29 January 2010, El Valle, Cocle Province, Panama

This individual was sitting on a nest in a hanging plant on the balcony of
one of the guest rooms at our lodge. To digiscope this bird, I had to back
up to the far railing and bend backwards with the scope tripod only
slightly open and angled back to get far enough away for reasonable focus.

As photographers, it's important to protect the welfare of the birds and
not disturb them unduly, especially around the nest. Some sites, such as
birdforum have a rule prohibiting photos of birds on their nests. We have
all heard stories of photographers who have cut away branches or disturbed
nesting birds with bright flash. One of the advantages of digiscoping is
that it works from a distance and in fact, it's not possible to get too
close to the birds. Most spotting scopes won't focus that close. Also
flash does not work with digiscoping. This particular bird had chosen a
site where there was already much human disturbance and, in my judgment it
did no harm to digiscope it.

Those that feel I did the wrong thing, or disagree with me are welcome to
express their outrage privately.

Early authors sometimes called this bird the "White-fronted Dove." It is
common around farms and clearings and has expanded its range in Panama
because of deforestation.

Clements lists 13 subspecies in three subspecies groups ranging from the
Texas well into South America. This is the nominate race which occurs from
Nicaragua into northern South America. Some authors have suggested that
this species should be split into two or more species based on supposed
differences in orbital ring color, but HBW states these differences are
inconsistent.

Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LZ5 | Nikon FieldScope 3 | 30X WA | hand-held
(no adapter)