I’ve talked about my house and the birds before, but they really are remarkable.
I live in a little island of green in the middle of Panama City. Our neighborhood used to be on the edge of the city, but is now surrounded – but there’s only two roads and they end in cul-de-sacs so we don’t get much traffic. Which hasn’t stopped developers from throwing up high-rise condos everywhere, but my landlord’s family has owned the land my house is on for at least two generations and we have some of the few remaining two and three story buildings, plus an extensive garden filled with trees – especially fruit trees. There’s mango, several varieties of citrus (lemon, mandarin, some sort of sour orange/lime), avocado, something that might be custard-apple, plus the usual palms and a mahogany that constantly drops seeds and branches on my roof (sounds like someone dumping bricks on it, really). On the other side of the hill is the University of Panamá so we’re on the edge of a green corridor that would reach all the way to Parque Metropolitano if it weren’t for Transistmica (a highway with three lanes in each direction). But the road isn’t really a barrier to the birds.
These are just a few more visitors I’ve had in the garden:
A pair of ground doves making love in the pine tree. I’m fairly sure they are Ruddy Ground doves (Columbina talpacoti).
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A Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum), hanging out in the avocado tree. You can see a somewhat blurry custard-apple in the background. These guys are really common – they build their nests in the dead leaves hanging below the crowns of some palm trees (also under the eaves of houses). I see them all the time in the trees outside my office window (and always feel badly for them when the maintenance crews trim off the dead leaves).
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A Crimson-backed Tanager (Ramphocelus dimidatus), looking all dramatic and backlit. You tan tell it’s a male because of the white sided beak. The males also have much more distinct red and black coloring compared to the females. These guys looooove the back yard. Sometimes we have whole flocks of them – especially when the custard-apple is ripe (seriously, I’ve never gotten to try the fruit because the birds and squirrels always get to it first).
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I’m fairly sure this is a female White-shouldered Tanager (Tachyphonus luctuosus), although I suck at identifying anything that’s not super common or really distinctive, so someone who knows better should correct me. The females don’t have the white bars on their wings that give the species it’s common name. The males are black with the white bars (so pretty distinctive) but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the garden. The females are obviously much less distinctive – and the sheer number of yellow and grey/brown birds in Central America is staggering.
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I don’t know what it is that produces these cascades of purple flowers – it seems to be some sort of vine or epiphyte that’s growing on top of the custard-apple. The hummingbirds love it though. I can’t tell you what kind of humming bird this is – but it’s probably a Rufous-tailed hummingbird (Amazillia tzacatl) like Earl. They are the most common in gardens around Panama City.
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This guy refused to sit still and pose – he kept hiding behind the tangle of branches in the sour-orange tree. I’m fairly sure he’s a Variable Seedeater (Sporophila americana hicksii) but see above re: Lyra sucks at identification.
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The housekeeping moves apace. I’ll probably get one of the old posts cleaned up per week. I’ve given up on trying to get wordpress to actually recognize html – it seems to result in just completely stuffing up my the formatting of the page. So much for framing. Ciao.
Posted in Panamá
Tags: birds, home, panama
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