Xenornis

On the afternoon of October 24, Jan Axel Cubilla photographed this Gray-hooded Gull on the mudflat behind the Panamá Viejo visitor center.

Leslie Lieurance shares his footage of the Panama Viejo  Gray-hooded Gull shot the day it was found, July 13.

Gray-hooded Gull , vista el domingo 29 a las 2:00 pm en Panamá Viejo, en la arena que lleva a la islita detrás del Centro de Visitantes. La buena noticia es que todavía está en el área. UPDATE: Karl Kaufmann adds: Here's some photos of the Gray-headed Gull that Rosabel found at Panama Viejo on Sunday July 29. It looks like a 2nd year or non-breeding adult to me.

Bob Behrstock, Cindy and I were standing close to the visitor center at Panama Viejo looking through the birds brought in by the high tide around 11 am on Friday the 13th. Cindy looked in the direction Bob was looking when he asked for the scope and saw a gull with red bill and legs. Very quickly Bob said it had characters consistent with Gray-hooded Gull which he has seen in Ecuador. Cindy and I have never seen this species. It had a more rounded head and was more robust looking than the few Laughing gulls present. Behind the light eye there was a black smudge on the edge of a faint dark hood which ran up around the crown. In flight there was a white slash across the dorsal black primaries. The underwing was dark. Bob pointed out the nape was white while the few Laughing Gulls present had gray napes. We made some phone calls and Carlos Betheancourt responded to see the bird some minutes later. The bird appeared comfortable in the location even while being disturbed by...

During our navigation from Pedro González too San Miguel, I spoted a Gray-hooded Gull among a feeding frenzy. At first I though it was one of one of the many Franklin's Gulls that had invaded the Gulf of Panama due too El Niño. After examining the bird carefully I noticed the peculiar wing tip pattern. The gull seemed to be in good health and actively participated of the feeding frenzy. We also got a Green-and-rufous Kingfisher at Río Mosquito, Isla del Rey. The kingfisher was fishing in the mangroves about 1km inland.

Rosabel Miró and Tony Nunnery's VENT group found two Gray-hooded Gulls in the flock of Laughing Gulls. Slightly smaller and obviously paler than them, these were easily separated from the crowd by their red bills and legs. The diagnostic photographs taken allow the species to be promoted from the hypothetical bird list for Panama.

Rosabel Miró, Bill Porteous and Darién Montañez spent the afternoon at Costa del Este hoping the 17 feet tide brought some interesting species. The pond by the Escuela Interamericana (A) had two each of Wilson's Phalarope and Stilt Sandpiper mixed in with a few hundred Dowitchers and Willets. One of the Stilt Sandpipers was still moulting into its winter plumage, as its undertail coverts had traces of black and white barring. Then we went to the other pond on the plot of land between the main road and the ditch by the mangroves (B), which was full of gulls and sandpipers. The Gray-hooded Gull was here, with its hard-to-miss red bill and legs. Its back is also lighter than that of the average Laughing Gull, turning lighter gray on the nape and off-white on the crown. All of this gives the bird a very pale appearance. The same flock had two Ring-billed Gulls and an Elegant Tern. The tern had black on the nape extending up to its crown, and just the forehead was white, and its thin cu...

Rosabel Miró, Chris Rhodes and Darién Montañez visited Costa del Este at 7:00 A.M. to look for interesting gulls on the puddles in the mud. The first stop was on a large, shallow pond to the left as you descend from the bridge across the Corredor Sur from Chanis, on a large plot of land between the new Colegio San Agustín and the houses. The most interesting bird there was what seemed to be an all-dark Green Heron. Ridgely mentions a melanistic phase found in the lowlands of Bocas del Toro, but Costa del Este is quite a long way from Bocas. We thought this bird was clearly a Green/Striated Heron after comparing it with the real Striated Herons that were all around the same pond. Its plumage was almost black, though, dark brown on the sides of the neck. After that we stopped to watch a flock of gulls standing next to a large puddle next to the mouth of the canal that separates Costa del Este from the mangroves to the east. There was a Franklin's Gull, but the highlight was a possibl...