Xenornis

Acabo de tomar esta foto, 11:20am. Esta hembra está posada en la recta que va detrás de El Rey de Albrook al área residencial, cerca del cuadro de beisbol y la piscina.

I always thought of Snail Kite as a bird of marshlands and lakes. However, today as we came down from Cerro Cara Iguana in El Valle de Antón, we found this juvenile resting over a little dam next to the road. I checked the birdlist provided by the Canopy Lodge in 2005 and there is no mention of this species been there in El Valle. The pictures are not the best since I use my cellphone and binoculars to make them.

This immature Snail Kite was seen on the road to Playa El Toro. There are 2 or 3 fresh water ponds and streams in the area, and I'm sure that there are many snails, for my trees on the other side of town are full of them. Are tree snails edible? Escargot anyone?

On October 18, Rosabel Miró went with a visiting Department of Defense Partners in Flight group to the mouth of the Matías Hernández River, where they spotted a female Snail Kite . This is the first report of the species from the area, that has been heavily birded since 1994. She also reports hearing from freelance bird guide Gustavo Zevallos about a Harpy Eagle seen on October 21 on the banks of the Chagres River, about 10 minutes from the town of Emberá Drúa.

Rosabel and Karl Kaufmann stopped by the lake in Albrook and found a Snail Kite enjoying, of course, a snail. This is the first recent record from the Pacific side of the Canal Area, the previous one being the original sighting from Chivo Chivo Ponds. Also present was a clearly overworked Black-bellied Whistling-Duck single parent, escorting a raft of thirty-two obedient ducklings.

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...

Karl & Rosabel Kaufmann, Chris Rhodes and Darién Montañez visited la ciénaga de Las Macanas to look for Aplomado Falcon. An immature Snail Kite was seen perched on a low fence post right by the main road out to Chitré, about 300 meters before the entrance to Rincón de Santa María. The first Aplomado was seen on a field that was being plowed in front of the entrance to the observation tower. The field was full of. It was standing on the ground, surrounded by Cattle Egrets and Caracaras, with a recently caught morsel in its talons. A second bird was seen diving at a male Snail Kite over the ciénaga. Then a third bird was seen perched on the wires next to the interamerican highway a few kilometers past Divisa. At the marsh itself we found a flock of at least 33 Fulvous Whistling-Ducks seen together with a similar number of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. The ducks were standing on the shallow ponds near the edge of the ciénaga about 100 meters before the observation tower. They were bu...

Delicia, Pedro and Darién Montañez saw a female Snail Kite eating a snail on a fencepost by the main entrance to El Rincón de Santa María. An ANAM park ranger said that it has been around for about a month. This is, to my knowledge, the second report from Azuero of the species. The flock of Lesser Scaup was not at the Ciénaga, and neither were the Caspian Terns. The Scaup were still there on wednesday (Feb 16), though. Francisco Delgado reports American Oystercatchers at Isla Iguana, possibly the first time they've been seen there. Also, he found a Gray-breasted Crake dead-on-the-road at Playa Blanca, and a Forster's Tern at El Agallito. On February 20, a brief morning visit to the road that goes into the mangroves at the right from El Agallito produced an even briefer sighting of a female Common Ground-Dove. Also, a White-winged Dove made a fly-by appearance.

A flock of six Snail Kites was seen flying along the coast at Ft. Sherman, Colón. Also seen was a Savanna Hawk and various migratory warblers. The fields along the airstrip were crawling with shorebirds, including a Buff-breasted Sandpiper.

Loyda Sánchez and Charlotte Elton saw a bunch of Snail Kites and a male Purple Martin flying over Lake Gatún at Nueva Providencia, Colón.

A female  Snail Kite was seen working Ammo Dump Lake. No Tree swallows were present, though.