A day in the life of a field biologist is not centered around the typical 9-5 work day of an office professional. Indeed, our workflow typically involves long days in the field starting, in some cases, before the sun rises and ends after it has set in the evening. As student biologists, many of us have experienced the atypical work day in the field where time spent working is strongly linked to your organism of interest. Therefore, one important aspects of research is choosing a topic that brings enough motivation to get you out of bed at 5:00 AM consecutively. For me, this topic has always been birds.
Much of my prior research has involved getting up at early pre-dawn hours in order to catch the hub of bird activity just as the sun begins to rise. This field course was no exception. At times I awoke early to start data collection for our projects and other times, it was completely voluntarily in the hopes of spotting some amazing neotropical birds just for fun. Panama presents an excellent opportunity for ornithologists and bird enthusiasts alike, and being stationed in Gamboa for a few weeks truly presented us with numerous excellent opportunities to spot some birds. On our first full morning before class started, Isle and I decided to get up at 5:00 AM to hike as far into Pipeline trail as possible before breakfast started at 7. We met in the darkened hallway with binoculars ready and set off for a long walk to the trail entrance. It was still dark for most of the hike, but we were able to hear tinamous, toucans, and some motmots concealed from sight within the dense foliage. Unfortunately, we had to turn around to get back in time for breakfast, but this was far from our last chance at spotting some amazing avifauna in Panama. In fact, later that afternoon we heard the chirping call of a yellow-throated toucan which was perched directly outside the window of our classroom at Gamboa! Ilse made a few jokes about not having to wake up at the crack of dawn to see such cool wildlife anymore.
BCI was another amazing birding opportunity. Our group for the forestry project decided to focus on callback and response of three species of antbirds and antshrikes present on the island, led by the expertise of Janene. Again, our days started early in order to catch the birds at their peak activity. Throughout the project and data collection we were able to see some amazing birds that have always been on my bucket list including a red-capped manakin and a spectacled owl! Throughout our weeks in the canal zone we saw collared aracaris, more toucans, hundreds of tanagers, and pauraques (a personal favorite). On Coiba Ilse and I spotted the endemic Coiba spinetail (a type of ovenbird) during our trip to the mangroves! Later that night we fell asleep to the harsh chuuuuurip calls of the nightjars in the fields surrounding our tents.
STRI'S TROPICAL BIOLOGY FIELD COURSE 