Xenornis

The past March 17th 2011, leading a group around Fort Sherman at San Lorenzo National Park, we saw a couple of Palm Warblers on a road that goes from Shelter Bay Marina entering the former Post Theater and Church. This road goes to a set of barrack stile housing and in bethween there is a large loop with low grass land. There we saw two of them feeding very actively.

On November 6, Rosabel & Karl Kaufmann and Delicia & Darién Montañez drove out to Yaviza and El Real, Darién, in search of all those potential lifers they had been missing out on. As we approached Yaviza at around noon, we stopped at some promising marshes, about 7.5 km before town. After a few scorching minutes Rosabel spotted a female and young Large-billed Seed-Finches in the brush while a male or two sung from exposed branches nearby. Also heard at the spot was a Little Cuckoo. At El Real, no additional seed-finches were seen at the airstrip, which was also devoid of Yellow-hooded Blackbirds. As dusk approached, and after the rain stopped, a Donacobius scolded us from the grass while a singing Willow Flycatcher made brief appearances. The first of many flocks of Spectacled Parrotlet and Black Oropendola . The next day and a half produced Pale-bellied Hermit, Yellow-breasted Flycatcher, Red-billed Scythebill, possible first Darién records of Sharp-shinned Hawk, Tropica...

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.

Ken Wysocki and Steve Huggins, visiting birders from Chicago, and Darién Montañez discovered an adult European Starling in winter plumage at Fort Sherman, Colón. The bird was first seen at 2:30 P.M. on the grass just beyond the Shimmy Beach fence behind the last of the row of houses. The bird was walking near (but not with) a few Great-tailed Grackles, and was observed both on the ground and in flight for about 20 minutes. Apart from its white spots, the smaller size, shorter tail and more vertical stance gave it a completely different jizz from that of any other Panamanian bird, making it almost impossible to misidentify, and it should be easy to pick out from even the biggest blackbird flock. This is only the second report of Starling in Panama, the previous one being of another single adult seen twice at Albrook in February of 1979. This bird did not seem to be particularly tame (it flew off when approached) or starved (it did not rush to feed on the Pringles offered by the observer...

A bunch of Palm Warblers were seen at Ft. Sherman (Gilles Seutin, Bill Porteous), and a female Black-throated Blue Warbler on the road to the Brazos Golf Course (Delicia and Darién Montañez).