Bona Island & Iguana Island, Panama
The second day of our journey began with a lovely sunrise. The sun’s rays revealed spectacular sceneries. It was an island loaded with seabird colonies. We had the opportunity to see them close enough by using our Zodiacs. We geared up and went to explore the surroundings of the island. Named after an Indian chief called Bona, this island offers shelter to different species of seabirds like frigate birds, brown pelicans, brown boobies and many others. Why do those seabirds hang around this place? Well, they know that the area is rich in nutrients because of the upwelling. The island is located in the Gulf of Panama and here the trade winds blow the warm surface water, allowing the cold currents from the bottom to rise and bring nutrients to the surface. In this way, a lot of food is collected all over the gulf.
The first groups of seabird identified were the blue-footed boobies and the brown boobies. Having a torpedo shaped body, the boobies can pursue the prey a couple of feet under the sea. They tend to make their nest in the ground and close to the cliff in order to avoid predators. Other seabirds found were the brown pelicans. Many of them had their breeding plumage. Nesting on trees, the pelicans are gregarious and are the only species of pelicans that plunge dive for their food. Wherever you have these seabirds colonies, for sure you will have a nearby colony of frigatebirds. The magnificent frigate bird is the species seen nesting in the island. Even though they have webbed feet, the frigate bird cannot plunge dive for its food. They traded the ability of plunge diving for the ability of being the master of the air. In order to eat, the frigate bird depends on its ability to steal from others. This behavior is better known as clepto-parasitism. They wait for the boobies or pelicans to go fishing and once they have a catch they harass them until they give up their catch. The male frigate bird is completely black and has a big red gular pouch, which he inflates with the idea of calling the female.
Back on board, we sailed to our next destination of the day, Isla Iguana. Here on Isla Iguana, we had the opportunity to get very close to frigate birds’ nesting area. The island was surrounded with interesting white sand and it was a good place to practice our snorkeling. Blue chinned parrotfish, green puffer fish, sergeant majors, and yellow finned razor fish swam in between the snorkelers. It was just spectacular.
A nice sunset gave us the farewell while we weighed anchor and started sailing. In our memories will remain the experience of seeing how seabirds have adapted to the environment in order to survive. It has been just another wonderful day of our trip!
