Xenornis

On the 7th of October, walking around Tranquilo Bay ecoadventure lodge, located on the south peninsula of the Bastimentos Island we observed a male  Blue-thoated Goldentail  perched and then fighting a Green-breasted Mango. Fortunately one of the guests, Christopher Ng, had a camera, and got some good pictures for identification.  The following day, in birding excursion to the Snyder canal, at the San San Pond Sak wetland, we observed a Black-collared Hawk. It was not afraid at all with our presence, and gave several opportunities to photograph it.  Also seen was an immature Bare-throated Tiger-Heron . In the same area were several hundreds small dead fishes, all of them where the same species and in a high grade of decomposition.

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...

In his thorough essay of yesterday, Matt Miller sheds some light on the big mess that is field separation (or lack thereof) of the mangoes of western Panama. Read on, dear readers, if you dare. The bottom line: range simply cannot be used to separate Green-breasted Mango from Veraguan Mango, as specimens of both types have been obtained in both slopes, sometimes from the same site at the same time. Adult males are different enough, but we don't know nothing about no fieldmarks for no females nor juveniles, and there may not be any. The only sure way to establish if there are differences (or if Veraguans and Green-breasteds are too much of the same thing to be called different species) is to obtain a bigger sample, i.e. get more specimens, which will probably horrify them birders; but here at Xenornis we're all in favor of the advancement of science, especially if it gets us more ticks in our life lists. Matt's contribution to the blogosphere, Neo-Ornithology, promises a w...

His Formerfieldeditorshipness Dodge Engleman weighs in on the identity of the Mangoes photographed during the PAS trip to Miguel de La Borda, Donoso, in eastern Colón: I think we have to go with Veraguan Mango: no black in male breast; black in juv. doesn’t go up to the bill. But this group is a mess and may yet prove to be variation in a single sp. Unless there is a size or bill shape difference of course in which case it will bear waiting until enough specimens are collected (only window kills I hope!) to work it out. I was thinking that when we went to Panajungla in the mid ‘90’s we were referring to Storrs Olson’s paper on Bocas (’93) for our diagnosis of Breen-breasted and I believe I recall he mentioned differences in the rufous on the underparts. The HBW isn’t much help, even with references. May a note to NEORN would result in a reply re reference to Anthracothorax?

Last weekend, a small group of brave Panama Auduboners headed on an exploratory trip to Miguel de La Borda and the recently-declared Donoso Protected Area. El viernes en la tarde, en los alrededores del pueblo, como a eso de las 4 pm nos encontramos con varios Veraguan [?—see below] Mangos (no menos de 4 manchos, 1 hembra). Les adjuntamos fotos de los colibríes. El sábado en la mañana, como a eso de las 8:00am, en el Río Miguel de la Borda nos encontramos con varias decenas de Turkey Vultures migratorios que, al parecer, pasaron la noche en los potreros aledaños al río. Te adjuntamos una foto también. Adicional, nos tocó observar el viernes, sábado y domingo grupos pequeños de vultures migrando. Esa misma mañana, el el sendero de Quebrada El Caño, a diez minutos del pueblito de Guásimo (a orillas del río Miguel de La Borda) nos encontramos con un pequeño bosque de heliconias donde observamos a un Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer posado. Más arriba, en el mismo sendero observamos unos ...