Xenornis

A rather short but successful birding extension trip into El Real and Rancho Frio, in the Darien National Park by Advantage Tour's Guido Berguido, revealed a couple of interesting sightings. On March 9, a strategic stop along the Pan-American highway, in the vicinity of the Tierra Nueva property, produced Yellow-breasted Flycatcher. Also noteworthy was a pair of copulating Plumbeous kites way up in a Cuipo tree. Along the Chucunaque river en route to El Real, Black Oropendolas were seen. Late afternoon birding at El Real showcased a small flock of Blue Grosbeaks, as well as a couple of thousand migrating Turkey Vultures with both Broad-winged and Swainson's Hawks. They settled down in the trees near the airstrip for the night. On March 10, near the Rancho Frio ranger station a Harpy Eagle nest contained a healthy-looking eaglet. Exploring the trails near the Rancho Frio Ranger station inside the Darien National Park, produced goodies such as Stripe-throa...

Durante los días patrios decidí ir con unos amigos a visitar el Real y Rancho Frío. El jueves 5 de noviembre, fui al airstrip en la mañana donde me tropecé con este harrier. Este individuo era bien oscuro con algunas rayas blancas por debajo. De acuerdo a la literatura, el juvenil dark morph Long-winged Harrier es todo dark brown y poseen rufous thighs. En una de las fotos se puede ver algo los rufous thighs. Los juveniles northern harrier son oscuros en el chest y luego twany el resto. En rancho frío vimos Double-banded Graytail, Wing-banded Antbird, Yellow-backed Tanager, Scarlet-browed Tanager, Sapayoa, Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, Plumbeous Hawk y Tawny-faced Quail.

Delicia and Darién Montañez spent a week looking for Darién lowland specialties in Jaqué. Good forest was a two-hour hike away from town, but there were enough nice orchards and shrubby areas along the way to keep one distracted. The one day we hired a boat to go upriver (to the better forest) we had torrential rain which pretty much ruined any shot at real birding. Still, we scored some nice sightings, the highlight being a pair of Chapman's Swifts seen flying over the airstrip on the morning of July 5th: large, very dark swifts with long tails, shaped like Chimney Swifts. Every now and then one would fly against a dark background, showing the chin and chest to be only slightly paler than the rest of the underparts. The undertail coverts were not noticeably lighter than the breast. We never got a look at their rumps, but feel pretty confident about the ID. Total observation time was about a minute. All the other swifts seen were Band-rumpeds. Noticeably smaller, with the easily-se...