Hummingbirds in Boquete

Colibríes en Casa de Sabrewing

¡Hola from Panamá! We are moving south on the Pacific Flyway! We are here for two weeks thanks to the generosity of a friend who is letting us stay at her apartment in Panama City. We took a weekend trip to Boquete, a mountain town in the western part of the country. There have been 1,000 species of birds seen in Panama—that’s more than Canada and the United States combined AND in an area around the size of South Carolina. And 60 of the world’s 300 hummingbird species can be found in Panama.

To get the most out of our trip (and avoid wasting time fumbling with Merlin), we did a tour with Jason Lara. Jason was a fantastic guide—incredibly knowledgeable, very friendly, and has some good jokes up his sleeves. If you ever find yourself in Boquete, I highly recommend you get in touch with him and book a tour!

We capped off a day of great birding (60 species total) with lazier birding at hummingbird feeders at “Casa Sabrewing.” The birds were eager to eat after the afternoon rain. We mostly saw hummingbirds (perhaps more than I’ve ever seen at one time) and a couple tanagers. Full eBird list here and some highlights of the more cooperative birds below.

Violet Sabrewing

The biggest hummingbird in Mexico and Central America. The males are a stunning, iridescent purple with long, curved black bills. Females are dark green with violet throats and gray bellies.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

The hummingbird we’ve seen most often here. True to its name, it has a rufous tail with green throat and sides and a gray belly. Females are a bit duller than males.

Snowy-bellied hummingbird

A distinct white belly (love how true to name these all are!) surrounded by an overall emerald green coloring. Its wings and rump are more coppery. I grew fond of one in particular who kept returning to a banana leaf to shelter from the rain and the action around the feeders.

We saw a couple others that I didn’t get great photos of unfortunately: Scintillant Hummingbird (the smallest of the hummingbirds in Central America), Lesser Violetear, and the White-Throated Mountain Gem. They are fast little buggers! On the west coast, we typically only see Anna’s Hummingbirds—a beautiful bird in its own right!—and seeing all these opened my eyes to just how many gems there are in the world of hummingbirds. More from Panama coming soon!