Sep 05 2007
Birds of the Panama Canal
Here is a snap from the Panama Canal webcam showing one of the locals keeping tabs on the Canal. The webcam has views of the Miraflores locks on the Pacific side and Gatun locks on the Atlantic, as well as the Centennial Bridge (Puente Centenario). They also just added a tab showing work on the Canal Expansion Project, but the current view looks suspiciously like a zoomed out view of the Bridge cam.
UPDATE: My trusted source tells me that the bird is probably an orange-breasted falcon, “a rare raptor of tropical forests, historically ranging from southern Mexico south to Argentina.” I’m good with that.
Technorati Tags: panama canal, panama canal expansion, webcams, orange breasted falcon, birds
September 7th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Hehehe! “Trusted source”!!! That makes me laugh.
September 7th, 2007 at 13:43 pm
Ooh, showdown in Bird World. Could be a bat falcon.
September 12th, 2007 at 01:30 am
It’s hard to say, w/o seeing the bird IRL, but it still looks like an orange-breasted to me. The bat falcon is quite a bit smaller (maybe you could, in your spare time, do a little extrapolation, based on the known size of the pipe on which our little raptor is sitting, and determine the Panaman falcon’s length????). Also, the orange-breasted has a white throat (the bat falcon does not); it looks from the pic that your falcon may have white on its throat. It’s hard to tell, though.
I’ve never seen either IRL… and I wouldn’t place actual money to bet on it, but from your pic, that falcon just doesn’t seem “small”. It seems more in the medium-sized-range, like the orange-breasted.
September 28th, 2007 at 13:29 pm
I had been watching this same bird on the web cam, I even have a similar shot of the bird that I grabbed on the same day. And a few days later, there were two of them.
I think it looks just like an orange breasted falcon. It definitely has a white throat in the images I’ve grabbed.
October 5th, 2007 at 20:38 pm
Just come home from the Beautiful Panama Canal Vacation.. and its really nice going there again…
October 8th, 2007 at 10:29 am
What makes you birders think it is NOT a peregrine falcon?
October 8th, 2007 at 16:01 pm
Peregrines have no orange-ish or buffy color on them at all. Also, the Peregrine’s breast is more dark-on-white than white-on-dark. And, while some Peregrines are quite dark, they’re usually bluish or even dark brown-black, not the real black-black shown here on the bat/orange-breasted falcon (whichever he is).
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:55 am
Hi all, I wrote to the people of the cam and they told me it was “definitely” a bat falcon and has been there for a while….kind of a “mascot” to the canal. Wing span of about 22 inches.There are 2 of them hanging around and sometimes A Turkey Vulture you’ll see on the cam. Have a good day.
October 24th, 2007 at 13:53 pm
[...] had an earlier post at the old site showing what’s either an orange-breasted falcon or a bat falcon watching shipping on the [...]
August 28th, 2008 at 15:43 pm
[...] webcams at the Panama Canal have been upgraded with the addition of a high-resolution camera at Miraflores. (Java required). It’s always interesting to see what’s passing through the canal [...]