Raptors By The Million

Number of counted raptors to date this season

 I was on Ancon Hill in Panama and I got to meet Laura Reyes, an amazing woman, who taught me all about the raptor migration through Panama. I am really passionate about these migratory birds of prey.

The counters told me they had seen a Cooper's Hawk which is very rare for Panama.  This bird should not have even been in the country. It came here by accident and was perhaps off course due to the wind.

Thousands of birds are in groups while migrating. They circle above in thermals (columns of hot air) until they soar high enough. Then they glide to catch the next thermal. They are coming from North America because all their food sources will go into hibernation. They stock up on food before coming through Central America. They fast the whole journey and do not excrete anything so they don't make a mess.  They do not fly at night, they do not fly when it is raining, and they only fly over land.

Cerro Ancon or Ancon Hill is a favourite area while the raptors migrate, because of the specific thermals and the rainforest corridors.

A few days later, when I went up Cerro Ancon, I got to help count the raptors with a special counter. We count  by tens so if my counter indicates 15 that would be equal to 150 birds.

There are over a million raptors that have passed by since the beginning of October.

A very dedicated counter team goes up every day to count the birds from October 1st until November 18th. They have to record many things during their studies every hour. They record the following: wind velocity, wind direction, temperature, cloud coverage, visibility, precipitation, flight direction, flight distance, # of observers, observation time, and numbers of birds, sometimes classified by different species.

There are 14 different species of migratory raptors that migrate through Panama to South America.

I got to meet one of the top birders in Panama on Ancon Hill.

Raptors in spanish is Rapaces.  Also, the name of their project is "Rapaces de océano a océano"  

I would like to thank Laura Reyes and the rest of the birders that were on Ancon Hill from the Audubon Society of Panama for all the great information that went into this post.

Mr. Panamá    

Poster on Cerro Ancon

Laura Reyes- Coordinator of the Panama Raptors Count

These are all the migratory species migrating through Panama