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INSTITUTE FOR FIELD ORNITHOLOGY

2004 IFO Tropical Bird Ecology Workshop Report

Instructor: John Kricher . 22-29 May 2004 . Canopy Tower, Panama

From 22-28 May, 2004, a dozen enthusiastic ABA birders studied Tropical Bird Ecology with John Kricher and Martha Vaughan at the Canopy Tower in Panama.

Late May is the beginning of "Green Season" in the Central American tropics, when the rains come more frequently and the tropical rain forest is at its most verdant. Although the class did experience some bouts of rain, including receiving a good soaking one day while returning from nearby Pipeline Road, weather was generally very pleasant, making both birding and learning about birds all the easier. The class either saw or heard about 200 species of Panamanian birds in the course of a very full week.

The Canopy Tower, atop Semaphore Hill Road, is one of the most hospitable venues in the American tropics. Each day the class would meet for coffee before breakfast on the deck that overlooks many miles of rain forest. This is one of the best places to observe the Green Shrike-Vireo, a species so specialized in its foraging behavior that it rarely leaves the high canopy. But here it was seen by all at eye level. The striking Blue Cotinga is also a canopy species often seen from the Tower and, on our first day, we observed a female in a nearby cecropia tree. Later in the week we would see a more distant male.

Classes, usually slide-illustrated, were held in a somewhat formal manner in the spacious lounge in the Tower, where delicious meals were also served. More informal were the classes that occurred in the field, in places such as Pipeline Road, Summit Gardens, the Ammo Ponds, and Old Gamboa Road, all areas where tropical ornithology has been studied for many years, often by people associated with the Smithsonian field station on nearby Barro Colorado Island. These various locations provided overviews of how bird assemblages change with subtle and not so subtle habitat differences.

Pipeline Road has been the location of many classic studies in tropical ornithology. But for most members of the workshop it will be remembered for its dense forest seeming almost to swallow the muddy, rutted road in some places, high humidity, constant cicada din, and outstanding looks at species such as Chestnut-backed Antbird, Purple-throated Fruitcrow, Spotted Antbird, Song Wren, and long, lingering scope views of Streak-chested Antpitta.

As with all of the field work, our two guides Carlos Bethancourt and Jose Soto, expertly identified birdsong and skillfully located birds no matter how elusive they might appear. No matter how hard we all looked, it was very difficult to get on that Crested Owl that our guides found roosting along Plantation Trail. Oh it was easy to see in the scope, just not so easy with the naked eye. Far easier to see, once you located it, was the Great Potoo that tended to roost in a tall tree adjacent to the Canopy Tower main entrance.

Questions abounded. Why are there so many families of birds, such as ground antbirds, typical antbirds, woodcreepers, and toucans that are found only in the tropics? How do the highly similar Chestnut-mandibled Toucan and Keel-billed Toucan manage to easily coexist, both common, without appearing to compete significantly with one another? Why, on the other hand, are the Rufous and Broad-billed motmots so similar in plumage but different in size? Why do the hummingbirds come in various sizes and bill shapes and still all forage together at the Canopy Tower feeders? How do species arise?

Answers followed. For example, the hummingbirds at the feeder are gathering at a food source that is both abundant and constant. Each species can easily partake, though many, such as various Blue-chested Hummingbirds, tirelessly tried to keep others away from certain of the feeders. But hummingbirds evolve in relation to characteristics of diverse flowers of differing sizes and shapes and that factor has, in evolutionary time, acted to shape both hummingbird size and bill characteristics. The decurved bills of the hermit hummingbirds work well for reaching into the flowers of various understory plants, such as the heliconias. So hummingbirds and their flowers evolve together, co-evolve, the result being what we witnessed at the feeders, up to six rather distinct species feeding at once. Were we to watch each in the field, at its most typical food plants, we'd see considerable segregation among them.

The questions of lumping and splitting arose for several examples in the course of the week. Among the hermit hummingbirds, the Long-tailed in Panama is now the Western Long-tailed Hermit. The Little Hermit in Panama is now the Stripe-throated Hermit. We discussed various concepts of species and how they differ and why it is that ornithologists are today tending more toward splitting than lumping.

Hopefully all participants learned something about the fascinating subject of tropical bird ecology. But there was more. It was the venue that made the experience. For some, memories will focus on some of the mammals, the Two-toed and Three-toed sloths, Mantled Howler Monkeys, and Geoffry's Tamarins. For some it will be particular bird species: the unique and rare Barred Puffbird from Pipeline Road, the outstanding looks at Pheasant Cuckoo in Summit Gardens, the Tiny Hawk, in transitional plumage, seen from the Canopy Tower, a soaring adult King Vulture seen near the Ammo Ponds, a male Black-throated Trogon seen from the Canopy Tower kitchen. There will also be memories of our night ride under clear skies beneath the Southern Cross and our visit to the Harpy Eagle conservation exhibit in Summit Gardens. And for all there will be pleasant memories of the grand hospitality and comfort of the Canopy Tower, a splendid "university" in which to major in tropical bird ecology.

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