Panama has so many birds, and most of them are new to me. It is said that there are more different species of birds here than in all of North America! My bird books have a permanent home right by my desk (actually the table on the terrace) because I’m frequently trying to identify another bird.

We also have a guanabana tree (soursop) next to the terrace. For me the fruit has a rather odd smell and flavor that I had to get used to, but the Panamanians absolutely love it. The tree often fruits a lot in summer so I’m pretty popular when I have lots to give away.

A female crimson backed tanager is perched on the fruit

Her male partner waits nearby

Usually the fruit falls to the ground when it is ready, but Wednesday I noticed a fruit directly in front of the terrace that was being pecked at by the birds. On Thursday the birds were lined up to eat the fruit. The squirrels were also very interested, and finally later in the afternoon one managed to knock the fruit off the tree. What fell to the ground was probably 1/3 of the fruit because the birds and squirrels had eaten all the rest!

I think this might be a clay colored thrush. We have a lot of them around here and they love splashing in the bird bath. They also love eating guanabana.

A squirrel comes in for some fruit.

This one chased the first squirrel away and then used an approach from above to get to the fruit.

The squirrel runs off with a piece of fruit in his mouth

It seems like almost everything here eats fruit. When I first arrived I bought some peanuts for the squirrels. They totally ignored them. Put out some fruit though, especially papaya or banana and the squirrels will be very interested, as will most of the birds. That makes sense though since fruit is abundant here and nuts are not.

We also have a lot of doves. One pair has made a nest in the bushes in front of our house.

We get quite a few of these larger doves visiting the bird bath, but they don’t seem interested in the fruit.

These ruddy ground doves visit the birdbath a lot to drink, but they rarely get in the water

Here are some random pictures, some wildlife and some scenery.

That fence post in the bottom center of the photo has a mall hole in the top, and apparently little tiny bees living inside. All those gray spots in the photo are bees flying around. I saw them swarm before and they just flew maybe 2-3 yards away from the post, but eventually all went back inside. I didn’t watch closely this time but just a few minutes later, all was quiet again.

This very interesting and unusual moth was on the wall one night

I spotted our largest iguana buddy on the compost pile.

In January the flowers were looking pretty faded

This hawk grabbed something out of the bushes and went up here to eat it.

Just some scenery outside of town, cow pastures bordered by living fences

Hey there, Mr Cow

There is no ripe fruit in the tree today so the yard is much quieter. The doves have visited though, and a motmot, the chattering wrens, a few thrushes, hummingbirds, the oropendula male was doing his thing in favorite tree beyond the yard, and there are enough bird calls in the area that it is never silent. I love being able to spend the majority of my time outside so close to nature.