Xenornis

As a follow-up to Darién's "Xenornis" report of Streaked Xenops possibly nesting at the río Mono bridge in February, we had good looks at one at the same place on August 19. Despite difficult light, we got some photos that show well the colour and streaking on the lower parts, but not so well those on the upper parts. However, it appears that the streaking on the upper parts is pretty much confined to the neck and shoulders, and does not continue down the upper back as in some races. Dave might be able to elaborate more on that. Are we assuming that these birds are the incomptus race described by Wetmore from Cerro Pirre? I cannot find an illustration of that race anywhere, but the description fits pretty well. In Restall's Birds of Northern South America there is an illustrtion of hetererus of eastern Colombia which is quite similar to the Bayano bird. [And elaborate he did. Dave Klauber: Thanks for the photos Bill. The streaking on the back goes...

A spontaneous visit to the Cerro Punta area in late April yielded the following notable observations in Parque Internacional La Amistad. On 29 April, near the lowest point on Sendero El Retoño, at about 2170m I had an extended intermittent sighting through tangled foliage of a Streaked Xenops , behaving very similarly to the familiar Plain Xenops, including hanging upside down. I noted the obvious streaking, supercillary and malar stripes of the same colour compared with those of different colour of the Plain Xenops and with the supercillary only of the larger Ruddy Treerunner seen the previous day, also hanging upside down. I had another brief sighting of Streaked Xenops (maybe the same one) the following day in tangled foliage just below the park entrance, at about 2100m. These altitudes are higher than the range quoted by Angehr. At the spectacular cascade which is the destination of Sendero La Cascada, at about 2400m, on 30 April, I saw an Ochraceous Pewee , on an exposed perch ...

Last week I joined three different birding journeys in the western side of the country. We began by returning to the Velasquez farm on two occasions with several members of SAP looking for Azuero Parakeet, and got some more pictures, videos and interesting details about this seldom seen endemic bird. During my visit in April there were hundreds of Brown-throated Parakeets in the forest edge and trees in the pasture, the same area that the Azuero Parakeets are using now, however we could only see a single Brown-throated Parakeet in the area. Itzel Fong pointed that some birds have a white eye ring while other have a browner eye ring. I also noted some birds with brown irises and some few had brilliant orange iris. One of the birds had a tiny blue spot in the forehead right above the bill. There were about 60 birds feeding at the fig tree; 4 times more birds than the previous week. The parakeets were doing a lot of grooming and pair bonding activities which we filmed. I also spotted wh...

The first day included Cattle Tyrant seen after a thorough search of the Amador area. On our second day we birded Bayano Road and the trails described in the book “Where to find Birds in Panama”. We got a Pearl Kite to begin the morning and White-eared Conebill, Black Antshrike and Rufous-winged Antwren. During the afternoon we visited the trail across marker 7 km where we found the Golden-green Woodpecker reported previously . We later stoped at Río Mono bridge, where we got a odd looking bird that I called Cinerous Becard. Later during the trip we got better views and discovered the nest and reidentified the birds as One-colored Becards. 
Next Day we visited Birders' View in Cerro Azul. Nando, who takes care of the place and is an outstanding guide for the area, took us around the new trails and showed us briefly a Tawny-faced Quail . After our picnic lunch we saw an Ornate Hawk-Eagle gliding fast in front of back terrace. During our 5th day, from the veranda of our shelter ...

Just to back up Benicio's report , Alred Raab, Mark and Joanie Hubsinger and I were at Bayano the day before (12/4), and found a female-plumaged Cinereous Becard at the Río Mono, which also responded to playback. Another interesting sighting was a female-plumaged Yellow-rumped Warbler , and late in the day on our return trip we also found a pair of Streaked Xenops , identified by voice as well as plumage. They appeared a bit distinctly-streaked for the race incomptus I would expect at Bayano- I wonder if any judgement as to subspecies was reached on the bird digiscoped by Kilo Campos at this same locale.

During a recent Advantage Tours birding trip in Central and Eastern Panama along with Bruce Cohen and Dale Dillavou, we had some interesting observations. On April 7th, while birding at the San Francisco Reserve near Tortí, we managed to record a few noteworthy hummingbirds like the Band-tailed Barbthroat, Blue-throated Goldentai l , Scaly-breasted Hummingbird, and Long-billed Starthroat. Walking along the forest edge we found Red-rumped Woodpecker, Spot-breasted Woodpecker , Sulphur-rumped Tanager and a flock of Dusky-faced Tanagers by the steam. Also a year-bird for me: a Red-billed Scythebill . Additionally, we noticed a pair of Orange-crowned Orioles nesting under a Banana leaf. Other interesting sightings were Black Antshrike , Bare-crowned Antbirds, Sooty-headed Tyrannulet , and no fewer than 5 different individuals of Royal Flycatcher, including a displaying female. Five species of puffbird were recorded: Pied, Black-breasted, White-whiskered, and Barred, as well as White-f...

March 3 : White-crested Coquette at her nest in Cuesta de Piedra. March 6: Golden-naped Woodpecker at Santa Clara. Also Gray-crowned Yellowthroat and White-throated Flycatcher at Volcán Lakes. March 29: Strong-billed Woodcreeper at La Rana Trail in El Copé, with Kereen Álvarez. April 30: Streaked Xenops at Lake Bayano, with Laura Reyes. I used playback and the bird came in right away.