Flowerpiercers

Most of the flowerpiercers in the genus Diglossa, which currently includes 14 species, are found in the highlands of South America. Two species occur in Central America, including the Cinnamon-bellied Flowerpiercer (Diglossa baritula) of which the male is pictured above.

As the common name suggests, these birds are nectarivorous. Because they feed on the same substrate, they're often found with hummingbirds, but instead of hovering in front of a flower and inserting a long bill, these birds have developed a different strategy. They perch at the base of the flower and with their uniquely shaped bill pierce a little hole in it, allowing them access to the flower's nectar that way.

Here's the duller female of the same species. (Clicking on the photo for a bigger view will reveal that this particular individual has a sizable tick feeding on the lower edge of her eye.) I photographed these birds last week in Monte Uyuca, Honduras, where I assisted Roselvy, Carlos and Vicky in SalvaNATURA's bird monitoring project. This is a monthly bird banding effort that started in January of this year, and which has been covered before in this blog. We banded about 75 birds there this time - but no flowerpiercers. A few months ago, we caught a ton of hummingbirds and quite a few flowerpiercers. This time around, only three hummers (two Green-breasted Mountain-gems and one Magnificent Hummingbird). Nearly all the hummingbirds and flowerpiercers, it seems, had moved 500-800 m downslope from the net lanes, for that is where I found these birds to be abundant this week. I even saw a male Cinnamon-bellied Flowerpiercer with one of our bands, about 600 m from the banding site.

It's possible that I banded this bird myself, although it is more likely to have been banded by either Roselvy or Carlos. Roselvy has been on all eight banding trips to the site, Carlos on seven I believe, while I have accompanied them on five. Altitudinal migration is well-known among tropical nectarivorous birds, as they opportunistically move from one area where flowers are blooming this month, to another area next month.

Once thought to be related to the sparrows and buntings of the New World, recent studies have shown flowerpiercers to be more closely related to the tanagers. The Cinnamon-bellied Flowerpiercer is found in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

The other Central American flowerpiercer is Slaty Flowerpiercer (Diglossa plumbea), found in Costa Rica and western Panama. These birds are common in the Chiriquí highlands of western Panama, where Roselvy and I stayed for a week recently.

This is the male of the species; the female is duller brown, like the female Cinnamon-bellied.

Panama: other cool birds

A few more shots from the Panama trip. The picture above is of a Common Potoo with chick, in Parque Nacional Metropolitano. This park is an excellent patch of primary tropical rain forest, within the city limits of Panama City. At just a ten minute, three dollar taxi ride from the hostel, we found this place worthy of a repeat visit. This particular bird, although not uncommon, is not frequently seen. A park ranger found it almost a month ago, and has been directing visiting birders to this spot.

Potoos are nocturnal birds found in the neotropics, and in shape and coloration resemble nightjars. They differ from nightjars in their larger size and upright stance. In the daytime, they roost by pretending to be an extension of a broken off branch of a tree. This bird, presumably because it has the chick, has altered its position somewhat, making it more conspicuous than it normally is while roosting.

In this same park we found a Streaked Flycatcher, I guess a common bird in Panama but for us a lifer. It looks a lot like the (for us) more familiar Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, except its belly is whiter, and the chin is whitish, not dusky.

We found lots of cool birds in the park, but lighting conditions were such that most of the photos I shot came out as failures. To name a few: Keel-billed Toucan, Crimson-backed and Palm Tanagers, Black-bellied and Rufous-breasted Wrens (beautiful songs both) , Blue Dacnis, Yellow-crowned Euphonia, Yellow-headed Caracara, White-vented Plumeleteer, Dusky Antbird, and White-fronted Tyrannulet were some of the highlights.

Here's a view of the city, seen form the park. This skyline is quite unusual among Central American cities, and more reminiscent of a US or South American city.

Panama: hummingbirds

Roselvy and I just returned to San Salvador from a 11-day trip to Panama, where we birded an excellent tropical rain forest near Panama City for a couple of mornings, and more extensively the area around Cerro Punta, in the western highlands of Chiriquí (pictured above).

Still 'between cameras' as it were, these are shots made with Roselvy's Nikon Coolpix L110. Despite the zoom, the megapixels and the image stabilization, this is not a camera for taking wildlife pictures, I found. Occasionally, a shot came out the way I wanted, but I'm definitely looking forward to my next camera, which I should have within the next couple of weeks.

The area around Cerro Punta is, at 2,000 m, quite beautiful, and home to many hummingbird species. At times I was able to get close enough for decent photos, and this entry will be about hummingbirds entirely. I'll save the non hummer photos for the next blog entry.

We stayed four nights at the excellent Los Quetzales Ecolodge in Guadelupe, a small village adjacent to Cerro Punta. The lodge had lots of hummingbird feeders up, and up to 12 species were easily seen. The bird pictured above is an immature Green-crowned Brilliant.

This is a male White-throated Mountain-gem. Although this species was common around the ecolodge, this photo was actually taken in the garden of Finca Dracula, a nearby orchid farm. (The name Dracula, incidentally, in this case refers not to the Count but to an orchid genus, and means 'little dragon'. I mention this, should it ever come up in a crossword puzzle...) The White-throated Mountain-gem is only found in southern Costa Rica and extreme western Panama. In fact, the Costa Rican subspecies cinereicauda (a.k.a. Gray-tailed Mountain-gem) is sometimes considered its own species, and some authors consider the range of White-throated Mountain-gem to be in western Panama exclusively.

Another locally common hummingbird, but one with a much wider range, is Magnificent Hummingbird. Because of its large range, this hummer has been featured quite a bit in this blog (for example, here and here).

Here it is once more, showing off its brilliant colors. These photos were taken just outside the hotel room, on the porch.

Green Violet-ear is another very common, easily photographed species there. This species too has a wider range, on the Central American Volcanic Belt from central Mexico to Panama, and then again in the Andes from northern Venezuela to Bolivia.

Here is a Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, also photographed around the ecolodge. This bird is found from southwestern Costa Rica to eastern Panama, mostly in lowlands and foothills, although we found it at 2,000 m.

The diminutive Scintillant Hummingbird, easily recognized as a Selasphorus, is more of a highland specialist, found in Costa Rica and western Panama at elevations between 1,200 - 2,100 m. The closely related Volcano Hummingbird replaces it above 2,100 m (Ridgely & Gwynne, 1989). We occasionally saw Scintillant Hummingbirds around the feeders, but they were often chased away by the larger species, and more frequently fed on flowers.

Other hummingbirds we saw in the mountains of Chiriquí, western Panama, include Stripe-tailed, Rufous-tailed and Fiery-throated Hummingbird, and, on the Tres Cascadas trail just outside the lodge, the rare and spectacular Green-fronted Lancebill.

Cited literature:
Ridgely, Robert S. & Gwynne, John A. (1989) A Guide to the Birds of Panama, with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras, Second Edition, Princeton.