We have so many birds! I have heard it said that we have more birds in this little country than in the whole of north America. Maybe this is true. Yesterday morning I identified 13 birds just while I was having breakfast.
My Son-in-law introduced me to a great app, Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Labs. It will listen to bird songs and tell you what bird it is, or you can take a picture of a bird and it will identify it for you. We live next to a woods and I have wondered for years who has been singing a couple songs I especially like. I have a couple bird books that I use a lot but I think the app has allowed me to identify birds I didn’t know or make more accurate identifications of other birds.
I’ve taken screen shots of the birds, as identified in the app. I’ve heard this mournful call for ages, but I’ve never seen the bird. Who would have thought it is this one! What an odd little bird.
I’ve also heard another beautiful song in the woods. It makes me happy every time but again, I had no idea who was singing. It turned out to be a thrush! These birds are in my yard all the time. But apparently, they only do the beautiful song when they are down in the woods.
There are many other birds that have been identified by the app. Many of them I already knew. There are others I didn’t know, or I wasn’t sure if I had identified them correctly. Rather than write an epic length post, I’ll just post all the screen shots here with some captions.
Of course we can’t forget the toucans! (aracari, the official name)
Whew! That’s a lot of birds, and all of these ID’s have been done right here in my yard. This isn’t counting other birds that live near the water, in the mountains, or in other areas of the country. It’s no wonder that a lot of bird watchers like to come to Panama.
