Red Lored Parrot - Panama 2008

Red Lored Parrot, originally uploaded by Michael A. Nelson.

First morning of our trip we come running (as fast as 2 old guys can) out of our villa and headed to the resort grounds to start our birding. We were pretty excited. Lots of birds everywhere, however we were very disorganized. I was looking in one direction telling Tim to look at this bird and he was doing the same looking at other birds. It took us a good 30 minutes to get our system working. During that time of chaos I was able to get this decent shot of the Red Lored Parrot. I really love morning light!!!

White Necked Jacobin - Panama 2008

We were heading up Pipeline Road and stopped at the newly built Panama Rainforest Discovery Centre. There were many of these rather large hummingbirds all around the centre. There was a very nice trail system around the centre as well. It deserves a lot more of our time on our next trip. As we were leaving to meet our Taxi, a fellow came running up to us - all excited - telling us to go back to one of the trails as a rather large ant swarm was attracting many birds. We looked at our GPS and realized we didn't have time to go back. It was a missed opportunity. I have yet to see my first large ant swarm. Next time!!!!

Blue Cotinga - Panama 2008

My brother Tim and I went to Panama in January, 2008 for a week of birding. This was such a wonderful trip!!! We were out birding every morning by 6:45am. We stayed at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort. Although we hiked for many miles into the rainforest, we saw perhaps our rarest find within 5 mins of our resort. Here is a wonderful photograph of the Blue Cotinga. It was the end of a long day of hiking and we were heading back to the resort only to find this fellow fly right beside us on the trail. We raised our cameras and were thrilled with the shots we were able to capture. This is my favorite.