Xenornis

Pearly-breasted Cuckoo Hoy fuimos a ver aves Karl, George Angehr, Ruth Pierson y yo a Río Mono en Bayano. Llegamos a Río Mono como a las 8:30 am. Allá nos encontramos con Rafael Lau y Franklin Kwai Ben y en minutos llegaron los Ahrens y los Lieurance. Rafa y Franklin estaban desde muy tempranito y cuando nos tocó llegar el cuco tenía un par de minutos de haber salido del nido. No cuco. Cuando llegaron los Ahrens con los Lieurance les pasamos la mala noticia. Nos quedamos como 45 minutos viendo aves en el puente hasta que alguien se dió cuenta que el cuco había retornado y estaba posado con una rama en el pico. Varios de nosotros pudimos tomarles fotos. Ese cuco se metió al nido, acomodó la ramita y se fue, mientras el otro cuco, que estaba muy cerca, escondido entre las ramas, se acercó y se metió en el nido. Ahí lo dejamos. Stilt Sandpiper En la ciénaga de Chepo (donde están los montones de storks), paramos para ver las aves y nos encontramos con varios playeros, entre ellos Pectora...

Two birds nesting at the Rio Mono Bridge in Panama. Slow motion added to aid in examining the lack of primary wing coloration.

Pearly-breasted Cuckoo, new specie for Panama, awful shot, but gonna try another day. Please remember! Do not use playback to not disturb the bird because is nesting. This was today at 10 am - 12 am, never came out of the nest and when I left the cuckoo still there.

My first encounter with this mistery cuckoo was on July 12, the same day Arie Gilbert and Ian Resnick and me saw the Gray-bellied Hawk. We were at Mono Bridge, Bayano early in the morning trying to see a Black Antshrike, suddenly I heard something, a rattle call that I have never heard before. I started playing right away those vagrants cuckoos calls and finally I decided to play Pearly-breasted Cuckoo. The cuckoo started making the rattle call really strong then it flew over our heads and perched on a top of a tree to fly again, this time we got a glimpse of a bird like Yellow-billed Cuckoo size (We could not see wing color but did we see it carring a twig). This cuckoo kept doing the same rattle call but we could not see it anymore. We visited the place twice but nothing. I was joking with my client that I got almost two lifers and a half. The next half I will complete in a couple of days. So I decided to visit Bayano Lake today (July 25) with Alexis Guevara. We stop again ...