Plantation Road and Chagres River

21 June 2012  – Plantation Road, Chagres River

Plantation Road was one of our favorite destinations for sheer beauty and the feeling of immersion beneath the canopy. A brief morning rain at first had us worried but it soon relented and we had a quite birdy morning, again, with Song Wren, Spotted Antbird, Boat-billed Heron (odd location and masterful spotting and scoping by Alex), White-whiskered Puffbird, Blue-crowned Manakin, Gray-headed Kite, Red-capped Manakin, Black-throated Trogon, and Purple-throated Fruitcrow as the highlights. This morning also provided one of our absolute best experiences of the trip when a Streak-chested Antpitta perched in clear view within about 5 meters and sang for several minutes puffing its chest up and down and hoping along the forest floor. Amazing!

Purple-throated Fruitcrow

The afternoon at ChagresRiver was a little slower but we were again able to get a lot of experience with some of the confusing flycatchers. We also had better looks at Rufescent Tiger-Heron and we were lucky to see the only American Pygmy Kingfisher of the trip.

For a complete list of species seen, see our eBird report for Chagres River and Plantation Road.