Colorful Tanagers of Panama
In the U.S. Midwest we find two types of Tanagers – the Scarlet and Summer Tanager (sometimes a rare Western Tanager shows up). Both are colorful birds and are fun to photograph. While in Panama we encountered 15 species of Tanagers and some were even more colorful than the ones found here (as an interesting side-note the Scarlet, Summer and Western Tanagers are now classified as in the Cardinal Family, not Tanager, based on DNA research).
We encountered so many different types of Tanagers in Panama I did a little research and found that the Tanager family of birds has the second-most number of species of birds (Tyrant Flycatchers has the most with over 400 species). According to Wikipedia there are 386 different species of Tanagers and they are only found in the Western Hemisphere, primarily in the Tropics.
In order to make this email reasonably short I’ve only included a couple of my favorite Panama Tanager pics – if you would like to see more of my Tanager pics from Panama CLICK HERE.
My favorite Tanager I saw in Panama was the Bay-headed Tanager. It’s hard to imagine a more striking bird, with its bay-colored head and bright green body.
Although I got plenty of good looks at the Golden-hooded Tanager I just couldn’t get a great shot of one. Here you can see why I liked it so much.
Once everybody in our birding group got a look at this Emerald Tanager they couldn’t get enough of it! It appeared to be making a nest in a tree in someone’s front yard.
This post showed just some of the Tanagers I photographed in Panama. If you would like to see more CLICK HERE.
PS – Happy Birthday to my little brother Mark!
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