John Avise is back with his last installment of Panamanian bird photos. His words and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Panama Birds, Part 5
This is the fifth and final in a WEIT mini-series of birds I photographed in Panama during a seminar trip in 2008. [JAC: Part 1 is here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here] Birds there were plentiful and diverse, but very hard to photograph due to the high humidity and poor lighting conditions of the dappled rainforest habitat.
Ruddy Ground Dove (Columbina talpacoti):
Rufescent Tiger Heron (Tigrisoma lineatum), adult:
Rufescent Tiger Heron, juvenile:
Rufous Motmot (Baryphthengus martii):
Rusty-margined Flycatcher (Myiozetetes cayanensis):
Scaly-breasted Hummingbird (Phaeochros cuvierii), female:
Scrub Greenlet (Mylophilus flavipes):
Snowy-bellied Hummingbird (Saucerottia edward):
Thick-billed Euphonia (Euphonia laniirostris):
Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus):
Gartered trogon (Trogon caligatus), (Trogon violaceus):
Violet-bellied Hummingbird (Damophila julie):
Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana):
Yellow-headed Caracara (Milvago chimachima):
Oh, I love these – the je ne sais quoi… seriously.
A gorgeous batch of photos.
That Gartered trogon is wearing quite a beautiful outfit!
The striped tail with the yellow body is such a lovely ensemble. Worthy of a fashion model.
Thank you for sharing such wonderful birds.
Another great set of photos – much appreciated.
Beautiful.
A feast for the eyes. Pictures of new world birds are always a special treat for this central European.
I had been waiting for this fifth set to say how spectacular this photo series has been under very difficult photography conditions. In today’s set, I love that you got the ‘racquets’ on the Motmot and of course the iridescence of the hummers. Thank you so much for all these beautiful birds!
Always a treat! I think herons deserve to become an internet meme, what with their zooo-oooop!! necks
Great photos, thanks! I especially like the Rufescent Tiger Heron.
I must say, you captured a truly staggering array of birds in Panama. I know the photographic conditions were challenging, but you managed just fine. Thanks for this wonderful 5-part series!
Thank you, John Avise, for this wonderful series of some of nature’s wonders. Looking forward to more of your work.
Happy Festivus, All!
As others have said…. just splendid! Thank you.
Panama birding is the easiest in the world or at least in the new world tropics (Australia is right up there too due to lack of underbrush). It has good mostly paved roads, clean drinking water, uses the US dollar, hasnt made headlines due to crime,(well, Colon may be an exception) and has two fantastic roads where you have to kick the birds out of the way: Achiote Road and Pipeline Road (the latter is now gated and you have to make arrangements to get in; after that it is nothing but birds all the way to the Caribbean). Achiote Road? birds crossing back and forth full time….maybe the best birding road in the world. And in the north part of Panama the quetzals are just waiting for you to come and take their photo.