a rushing stream, frogs and something that sounds like a screech owl but I just learned is actually a type of toad, a bufo marinus (Yo, Non Birding Bill--that's a Cane Toad to you--lol).  The birding is leisurely, this is not like one of the media trips that I sometimes take and it's go go GO!  There's ciesta time between trips, there's decent internet access, there are things like a herd of blue-gray tanagers at the feeders:

I can't believe it has taken me this long to figure out to bring the Wingscapes camera on my trips.  It took over 1300 photos today and most of them are awesome--check out all those freakin' blue-gray tanagers.  There were a total of 20 in this particular flock.  It's like a tray full of bluebirds.

I think the guides here are going to spoil me rotten.  Today, our guide Tino (who is a living, breathing iPod, he can whistle just about every bird in Panama) got all of us our target birds.  As soon as he had his scope set on a bird, he'd set mine up in three seconds flat--and my scope is a different brand.  I was able to digiscope way more this trip because of him.

Like this blue-capped motmot that Tino found lurking in the canopy.  I hardly saw motmots on my trip to Guatemala (heard them like crazy, but rarely saw them).  Today, my first day, I have seen three.  I'm going to hold off on photos of the other two in the hopes that I get better ones.

The views when we can see through the canopy are outstanding, we're surrounded by mountains and humidity--good grief, my hair hasn't been this big since 1992.  That's the nice thing about humidity for me.  My hair can go either straight or wavy depending on the type of product I put in, so I usually have to decide what to do with my hair in the morning.  Here, humidity decides for me and doesn't take "no" for an answer.  Everything is so green and so noisy.  In Minnesota, all is white and silent: no leaves rustling in wind, the water is all frozen so no babbling stream--same goes for frogs and toads.  Ah, nature noise, I love it so.

And, I was going to hold off an showing this photo but I'm too excited:

I haven't been in Panama for 24 hours and I walked under a wild sloth and digiscoped the cute little bugger!  And you can that this is a three toed sloth.  Oh sloth, you look so amiable, so unlike the disapproving rabbit I come home to every night.  It moved slow, it stretched up, it half-heartedly scratched its wrist (which makes me now wonder if sloth ever get bot flies), it just did all the slothy things you would hope a sloth would do on a nature program.  I wanted to ask for his autograph.  I can't believe we got a sloth so soon.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow (and the rest of my time here holds).  Be prepared for random photos from my Wingscapes Cam.  I have lots and need to share.