PANAMA 02-23 February 2024 taster

I was in Panama from 02-23 February, on a birding trip with Nick Preston, Paul Noakes and Barry Wright (excellent travelling companions). We were very capably led by Euclides "Kilo" Campos who was all round brilliant. It was a tough trip, mainly due to the very rugged terrain in Eastern Panama where we spent most time, but I survived. I'll produce several detailed blogs in due course but despite having been back for over two weeks I'm nowhere close to sorting out my photos (although so far have cut them down from almost 4000 to 500). I've still Birding Down Under blogs to complete too.

Here are a few of the Panamanian highlights I managed to take photos of. Paul and Barry would have done much much better with top of the range Canon and Olympus kit. I was using a Sony RX10 bridge camera I'd only had for a couple of weeks and a lot of the time it showed.

White-throated Mountaingem at Cerro Punto, a hummingbird endemic to the western Panamanian mountains

male Blue Cotinga at Nusagandi

Grey-cheeked Nunlet at Rio Torti

Crested Owl at Cerro Chucanti

Tody Motmot at Cerro Chucanti

Dusky-backed Jacamars near Metiti

Crested Eagle near Rancho Frio, Darien National Park

Wing-banded Antbird near Rancho Plastico in Darien National Park

Black-crowned Pittasoma above Rancho Frio, Darien National Park, my bird of the trip

Agami Heron near Rancho Frio, Darien National PArk

Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant near Rancho Frio

Barred Puffbirds in Saint Frances Reserve near Rio Torti

Black-crowned Antpitta at Nusagandi, a close Bird of the Trip runner up