Top 20 Most Common Bird in Panama

An adult tropical kingbird is 22 cm (8.7 in) long, weighs 39 g (1.4 oz) and has a wingspan range of 38–41 cm. The head is pale gray, with a darker eye mask, an orange crown stripe, and a heavy gray bill. The back is grayish-green, and the wing and forked tail are brown. The throat is pale gray, becoming olive on the breast, with the rest of the underparts being yellow. The sexes are similar, but young birds have pale buff edges on the wing coverts. Tropical Kingbirds appear to be monogamous. In most parts of the species' range, they are permanent residents and remain together in pairs year-round.(Sibley 2014) The call is a high-pitched twittering trill, tree-e-e-e-e-e-e, with a more complex version sung by the male at dawn. Their breeding habitat is semi-open areas with trees and shrubs, including gardens and roadsides. Tropical kingbirds like to observe their surroundings from a prominent open perch, usually high in a tree, undertaking long flights to acrobatically catch insects in mid-air (hawking), sometimes hovering to pick food off vegetation (gleaning). They also eat some fruit from such diverse species as tamanqueiro (Alchornea glandulosa), the Annonaceae, Cymbopetalum mayanum and gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba); foraging for these even in disturbed habitat. As they keep mainly to the upper levels of trees, they find little profit in following mixed-species feeding flocks in the understory. These birds aggressively defend their territory against intruders, even much larger birds such as magnificent frigatebirds, toucans, caracaras or hawks. In a study in Parque Nacional de La Macarena of Colombia, parasitism by microfilariae and trypanosomas (presumably T. everetti) was infrequently recorded in tropical kingbirds. The male and female inspect potential sites together before selecting a site, typically a fork or crotch high in a tree (up to 66 feet high) but sometimes just a few feet above water.(Sibley 2014) The female builds a bulky, sloppy-looking, shallow nest of vines, rootlets, twigs, weeds, and grasses; it is unlined or lined with hair. Nests average about 5.2 inches across and 3 inches tall, with interior cup about 3 inches across and 1.6 inches deep. The female incubates the typical clutch of two to four eggs for approximately 16 days, and the nestlings fledge in another 18 or 19 days. The eggs are whitish or pale pink with variable amounts of dark blotching. The tropical kingbird is one of the most widespread and conspicuous inhabitants of open forest, forest edge, scrub and agricultural land from the southwestern United States south to Argentina (Jahn, Stouffer, & Chesser, 2013). As a result, the bird is considered as being of Least Concern and their population is increasing, according to the IUCN. According to Partners in Flight, global estimates of tropical kingbird breeding population is around 200 million. They rate the species as 4 out of 20 on the continental concern scale, indicating that this species is of low conservation concern.

Although quite dapper in appearance, the black Vulture's name comes from the Latin vulturus meaning “tearer" and that is just what that hooked beak is for. These birds are highly social, with fierce family loyalty and will share food with relatives and with their young long after the babies have fledged. Because they lack a voice box, their calls are limited to grunts and hisses.

The medium-sized great-tailed Grackle is notable for its long tail, shaped like a V, and deep black coloring offset by bright yellow eyes. This loud bird can be easily found just by following the sharp sounds of its calls and shrieks. Males in particular shriek and ruffle up their feathers to defend their territory or if they feel threatened.

The Rosttäubchen (Columbina talpacoti) is a kind of the pigeons birds, which is counted among the subfamily of the American Kleintauben. The species occurs from the extreme south of North America to South America and is considered as not endangered in its population.

The blue-gray tanager is 16–18 cm (6.3–7.1 in) long and weighs 30–40 g (1.1–1.4 oz). Adults have a light bluish head and underparts, with darker blue upperparts and a shoulder patch colored a different hue of blue. The bill is short and quite thick. Sexes are similar, but the immature is much duller in plumage. The song is a squeaky twittering, interspersed with tseee and tsuup call notes.

The orange-chinned Parakeet is a lively bird that's hard to miss. Its bright green feathers and striking orange chin make it stand out in a crowd. This species is playful and intelligent, often seen climbing and swinging on branches. It's a social bird, and you'll often see it in flocks, chirping and flying from tree to tree. It has a strong beak, perfect for cracking open nuts and seeds, and it enjoys a diet of a variety of fruits and nuts.

The clay-colored Thrush is a stunning bird known for its melodious song and distinctive appearance. With its clay-colored upperparts, rusty underparts, and dark brown crown, it stands out in its habitats, which can range from forests to suburban parks. It feeds on various food sources including insects, fruits, and berries. The bird has a melodious song consisting of clear, ringing phrases.

The red-crowned woodpecker (Melanerpes rubricapillus) is a resident breeding bird from southwestern Costa Rica south to Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas and Tobago. This woodpecker occurs in forests and semi-open woodland and cultivation. It nests in a hole in a dead tree or large cactus. The clutch is two eggs, incubated by both sexes, which fledge after 31–33 days. The adult is 17 cm (6.7 in) long and weighs 55 g (1.9 oz). It has a zebra-barred black and white back and wings and a white rump. The tail is black with some white barring, and the underparts are pale buff-brown. The male has a red crown patch and nape. The female has a buff crown and duller nape. Immature birds are duller, particularly in the red areas of the head and neck. Red-crowned woodpeckers feed on insects, but will take fruit and visit nectar feeders. This common and conspicuous species gives a rattling krrrrrl call and both sexes drum on territory.

The crimson-backed tanager (Ramphocelus dimidiatus) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela, and introduced to French Polynesia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and heavily degraded former forest. A nickname in Panama is sangre de toro ("Blood of the bull"). The crimson-backed tanager was first described by French naturalist Frédéric de Lafresnaye in 1837. It is one of nine species of brightly coloured tanagers of the genus Ramphocelus. Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates its closest relative is the masked crimson tanager (R. nigrogularis), and the two split around 800,000 years ago. Measuring around 18 cm (7.1 in) in length, the adult male has a silver sheen on its lower mandible. Its whole head and chest are a maroon red, brightening to a bright red on its lower back and abdomen. Its wings and tail are black. The female is duller with blackish underparts. It is found in northern and western Colombia (south to Chocó where it is uncommon), the Maracaibo Basin in Venezuela, and over most of Panama, where it extends to Chiriquí and Veraguas Provinces in the west of the country, as well as Coiba, where it is abundant, and Pearl Islands. It inhabits forest, scrub and gardens. A nest with a clutch of two blue eggs with fine dark dots has been recorded. A field study on blood parasites found that two individual crimson-backed tanagers (out of twelve tested) bore Plasmodium, with the study concluding the overall rate was low compared with studies done elsewhere.

The turkey Vulture is a common sight, especially around roads, where they keep a sharp eye out for roadkill. Seeing these large birds in the sky can often make you take a second look to see if it’s an eagle or a hawk. Here’s one quick way to tell the difference. When in flight, a turkey Vulture will circle unsteadily, with its wings lifted to make a V shape. Though they are not appreciated, they do the dirty work of the animal kingdom by cleaning up the countryside as they scavenge.

Watch out for the small yet aggressive house Wrens; they are extremely territorial and think nothing of harassing other birds and their nestlings if they want to take their spot! They have been known to kill nestlings and even adult birds to get a nest hole they want. Once house Wrens lay eggs, the nest needs to stay below 100 degrees and above 65 degrees or the eggs will not survive—this could be the reason they are so particular about their nesting spots.

Adult grey-breasted martins are 18 cm (7.1 in) in length, with a forked tail and relatively broad wings, and weigh 39 g (1.4 oz). Adult males are a glossy blue-black with the grey-brown throat, breast and sides contrasting with the white lower underparts. Females are duller than the male, and juveniles have dull brown upperparts.

The palm Tanager is a magnificent bird species that steals the show with its olive-green feathers and striking black wings. It is a medium-sized bird that inhabits the palm forests of South America, where it feeds on a diverse diet including fruit, insects, and spiders. The Palm Tanager has a special relationship with palm trees, which provide both food and shelter, and it is perfectly adapted to life in this unique habitat.

The pale-vented pigeon is 30–32 cm long and weighs normally 230–250 g. Adult males have a mainly dull purple head, breast and upperpart plumage, with copper glossing on the nape and a whitish throat. The lower back and tail are dark grey and the lower underparts are pale grey. The bill is black and the legs, iris and eyering are red. The female is similar, but duller than the male, and immatures are greyish-brown, very dull, and mainly greyish brown. The southern subspecies P. c. andersoni has white lower underparts, rather than the pale grey of nominate P. c. cayennensis. The call is a row of soft kuk kuk croo-ooos; the initial short kuk is characteristic for the "cayennensis group" of Patagioenas. Altogether, this species' song is intermediate between that of its close relatives the plain (P. inornata) and red-billed pigeons (P. flavirostris). It may in the field resemble a scaled pigeon (P. speciosa), which has a similar display flight. These two large species are also the only pigeons in their range which are often seen flying in the open away from forests. But of course P. cayennensis lacks the scaly appearance, and the calls and appearance from close by indicate that the two are not particularly close relatives among their congeners.

The rock Pigeon is a wild ancestor of all domestic and feral pigeons, inhabiting coasts, cliffs, and caves. Pairs nest in rock crevices, often mating for life. They are known for their ability to fly very long distances to return to their homes, navigating using the sun's position and the earth's magnetic fields. Thanks to this ability, pigeons were used as messengers, particularly during World Wars I and II.

The adult rufous-tailed hummingbird is 10–12 cm (3.9–4.7 in) long and weighs approximately 5.2 g (0.18 oz). The throat is green (edged whitish in the female), the crown, back and flanks are green tinged golden, the belly is pale greyish, the vent and rump are rufous and the slightly forked tail is rufous with a dusky tip. The almost straight bill is red with a black tip; the black is more extensive on the upper mandible, which may appear all black. Immatures are virtually identical to the female. The call is a low chut, and the male's song is a whistled tse we ts’ we or tse tse wip tseek tse. The female rufous-tailed hummingbird is entirely responsible for nest building and incubation. She lays two white eggs in a compact cup nest constructed from plant-fibre and dead leaves and decorated with lichens and mosses 1–6 m (3.3–19.7 ft) high on a thin horizontal twig. Incubation takes 15–19 days, and fledging another 20–26.

The variable seedeater is a small, robust bird with a black conical bill. It is 10.5 cm (4.1 in) long and weighs 11 g (0.39 oz). There are four subspecies, which differ primarily in the plumage of the male: S. c. corvina – (P.L. Sclater, 1860): (nominate), found from southern Mexico and along the Caribbean slope from Belize south to Panama. Adult males are entirely black apart from a small white wing-speculum and white wing linings. S. c. hoffmannii – Cabanis, 1861: found on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica and Panama. Males resemble males S. c. corvina, but with white half-collar, rump and belly (the rump often intermixed with grey and the flanks retain some black mottling or barring). S. c. hicksii – (Lawrence, 1865): found in eastern Panama and adjacent north-western Colombia. Males resemble S. c. hoffmannii, but, except for a small black chin and/or malar, the entire throat is white. S. c. ophthalmica – (P.L. Sclater, 1860): found in southwestern Colombia, western Ecuador, and far north-western Peru. Males are very similar to males of S. c. hicksii, but black malar is very fine or lacking, rump purer white, and shows purer white flanks with little or no black mottling/barring. Previously, additional subspecies have been recognized for the various hybrid populations found where the above-mentioned subspecies meet (see Taxonomy). Females are olive-brown above, paler below, and have white wing linings like the male. The racial differences in the female plumages are minor, with S. c. hoffmannii, S. c. hicksii and S. c. ophthalmica generally being paler and less brown than S. c. corvina, and often with a faint yellow tinge below. Juveniles are like the adult female of their subspecies. Males may not acquire the full adult plumage in their first year, and may breed whilst still showing some immature features in their appearance. A hypermelanic male was reported from Reserva Buenaventura in El Oro Province, Ecuador, in 2005. The bird had increased phaeomelanin; its white areas — except those of the wings — were bright tawny chestnut. A similar bird was collected along the "Pipeline Road" near Gamboa, Panama, in 1963. Such individuals seem to provide a glimpse at the circumstances of speciation: in the genera Sporophila and Oryzoborus, several species exist which differ externally only by one having white areas, the other being hypermelanic just as the two variable seedeaters mentioned here. Of course, there must be some factor maintaining reproductive isolation, but the plumage differences between such seedeater species pairs probably had their origin in such a mutation becoming fixed in a founder population due to genetic drift.

The yellow-headed caracara is 41–46 cm (16–18 in) in length and weighs 325 g (11.5 oz) on average. Like many other birds of prey, the female is larger than the male, weighing 310–360 g (11–13 oz) against the male's 280–330 g (9.9–11.6 oz). Apart from the difference in size, there is no significant sexual dimorphism in this species. It is broad-winged and long-tailed, somewhat resembling a small Buteo. The adult has a buff head, with a black streak behind the eye, and buff underparts. The upper plumage is brown with distinctive pale patches on the flight feathers of the wings, and the tail is barred cream and brown. The head and underparts of immature birds have dense brown mottling. The voice is a characteristic screamed schreee.

The tropical Mockingbird is named after its wide range throughout the coastal tropics of Central and South America. These birds are common in their natural habitats and can also regularly be seen sitting on telephone wires. They are very similar to the long-tailed mockingbird (Mimus longicaudatus) in appearance and call, but the two ranges do not overlap.

Including its bill, the keel-billed toucan ranges in length from around 42 to 55 cm (17 to 22 in). Their large and colorful bill averages around 12–15 cm (4.7–5.9 in), about one-third of its length. It typically weighs about 380–500 g (13–18 oz). While the bill seems large and cumbersome, it is in fact a spongy, hollow bone covered in keratin, a very light and hard protein. The plumage of the keel-billed toucan is mainly black with a yellow neck and chest. Molting occurs once per year. It has blue feet and red feathers at the tip of its tail. The bill is mainly green with a red tip and orange sides. Keel-billed toucans have zygodactyl feet (or feet with toes facing in different directions) – two toes face forward and two face back. Because toucans spend a large portion of time in the trees, this helps the birds to stay on the branches of the trees and jump from one branch to another.