Panama: El Valle

I can’t think of a better name for the Park Eden B&B, situated as it is inside a true paradise of a garden. The day we spent there was the rainiest we had in all of Panama, but it didn’t much matter: the birding was soo good on the beautiful grounds that we didn’t feel like we were missing much anyway!

Common Tody-Flycatchers were attending a nest above one of the nicely sheltered benches, and as soon as the rain let up a little, Rufous-capped Warblers and Black-striped Sparrows came in to the bird baths to splash around. Tropical Kingbirds and Social Flycatchers occupied the wires as raindrops permitted, and Barred Antshrikes, every bit as crazed as I’d expected them to be, were singing and carrying on.

We did make one sortie into the weather, to visit the Gaital Nature Preserve. Swallow-tailed Kites were common overhead, and though birds were hard to see in the dense vegetation, we eventually enjoyed great looks at a number of Tawny-crested Tanagers. This wasn’t a species I’d been particularly eager to see, but happily the bird “didn’t look like its pictures in the birdy book,” instead a very lovely creature with a bright golden crown.