Toucan in flight

Our resident pair of toucans flew by the house this morning and I just barely had enough time to lift the camera and shoot. Not the best picture, but the bird makes up for it.

We see these toucans every day now!

The following gallery is of over 70 bird species I photographed on a short trip to Panama courtesy of Raul Arias de Para who invited me to stay at the wonderful Canopy Tower, on April 17 and April 18, the morning of April 21, and the Canopy Lodge, April 19 and April 20 (dates are linked to the blogs I wrote on the day).

Taxonomy follows Carlos Bethancourt’s “The Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge Checklist” (a must-have on trips like this) which is based primarily on the “Seventh Edition of the American Ornithologists Union’s ‘Checklist of the birds of North America 1998′ ” (including revisions up to and including the 48th Supplement in 2007)

In total 219 species were seen well enough to be identified (the full trip list is here), either by myself or – more usually – by the guides (who are world-class) and then seen by myself. I photographed over a third of them (some better than others it has to be said!), and I’ll be adding more images below as I get a chance to format them. Conditions in forests are notoriously difficult to work with, but a good number of species gave reasonable views after some encouragement from the guides via recordings, and many of the birds around both the Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge are habituated to people. It’s perhaps interesting to note that in less than sixty hours of birding I photographed all six species of Panama’s trogons, eight hummingbirds, three species of wrens, and a number of tanagers (inc Euphonias) and antbirds.

via Birds of Panama Photo-Gallery.

Sitting on the slopes of Volcan Baru, a sleeping volcano and overlooking the flower garden that is Boquete, Paradise Gardens provides a sanctuary for those wishing peace, quiet and to experience some of the local nature.

Paradise Gardens features as a unique Wildlife Rescue Centre which is set within 4 acres of splendidly landscaped gardens. Started back in 2005 by Paul and Jenny Saban from England, the gardens and inhabitants have evolved in to one of the ‘must see destinations’ in the whole of Chiriquí Province.

via Welcome to Paradise Gardens!.

]]> http://www.duford.com/2010/04/paradise-gardens/feed/ 1 http://www.duford.com/2010/02/more-blue-crowned-mot-mot-2/ http://www.duford.com/2010/02/more-blue-crowned-mot-mot-2/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:48:11 +0000 sduford http://www.duford.com/?p=103 Since this bird shows up at dusk, I have limited light to work with and I had to use high ISO settings (up to 5600). Thankfully, my Nikon D700 performs really well at such high ISO settings.

Unfortunately the first one was taken through a screen so it lacks sharpness and contrast. Then when I opened the screen he moved a little further away so the next two shots are cropped.