Xenornis

Kevin Easley and some other avid birders from Costa Rica visited the Western Azuero and Coiba with me. On 3 May we went to Changuale (East of las Flores) to try and find the Azuero parakeet. Wer did not find it, but saw many King Vultures circling above us while walking along the Pavo river.  We left for Coiba on 4 May. Between Santa Catalina and Coiba we saw Red-necked Phalaropes , Brown Noddies , a juvenile Red-billed Tropicbird and a Parasitic Jaeger . On the Las Pozos trail on Coiba we found the Coiba Spinetail and the Brown-backed Dove . There was also a male Indigo Bunting in breeding plumage (The Angehr guide does not mention that Indigo Buntings occur on Coiba). Furthermore, for the last three weeks, our hummingbird feeders are daily visited by a juvenile mango. I have attached a (small) picture of the bird. I think it is a Veraguan Mango .

Last week I joined three different birding journeys in the western side of the country. We began by returning to the Velasquez farm on two occasions with several members of SAP looking for Azuero Parakeet, and got some more pictures, videos and interesting details about this seldom seen endemic bird. During my visit in April there were hundreds of Brown-throated Parakeets in the forest edge and trees in the pasture, the same area that the Azuero Parakeets are using now, however we could only see a single Brown-throated Parakeet in the area. Itzel Fong pointed that some birds have a white eye ring while other have a browner eye ring. I also noted some birds with brown irises and some few had brilliant orange iris. One of the birds had a tiny blue spot in the forehead right above the bill. There were about 60 birds feeding at the fig tree; 4 times more birds than the previous week. The parakeets were doing a lot of grooming and pair bonding activities which we filmed. I also spotted wh...

Yesterday, June 19th, Björn Anderson, Gonzalo Horna, and I ventured to Coiba Island, where in only a few hours (before heavy rain came) on the Pozos Termales Trail, we were treated to crippling views of both Coiba Spinetail and Brown-backed Dove . Björn obtained excellent photos, and I collected good audio recordings—I will make these available to amy one who asks. We also saw most of the island endemic subspecies, collected many recordings and photos of these, and tried a couple of intriguing playback experiments. As a bonus we observed a Galapagos Shearwater (thanks to Björn) about halfway between the island and the mainland. Today (20/6) we ventured to the Velásquez farm to enjoy Azuero Parakeets , and were not disappointed—the parakeets came in like clockwork around 8:30, and up to 30 birds at a time were enjoyed for several hours. We also were delighted to run into Beny Wilson and an all-star group of Panamanian birders, who were smart enough to sleep in and show up just ...

A group of 12 brave Panama Auduboners spent the weekend of January 23 birding and snorkeling Coiba National Park. Highlight was the seldom-photographed Coiba Spinetail, seen a couple of times on Los Pozos trail on the 24th (and photographed by Itzel Fong), and the piles and piles of Scarlet Macaws seen (almost) every day at Punta Esquinas, the former prison and Playa Machete. Brown-backed Dove proved harder to get: a number were heard on the morning of the 25th at Los Monos trail, but only seen by Delicia and Darién Montañez. Most of the other endemic subspecies were seen by at least part of the group; exceptions were Sepia-capped Flycatcher and Tropical Parula. Other birds seen that are not on the list published in Where to Find Birds in Panama were Mangrove Cuckoo, Short-tailed Swift, Black-and-white Warbler and Palm Tanager.