Boquete, Panama Day 7

April 7

We were ready early and went to wait out front in the parking lot for Rolando. We waited half an hour before calling the company to see where Rolando was. They said they would contact him and have him call us. While we were waiting the owner of the Inn came by and said that Rolando was there yesterday waiting for us. So, since we realized there was a mix-up and Rolando still hadn’t called we proceeded to drive to the cloud forest area to find the start of the Quetzal Trail and bird on our own.

It was a beautiful day, a bit cool at first up there. I was glad I had my windbreaker. As on the start of the Quetzal trail in Volcan, there were a lot of nesting Redstarts. We also kept hearing this very interesting bird call. No matter how hard we looked we didn’t see anything that was making that sound. Quite by luck, Greg spotted this large bird moving about way back in the “jungle”. Finally, he got a decent look at it and managed to get a couple of not great shots of it. I saw it in my binoculars and we both said that should be easy to identify. It was quite unique. When we stopped to have a snack later, Greg searched on his phone (bird ap) and we learned it was a Three-wattled Bellbird. There must have been a lot of them since we heard their call all along the trail. We also saw a lot of butterflies and a few  houses along the way. Cows, goats and sheep too!

 Collared Redstart

 there were low hedges of these growing wild along the trail

 Olive-Striped Flycatcher

 Three-wattled Bellbird (way back in the forest)

 Three-wattled Bellbird (way back in the forest)

 Acorn Woodpecker

 Acorn Woodpecker

 Acorn Woodpecker

 Black-thighed Grosbeak

Rufous-collared Sparrow 

Rufous-collared Sparrow 

 Yellow-bellied Siskin

 

 We came across a guide with a lady and they had stopped to look up at something. I got by binoculars up just in time to see a male quetzal fly away. I stopped to chat with the guide and he commented his customer was not very strong. She also just stood waiting for him to find the bird back. We had a short conversation in “Spanglish”.

When we stopped at a river with a bridge to have a snack we found an American Dipper gathering moss from the river for the nest under the bridge. We turned around at this point and hiked back.

 Orange Mapwing

 fungi on a tree trunk

 American Dipper pair were collecting moss from the stream for their nest under the bridge

 American Dipper

 American Dipper

 White-stitched Metalmark

 American Dipper in the stream

 White-stitched Metalmarks

 

White-stitched Metalmarks & Daggerwing

 Collared Redstart

 Collared Redstart

 Red-faced Spinetail

 field of calla lillies

 chicken & dog eating chicken feed from the tire

 ?

 Purple-throated Mountain-gem Hummingbird

 Purple-throated Mountain-gem Hummingbird

 female Black-throated Green Warbler?

On the way back we heard the call of a Quetzal. We found a female and saw several flying back and forth. There were at least 2 or 3 females and 3 or 4 males. One was missing his tail. Another guide came by and said that often in nesting season they lose their long tail feathers since they don’t fit well in the nest. Or he could be a young one that hadn’t grown in yet. So, we saw around 8 or 9 Quetzals today alone! The group was flying about and they weren't sitting still long so it was hard to get good photos. Plus, they eventually flew into a very thick area of the forest.

 Resplendent Quetzal - male

 Resplendent Quetzal - male

 Resplendent Quetzal - male (note the missing long tail)

 Resplendent Quetzal - male (note the missing long tail)

 Resplendent Quetzal - female

 Resplendent Quetzal - female

 Resplendent Quetzal - female (hey, is my head on backwards???)

Resplendent Quetzal - male (missing tail)

Today we had a late lunch at Sugar & Spice. We also picked up a couple of desserts for after dinner. 

 

 After lunch we went back to the bridge on the Lost Waterfall Trail and still did not see much. (3^rd time since we were told it’s normally good birding there).

 bridge on the way to Hidden Waterfall Trail

 bridge on the way to Hidden Waterfall Trail

 bridge on the way to Hidden Waterfall Trail

 bridge on the way to Hidden Waterfall Trail

 Black-faced Solitaire

 Common Chlorospingus

 Common Chlorospingus eating a grub



After happy hour at the hotel we went to Mike’s Global Grill for dinner. Unfortunately, it was “open mike” night and it was so loud that the server had to write down our order to make sure she heard it right. Food was quite good though. We found out later that the owners met in Antarctica where the wife wintered over 5 times. She was a Physician’s Assistant and he was a cook.

 

We went back to the hotel to start packing up and to eat our dessert. I really was not ready to leave yet. We had such a great birding trip. We estimate (still identifying a few) that we saw around 45 new species which brings us to over 400 species since we have been here in Panama. (including some we saw on our 2 prior trips here before moving)