The Pursuit of Warblers

Sunday, December 24, 2023

Warblers during a trip to the southern canal zone and Cerro Azul in Panama Dec 13-16

Bay breasted Warbler, Pipeline Road, Gamboa, Panama, Dec 13, 2023

Chestnut sided Warbler, Pipeline Road, Gamboa, Panama, Dec 13, 2023

I decided to make a few day stop in Panama on my way home from Brazil to break up the long flight home. I had never been to Panama before and the country actually holds two very range restricted warbler species. The first is Pirre Warbler which occurs deep in the Darian section of southern Panama on the Colombia border and the second is Tacarcuna Warbler which also primarily occurs in roughly the same areas deep in the Darian. There are some reports of the species occurring on a couple of mountains further north, with one of those areas being Cerro Azul and this is the spot I would spend most of my limited time in Panama in an attempt to find the species there.

After very long final day in Brazil, several hours at the São Paulo airport and then a red eye flight I finally arrived in Panama. The flight was actually a bit early and it was a smooth trip through immigration and I was out of the airport to meet my guide Edwin from Whitehawk Birding around 6:30AM. We started the drive through the rush hour traffic of Panama City and headed to Gamboa along the Panama Canal and then on to the famous Pipeline Road where we spent a few hours before a lunch break. The number of overwintering Bay Breasted Warblers was impressive and was about tied with Chestnut sided Warbler as the most frequent warbler seen. Other warblers seen included Yellow Warbler and Common Yellowthroat.

Yellow throated Warbler, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 14, 2023

Black throated Green Warbler, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 14, 2023

Tennessee Warbler, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 14, 2023

Bay breasted Warbler, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 14, 2023

The first full day in Panama saw us heading out before dawn to make the drive up to Cerro Azul in the long shot attempt to locate a Tacarcuna Warbler. We arrived in the area around seven and started a series of walks in the area. Unfortunately the wind was a factor all day and made tracking down birds a bit of a hassle. We tried our best but came up empty on the Tacarcuna Warbler but all was not lost as we had a number of warblers including two that tripped the eBird filter with Yellow throated Warbler and Black throated Green Warbler. We ended the day with half a dozen warbler species with Tennessee Warbler being the most common and the others being Bay breasted Warbler, Black and White Warbler and Chestnut sided Warbler.

Louisiana Waterthrush, Rio Mono, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 15, 2023

Jungle without a Tacarcuna Warbler in it, Cerro Jefe, Panama, Dec 15, 2023

The final full day in Panama we headed back up to the Cerro Azul area. On our way up the mountain we made a brief stop along a small river known as the Rio Mono. As we looked along the rock strewn river we noticed a Louisiana Waterthrush working the swift moving river. A Bay breasted Warbler was also seen during this stop. These ended up being the only warbler species we got in the Cerro Azul area for the morning. We decided to come down the mountain to look for other species in a remnant portion of mangroves around midday. This location produced a few Yellow Warbler and a Northern Waterthush. We had just three species of warbler for the day. The low number was mainly due to not spending as much time in slightly lower elevations on the mountain where we had more diverse mixed flocks the day before.

Sadly we missed finding the Tacarcuna Warbler despite a valiant effort. The species may not even exist in the area any longer as there are very few reports in the last several years despite the area receiving fairly birder coverage. I figured it was worth a try and would have saved me from having to make a much, much more involved trip to the very remote Darian area of Panama to see it. During my time in Panama I had ten species of warblers. More on the entire trip beyond the warblers at the following link: Panama Dec 2023.

Friday, December 22, 2023

Five new warbler species on a trip to southern Brazil December 8-12

White browed Warbler, Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 8, 2023

Southern Yellowthroat, Road to Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 8, 2023

Riverbank Warbler (Southern), Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 8, 2023

White striped Warbler, Acesso Duas Águas, Bocaina, Brazil, Dec 11, 2023

Flavescent Warbler, Rio Jacaré Pipira, Dourado, Brazil, Dec 11, 2023

I recently returned from a trip down to southern Brazil with my targets being five species of warblers that would be new to me including Southern Yellowthroat, White striped Warbler, Flavescent Warbler, white browed Warbler and Riverbank Warbler. I was lucky enough to get all my targets and the story of them follows. After a flight to Miami on the 6th and then a long flight to São Paulo I arrived on the 7th and stayed near the airport.

Golden crowned Warbler (white bellied), Road to Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 8, 2023

Golden crowned Warbler, Road to Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 8, 2023

Golden crowned Warbler (white bellied), Road to Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 8, 2023

Southern Yellowthroat, Road to Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 8, 2023

White browned Warbler, Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 8, 2023

Riverbank Warbler (Southern), Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 8, 2023

The first full day of the trip started off with me meeting up with my guide, Felipe, at the airport hotel around six in the morning. We then made the long drive to the southeast to Intervales State Park. The trip took about an hour longer than expected due to the horrible traffic in the sprawling city of São Paulo. We finally made it to the entry road into the park late in the morning, where we birded along the roadside during multiple stops. The first warbler of the trip was a group of Golden crowned Warblers that were very vocal in an area of dense brush along the road. The group featured both subspecies including at least one and possibly two of the white bellied subspecies that should be found further north. The guide had not seen the subspecies in the area before and was surprised to see one in the area. I got a decent amount of photos of the birds as well as a recording before we moved further along the road. A stop a short time later resulted in the first target of the trip being found with a Southern Yellowthroat singing constantly at the edge of a small marsh. The yellowthroat showed quite well and became the last yellowthroat species I had yet to see (at least until more splits come along in the future). The next target we tried for was White browed Warbler. At this point we had arrived at Intervales SP and met up with a local guide. It was drizzling on and off as we started a walk down a trail near the park entrance in search of the warbler. We managed to turn it up fairly quickly and had great looks at the species as a male moved around us singing quite a bit. White browed Warbler has a range that includes southeast Brazil, Uruguay, northeast Argentina and a small portion of Paraguay. After snagging the second target in a short time we now had just one more possible new warbler species in the area, Riverbank Warbler. We tried for it at multiple spots without any luck until we were walking back out and had it singing in a spot we tried to find it earlier. Yet again the species turned out to be quite accommodating for photos with a little patience. We had now found three out of the five targets for the trip in the first day…not a bad start to the trip at all. With the three targets found for the area in the first day we could broaden out to search for other non warbler species on the following day and a half.

The second day of the trip was spent in and around Intervales State Park and after finding all three possible target warblers the day before we spent the day concentrating mainly on other species. The weather was not great with drizzle to some light rain all day long. Warblers were few and far between but loads of other life birds made up for the lack of warblers.

Tropical Parula, Intervales State Park, Ribeirão Grande, Brazil, Dec 10, 2023

The third day of the trip found us spending the morning at Intervales SP again and with no target warblers to search for we spent our time tracking down other species. We did have warblers along the way including Golden crowned Warbler, White browed Warbler and the most Tropical Parula we had for the trip. The afternoon was spent mainly making the long drive to the Dourado area to the north of Intervales SP.

White striped Warbler, Acesso Duas Águas, Bocaina, Brazil, Dec 11, 2023

Flavescent Warbler, Rio Jacaré Pipira, Dourado, Brazil, Dec 11, 2023

Golden crowned Warbler (White-bellied), Rio Jacaré Pipira, Dourado, Brazil, Dec 11, 2023

We started our full day in the Dourado area heading out early once again with the focus being the two remaining target species for the trip, White striped Warbler and Flavescent Warbler. The more difficult to find species in the area would be the White striped Warbler so that I was the species we focused on first. The species is a Brazilian endemic and is more likely to be found further north but we knew it was certainly possible with a little luck and local knowledge. We once again had a local guide with us which helped increase our chances of finding our targets. The first spot we tried failed to turn up the warbler but we did have lots of other good birds to take away the sting of not finding the warbler. Our next stop was much more productive and we heard the warbler calling and eventually it showed itself well and allowed me to get some decent photos as it worked through some dense edge habitat. With the toughest target now in hand we could relax a bit and bird some other areas before trying for the last target. After a few stops elsewhere we stopped along the Rio Jacare and could hear the warbler singing as we pulled up. The warbler eventually flew across to our side of the small river and after a bit of effort I was able to get some photos of yet another hyperactivity warbler species. Flavescent Warbler has a disjointed distribution with the species occurring in the southern half of Brazil into Bolivian and Paraguay and two other separated populations with one in northwest Venezuela and the other in Guyana. We also got some great looks at the white bellied subspecies of Golden crowned Warbler as we walked along the river.

On my last full day in Brazil we continued our search for new life birds for me and actually failed to find a single species of warbler for our efforts. Nonetheless we found lots of other good stuff so no warblers was okay for a day.

As mentioned above the trip was productive with all five target warbler species seen well, photographed and a few recorded. Overall for the trip I had seven species of warbler including Southern Yellowthroat, Tropical Parula, Golden crowned Warbler (both yellow bellied and white bellied subspecies), White striped Warbler, Flavescent Warbler, White browed Warbler and Riverbank Warbler (southern subspecies). The second part of the trip then began with a red eye flight from Brazil to Panama. More on the entire trip, including lots of stuff beyond warblers at the following link: Brazil Dec 2023.

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Pine Warblers continue at Winsor Dam

Pine Warbler, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Dec 20, 2023

As I continue to fight yet another bout of Covid (my fourth time getting it for those keeping score) I felt a little better so decided to make a short trip over to Winsor Dam to try to relocate the Pine Warblers that have been there for weeks (and possibly see the Say's Phoebe again). Despite being a bit breezy I was happy to find at least three Pine Warblers continuing as well as the Say's Phoebe. It will be interesting to see if either or both species continue into the end of the month for the annual Quabbin Christmas Bird Count or perhaps even into the new year...time will tell. I have never had multiple Pine Warblers around this late in the year and with no big snowstorms or bitter cold predicted perhaps they will stay.

Saturday, December 2, 2023

A couple warbler species to start December including multiple Pine Warblers

Yellow rumped Warblers 'myrtle', Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, Dec 1, 2023

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, Dec 1, 2023

I started off the month of December trying to track down any lingering warbler species and the weather was fairly cooperative overall for the first two days of the month. I started the beginning of the month at Great Pond in Hatfield trying to track down the Nashville Warbler that continued at the location through at least the 26th. Despite my best efforts over the course of two hours I failed to turn it up. Not really too surprising as it has been so cold lately and the species should be long gone by now and much further south. Nonetheless I found a few other non warblers species lingering in the area that are getting late including a Ruby crowned Kinglet and three White crowned Sparrows. After my time in Hatfield I headed south with a stop along the river in Hadley in search of Yellow rumped Warblers. This stop was more productive for warblers and I found at least four continuing in the area and got some photos. These warblers extended my streak to a whopping 80 months straight of finding at least one warbler species in Hampshire County.

Pine Warbler, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Dec 1, 2023

My final stop for the morning on the first was to Winsor Dam with the target being Pine Warblers. I got super lucky with this species as I not only found them right away I also had an incredible eight individuals of various plumages! A really unprecedented number to still be in the area to start off December. There are many years when there are none to be found at all by this date. The Pine Warblers added another milestone for the year as I now have found at least two species of warblers in the county for all twelve months of the year...something I have never done before.

On the second I headed out with the mission being trying to find a late Common Yellowthroat for the month. Sadly despite checking multiple areas I came up empty for the species. The weather didn't help with fog and low clouds. I actually didn't find a single warbler for the morning.