Xenornis

On the morning of Sunday, September 12, still high on the post-deep-water-pelagic endorphins, Björn Anderson, Ken Allaire, Gonzalo Horna and Darién Montañez headed for El Copé in search of umbrellabird. And find it we did. After walking Sendero Los Helechos Trail, where we got Black-crowned Antpitta and Stripe-breasted Wren, we did Sendero La Rana. While waiting for a mixed flock to approach, a Bare-necked Umbrellabird was spotted sitting quietly on a branch, terribly backlit but at pretty much eye level. This bird had a full hood and some bare skin around the neck. It was soon joined by a second bird, which looked scruffier all over and was probably a younger bird. The flock eventually approached and provided a first-year female Cerulean Warbler . Later on, when we were making our way back to the visitor center, we were trying to lure in a calling White-throated Shrike-Tanager when another pair of umbrellabird showed up, this time two adult-looking birds. Light was better this time,...

On Friday, March 26th, on our way to Bocas del Toro, we made a one-day birding stop at Cerro Redondo, a community located near the entrance of La Mesa in Veraguas, and saw the Rufous Nightjar which is common in the area. We arrived at Changuinola the following day. On Sunday the 28th we headed to Bongik, located close to Wekso. That afternoon we spotted a Snowy Cotinga and plenty of White-collared Manakins . Next day, we started hiking up the Bongik River and saw a Barred Hawk , three Snowy Cotingas and a Solitary Eagle . This was seen very well against a dark background close to the Rancho Quemado community. It had a very short tail with one tail band and, of course, its slaty gray color. We had a clear sky that day. Further at Rancho Quemado we reached a spectacular forest that yielded Rufous-winged Tanager , Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush , Buff-throated Foliage-gleaner ( hypophaeus subspecies), a pair of Cerulean Warblers , and a heard Thicket Antpitta . On Monday...

Rosabel & Karl Kaufmann, Björn Anderson, and Delicia and Darién Montañez spent the weekend at Parque Nacional General de División Omar Torrijos Herrera (née El Copé), hoping against hope to run into an umbrellabird or three. As luck would have it, we saw none, but we did run into a few interesting species. Saturday's birding began as soon as we crossed the park boundaries, with a flock of migratory warblers, including the first of many Blackburnians, a couple American Redstarts and a Canada or two. After settling into the very comfortable cabin (which at $10 a night is a steal) we moved to La Rana trail, which produced Chiriquí Quail-Dove (voice only, alas), a small flock of tanagers and warblers and what looked like the remains of a Black Guan (we'd rather not think that this was our umbrellabird). We then continued along Snowcap (née La Rica) Trail, which also proved quiet at the time (near noon). On our way back we had a small flock at the intersection with La Rana tha...

El 2 de septiembre a las 8:30 am más o menos tuvimos el avistamiento de una Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea) en la Torre de observacion del Panama Rainforest Discovery Center . estabamos pesentes Beatriz Schmidt, Carmela Luciano, Margelys Barríaa y Sr. Caleb E. Gordon. Estaba junto a un bandada mixta de White-shouldered Tanager, Tropical Gnatcatcher, Lesser Greenlet y Blue Dacnis, entre otros comunes de esas bandadas.

Migratory raptor counters Jacobo Ortega and Euclides Campos had Veery and a female Cerulean Warbler at Cerro Ancón today.

Bill Adsett photographed this female Cerulean Warbler at his Cerro Azul house on September 6.

Advantage Tours' Guido Berguido reports the highlights of a 9-day birding trip (Sept 14-22): At the top of the list are two Lanceolated Monklets we saw at Willie-mazu, Bocas del Toro. We were walking around the grounds of the lodge searching for Lattice-tailed Trogons. Since I had heard that the monklet had been seen not too long ago, I went ahead and played the call twice. After a little silence, a tiny bird flew right in front of us, some 4 meters above the ground. When I first saw the small bird fly in I thought it was just a flycatcher, but I promptly put my Swavoski binos on it, and was happily surprised to see this long-desired bird: a Lanceolated Monklet. Some seconds later, a second one flew in next to the first, and both started calling. Robin, the manager of the lodge, said that he had only seen it once before some weeks ago, so we felt pretty lucky. Secondly we were all very happy to watch great many migrants during the trip. The same Monklet day, while birding along...

The Canopy Tower's Carlos Bethancourt sent in the following report, illustrated with stunning digiscoped photos. These photos of Cerulean Warbler were digiscoped with a Leica APO-Televid 77 scope and a C-LUX 2 Camera. The warbler was observed and photographed at Cerro Gaital, while doing a day tour to the Canopy Lodge. I think this is the second record of this bird observed at el Valle. There were three of them one female and two males. Another interesting bird observed in the same area was a Black-poll Warbler. Another interesting and rare bird that hung around the Canopy Lodge from late July to early September was a Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo . This bird was first reported to us by Ken Allaire, who spent a good amount of time exploring El Valle and Canopy Lodge Grounds, and was seen often by the birders staying at the lodge. I was very lucky to get this pictures on July 20, 2007 (10:00 am), while leading the first Tropical Digiscoping Seminar with Jeff Bouton from Leica Sports ...

José Tejada sent a bunch of interesting reports: Jan. 17: Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a basic-plumaged Blackpoll Warbler at Mono Tití Rd, Metropolitan Nature Park. Jan. 21: Female Cerulean Warbler at Achiote Road. Feb. 13: Female Golden-cheeked Warbler seen on the road up to Respingo in Cerro Punta, at pretty much the same spot where he saw the first Panama record on 3 january 2005. Feb. 14: Warbling Vireo in Finca Hartmann. Second Panama record. Feb. 21: Female Cape May Warbler at a flowering guácimo colorado tree in front of the one-story bunker on the left at the base of Mono Tití Rd, Metropolitan Nature Park. Also on the same day, he had a Worm-eating Warbler from the lookout halfway in on Mono Tití Rd.