Oct 20 2008
Los Quetzales: 4 Finches
Greetings from Tocumen International Airport, just east of Panama City. I’m about to fly home from a great week of travel and birding. The last few days have been devoid of internet access, so I’ve got a little catching up to do here.
I mentioned in the last post that there was more to the Los Quetzales than the hummingbirds. And indeed, the porches and patios of the cloud forest cabins are great places from which to watch for mixed flocks of warblers, treerunners, tanagers, vireos and many more.
Another group that is well-represented here is finches. A few handfuls of bird seed sprinkled along the garden edge brings a number of them into view. The mustard colored bird below is a Large-footed Finch, another of the Panama/Costa Rica highland endemics. It’s very towhee-like in its general bearing and behavior.
The Slaty Finch below looks a bit like a junco with an especially long bill.
A third finch, also slaty, but not a seedeater: the Slaty Flowerpiercer, which “steals” nectar from flowers with its uniquely church key shaped bill. It nips into the flower’s base, bypassing the elaborate pollen dispersal organs and goes straight for the sweet stuff.
Hummingbirds appear to not much care for flowerpiercers, and often harass them. But then, hummingbirds don’t appear to care for much, except flowers and flight.
The fourth and final finch I’ll share with you is my favorite. Sadly, I had the worst luck photographing this one. It’s the Yellow-thighed Finch, yet another Panama/Costa Rica endemic, and one that’s nearly impossible to describe without using the word, “comic.”
Watching these guys cavort through the undergrowth will put a smile on your face, for sure. Check out those yellow leggings!
Excellent photos! And sounds like a good trip: birders are sort of crazy that way … but in a good way.