Xenornis

This past weekend I had a complete deep immersion into eastern Panama, that part of the country that remained pure and untouched on it's vast majority until the mid-60's. On Friday 24 and Saturday 25 I was invited by Raúl Arias de Para, along with Carlos Bethancourt and Ismael Hernando Quiróz (the famous Nando from Cerro Azul) to birdwatch the area between Metetí and Yaviza. [ See Carlos' report here ].  On Saturday afternoon, after saying goodbye to my original team, I joined the group of birders from Panama Audubon Society that the next day would observe birds in the forests around Rio Bayano. Claudia and Bill Ahrens, Cindy and Leslie Lieurance, Rosabel and Karl Kaufmann ventured to visit places that we have recently discovered in the area of ​​Tortí.   Early Sunday morning we visited the Playa Chuzo forest where, thanks to an excellent recording played by Bill Ahrens (recorded by Ken Allaire) we saw a couple of Double-banded Graytails  up close, a life...

Just to back up Benicio's report , Alred Raab, Mark and Joanie Hubsinger and I were at Bayano the day before (12/4), and found a female-plumaged Cinereous Becard at the Río Mono, which also responded to playback. Another interesting sighting was a female-plumaged Yellow-rumped Warbler , and late in the day on our return trip we also found a pair of Streaked Xenops , identified by voice as well as plumage. They appeared a bit distinctly-streaked for the race incomptus I would expect at Bayano- I wonder if any judgement as to subspecies was reached on the bird digiscoped by Kilo Campos at this same locale.

Eduardo Amengual and Robert Dean, of the Costa Rican Birding Club, spent three weeks birding around Panama. Highlights of their trip included a Plumbeous Hawk early on March 11 on Los Caobos Trail at the Metropolitan Nature Park, a male (and possibly a female) Cinereous Becard on one of the canal maintenance roads near Madden Lake on the 17, two Palm Warblers at Fort San Lorenzo on the 18, two Violaceous Quail-Doves in the forests of Fort Sherman on the 19, a male Rufous-crested Coquette on the entrance to Chorro Macho at El Valle on the 22, two White-throated Flycatchers around the Volcán airstrip on the 24 (as well as another two around the Hotel Dos Ríos on the 25), and a Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl mobbed by a flock of birds on the Volcán-Boquete Trail on the 26.