Xenornis

El sábado 22 de agosto encontramos tres ejemplares de Bare-necked Umbrellabird  [incluyedo este macho adulto] mientras pajareábamos en El Copé. Los pájaros respondieron al play back en pocos minutos. Inicialmente los observamos a escasos metros del inicio del sendero de la Rana Dorada como a las 7:30am, un par de horas más tarde los vimos nuevamente en el mismo sendero y a las 3:00 pm los volvimos a encontrar en la salida. Además vimos Dull-mantled Antbird , Orange-bellied Trogon , Yellow-eared Toucanet , Russet Antshrike , Northern Schiffornis y 30 especies más. El guía fue Ariel Aguirre y nos acompañaron Glen y Janet Lee, y Craig Bennet.

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...

Last Sunday, December 14 saw a small number of brave birders spend hours and hours in the field looking for all the birds they could count in 24 hours. Yes, it's CBC time again. Some highlights: Plantation Road: Dull-mantled Antbird seen around the creek (Iván Hoyos). Old Gamboa Road south: Short-tailed Nighthawk seen flying above Summit Ponds at dawn. Rufous phase juvenile Tiny Hawk seen about 500 m from the Summit Golf Club entrance to Old Gamboa Road (50 meters before the first clearing) being mobbed by six or seven Purple-crowned Fairies. (Darién Montañez). More highlights and preliminary totals to come.

Swedish birder Håkan Thorstensson sent in a report of a Panama trip earlier this year. Highlights included Dull-mantled Antbird , Speckled Antshrike and Blue-throated Goldentail at Burbayar on March 25, and a single Elegant Tern photographed at Veracruz on April 10th.

His formerfieldeditorshipness himself Dodge Engleman (kinda) sent us the following report: Lorna and I went to El Valle as a guest of Raúl [Arias] on December 3d --4th. Rain prevented much birding but during a spell in the weather on the AM of the 4th, we did get the Tody Motmot and Eye-ringed Flatbill. Raúl and his birding manager, Danilo, say the Motmot is fairly regular along the trail below the Chorro Macho falls. On the AM in question, while I was awaiting Lorna and Raúl at the trail head, Danilo went in and heard it calling. He came to fetch us and we heard and saw it against the banks of the creek side ravine. Of interest to me, while it perched quietly on an arching horizontal branch about three feet above the ground, it would twitch its tail slowly back and forth as is the wont of its larger relatives that have a raquet-tail! I managed a shitty recording and it showed little interest in playback. Perhaps because the recording was shitty. Eye-ringed Flatbill. I report this beca...

At least two  Snowcap were seen briefly at the second stream at El Copé. Also, a pair of  Dull-mantled Antbirds were seen at the same place.

A great day for the PAS group at Nusagandi's Ibe Igar Trail. They had a pair of  Xenornis on the ridge between the first and second stream crossings. Then they had crippling views of a female (or immature)  Black-eared Wood-Quail in a small flock right after the second stream crossing. A pair of  Dull-mantled Antbirds were found at the last stream crossing before the waterfall.