Our First Host

We spent our first night at the Cerro Azul house on September 24th, and a Rufous-capped Warbler was the first bird we saw the next morning. We heard and/or saw it every day until we left, and consider it our first host at the property.


We had precious little time for birding during the 5 full days we were in Panama on this trip.

Sunday morning I heard a little flock coming through the trees, so I went outside and a young female Canada Warbler popped out from behind a leaf. I called to Les, and he rushed out to check the action. Among the other species were at least 2 Black-and-white Warblers, a Red-eyed Vireo, a Tropical Gnatcatcher, several Golden-hooded Tanagers, a family group of Bay-headed Tanagers, a few Blue-gray Tanagers. It was a fun 15-minute break for us.

Other regulars in the yard this week are Red-crowned Woodpecker, Hepatic Tanagers and Yellow-faced Grassquits. Heard-only birds include Keel-billed Toucans and Western Slaty Antshrikes daily, and a Tropical Screech-Owl nightly - right outside the bedroom window. And we saw an American Redstart a couple days ago. We looked at several other houses that had far better habitat than this one has, and we felt a little sorry for ourselves that those houses did not work out for us. So we are heartened that the yard here is turning out to be productive for the birds and for us.