Xenornis

[Tuesday, January 13] These are the popular Whistling Herons that are being reported frecuently from the pond at Gorgona's Malibu residential proyect; I finally decided to go and search for them to get my lifer; however the pictures are not so good due to the far distance and heat waves making the pictures blurry; well a success anyways!! Thanx to Rafael Lau and Justo Camargo for the information about the location to get to the place and to Niurka Castillo for joining me for an early start that day. I also happened to find this group of Masked Ducks consisting of one male and four females which spent the whole day foraging at the center of the pond far from the edges asociating with a group of nearby Blue-winged Teals and Common Moorhens. Through the day for many hours (and to my surprise) the Masked Ducks never searched for the concealment of the plants at the edge of the pond.

The two Whistling Herons that have taken residence at the pond in Playa Malibú ( first seen on July 15 by Euclides Campos ) have been visited by many a birder in the last few days.    First were Venicio Wilson and Maurice Posner, who went there on the morning of Wednesday, January 7. They found them on the fields north of the pond, where they also had a juvenile Tricolored Heron that may be the mysterious possible third Whistling Heron reported previously. The pond had Masked Duck and the Lesser Scaup reported previously, as well as many American Coots . On the morning of Friday, January 9, Delicia, Camilo and Darién Montañez tried yet again, this time successfully. The two birds were on the edges of the greener grass around the small pond on the NE of the big pond. The juvenile Tricolored was also there, so caveat emptor. The pond had a raft of 6 female Masked Ducks (out in the open, too), lots of Coots and two Lesser Scaup . That same afternoon had Rolando Jordán v...

Alfred Raab visited the fresh water pond near the ocean in Gorgona yesterday evening and found ten American Coots and a female Masked Duck . Turn left at Gorgona, which is after the large meadow on the right of the Pan-Am highway. Keep going straight for a few km's. Then you come a fork, take the left branch (it is almost straight). After the large (bankrupt?) development you will see the large pond on your left. The female masked duck was on the far side across the lake in the marsh. You need a good scope to see it.

[A very preliminary report] A lot of people went out at ungodly hours of the morning and managed to count a lot of birds. Highlights, compiled from my hazy memory of a hot midday roll-call, follow: Plantation Road: Speckled Mourner. Old Gamboa Road: Blackpoll Warbler, Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher, Plain-breasted Ground-Dove. Metropolitan Nature Park: Worm-eating Warbler, Streak-headed Woodcreeper, American Coot. Panamá Viejo: Long-billed Curlew, Cocoi Heron, Elegant Tern, Franklin's Gull. Amador: Cattle Tyrant, a couple Brown Boobies and a single Blue-footed. Rodman Spoil Ponds: The first record (voice only, as usual) of Gray-breasted Crake from the Pacific Canal Area (that I know of). Four American Coots, a couple Glossy Ibis, and the only Masked Duck to grace our records in recent memory (that i know of. also the first one from the Pacific Side, that i know of.) Photo by Rosabel Miró.

On our way back from the PAS fieldtip to Santa Fe, we made a short detour to check out Las Macanas Marsh, near Santa María, and had a number of pretty good sightings. Orquídea found a juvenile Great Blue Heron, and Snail Kites were everywhere, as were Glossy Ibis. A Limpkin flushed from the vegetation near the small dock and flew to the other side of the marsh and Delicia had an even briefer look at what had to be a Masked Duck, small, brown and with white wingpatches, which flew up from the vegetation and dove down almost immediately. Among the thousands of Wattled Jacanas which were all over the place was a weird individual with what appeared to be an all-brown back (which stayed in the vegetation, ducking out of sight frequently). The red rictal lappets (the wattles) were visible thrugh the scope, but the top part of its red frontal plate was bluish white, which made this bird look even weirder. But the birds of the day were without a doubt the Fulvous Whistling-Ducks. The first sig...

José Tejada, Karl & Rosabel Kaufmann, Chris Rhodes and Darién Montañez stopped over at la Ciénaga de Las Macanas to look for the Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, but there were only a few Black-bellieds around. Two Masked Ducks were glimpsed briefly as they dove into the floating vegetation, though.

From 27th to 31st March Bill Porteous was in Chiriqui and sends the following report: On 27th March there was a lot of activity on the new trail at El Respingo above Cerro Punta, and a pair of Silvery-throated Jays joined a pair of Emerald Toucanets in the same tree, where they were later joined, briefly, by a pair of Black Guans! On the 28th there at least two Masked Ducks, both female-plumaged birds, at Volcan Lakes. In the evening, in the clearing above the first forest patch above Cerro Punta, Dusky Nightjar sang, and then reacted to tape playback by landing on a post in full view where it continued singing. On the old Oleoducto Road in Palo Seco on the 30th there was White-bellied Mountain-Gem at the top, and Lattice-tailed Trogon further down, where the pipeline crosses a small valley. Rufous-breasted Antthrushes were singing on both sides of the road, and a good view was had of one of them. They were singing as well on the Continental Divide Trail, where I was surprised by the n...