Birding Bocas del Toro: Failed Pranks and Three-wattled Bellbirds
During our recent shoot in Bocas del Toro, Panama, for The Birders Show, a prank attempt resulted in our host, Chris's best bird of the trip. Read on for the full story of how he finally got his first bellbird.
When The Birders Show traveled to Tranquilo Bay Ecolodge in Bocas del Toro, Panama, for our first international shoot, I was just excited to be getting out of Colombia on my first international birding adventure in a long time. As I started to peruse eBird lists and hotspots, my excitement grew: although Bocas has a lot of species crossover with Colombia, there were some real treats to be found there. And what's more, I would be birding with friends in one of Central America's most beautiful natural paradises. What could be better?
However, the one species I wanted to see above all others was the Three-wattled Bellbird. These strange and surreal birds are among the most sought-after species in Central America and are found only in Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Costa Rica. Their calls are described on eBird as "far-carrying bell-like notes and strange metallic alien noises." And the male bellbirds are as beautiful as their call is strange; a rich, rufous body, offset by a gleaming white head and breast, with then eponymous wattles hanging down over the bill.
Birding Fact: although the Three-wattled Bellbird (Procnias tricarunculatus) has an exceptionally loud call, it doesn't compare to the volumes reached by its cousin, the White Bellbird (Procnias albus), which has been called “the world’s loudest bird”, making a noise louder than an industrial drill. According to a 2019 study, they officially make the loudest call ever recorded for birds, reaching 125 dB. The previous record holder was the Screaming Piha with 116 dB.
A stunning male Three-wattled Bellbird
There are four species of bellbird in the world, all of them found in the tropical Americas, and I'd never seen any of them. So as we packed up the cameras and headed off to Panama, the Three-wattled Bellbird was foremost in my thoughts.
At this point, you may be wondering what my chances realistically were. Three-wattled Bellbirds make massive altitudinal migrations throughout the year - the bellbirds of Bocas del Toro move high up into the mountains, as high as 3,000 masl, during the breeding season, and then migrate down to sea level for the rest of the year.
Looking at eBird's illustrated checklist for Tranquilo Bay, it seemed that the first bellbirds arrive there in early June, and they stay until mid-December, with the peak of sightings being mid-August (although peak tourism season might affect the number of records). Since our shoot was the final week of September, it seemed that my chances were pretty high. So far, so good.
I would have to be patient at first, though. Although we filmed a bit around the Tranquilo Bay grounds and observation tower on our first afternoon, our filming schedule meant that I would need to wait a few days for my first real shot at my target bird. This was no problem since we spent the first few days birding the highlands on the mainland and around the Snyder Canal and Bird Island - I was hardly starved for stunning landscapes and lifers! You can see our first Panama episode, filmed in the highlands, below.
Yet, talking to our local guide Natalia, I started to worry about my chances of seeing the bellbirds. She explained that, although the birds are resident on the island during these months, they sometimes go a while without calling. This means that unless you get fortunate and a few bellbirds turn up to feed in the tall trees around the observation tower, it can sometimes be hard to track them down. Since they come to Bastimentos Island (where Tranquilo Bay is located) to feed and not to display, they don't call all the time. Although Natalia had seen bellbirds near the lodge a week earlier, she hadn't heard any calling in a few days.
During our final two days in Bocas del Toro, we focused our filming attentions on Bastimentos Island. At this point, Natalia's concerns started to come true. We dutifully hiked the trails - filming loads of birds and wildlife in the process - but the bellbirds remained stubbornly silent. So, on our final full day, we set out around 11 pm (according to Natalia, the birds called more often closer to midday) for our last bellbird attempt. At this point, I was letting pessimism get the better of me, and, it has to be said, I wasn't hopeful. But we don't quit on The Birders Show, so off we went.
During the trip, our team played a series of pranks on one another. These relatively gentle pranks mostly involved getting someone excited with a fake bird sighting. For example, we got Tranquilo Bay owner, Jim, with a false Jabiru (you can see that prank in the video below at 8:54)
As we walked into the forest behind the lodge, I heard a Three-wattled Bellbird calling faintly behind me. I turned around to find Diego and our videographer Julian giggling, speaker in hand. It was a reasonably half-hearted prank attempt, it has to be said, and they’d barely fooled me. Then, suddenly, another bellbird call sounded from the forest. After practically begging Diego for assurance that he hadn't stationed someone in the undergrowth with a speaker to prank me, it because clear that in his attempt to catch me out, he'd inadvertently triggered a response from a Three-wattled Bellbird deep in the jungle.
But bellbird calls are far-reaching, and this one sounded a long way off and away from the trail. Finally, after quietly listening for a bit longer, we'd more or less figured out where the response was coming from, so we bushwhacked off into the forest. After more than two hours of searching - finding the birds calling overhead, but failing to locate a window to observe them up in the canopy - I was just about ready to concede defeat in my quest to see an adult male bellbird. We’d seen a juvenile male with tiny wattles, but the adult seemed to have eluded me.
Suddenly, just as it seemed that we'd be wandering around the jungle in ever-decreasing circles for all eternity, Diego whistled me over. I hurried over to him to find a gorgeous male Three-wattled Bellbird perched right overhead, proudly singing and preening without a care in the world. So finally, I had incredible views of my most-wanted bird in Panama!
The male hung around for at least fifteen minutes, allowing us to film him from all angles, before flying off into the top branches of a fruiting tree, where we lost him in the dense foliage. We were exhausted from our long chase, bleeding from a series of deep scratches thanks to our off-trail pursuit, but utterly elated to have finally connected with our biggest target bird. And it was all thanks to a prank attempt gone wrong. Or should that be "gone right?"
My first Three-wattled Bellbird, in all its surreal glory
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