Xenornis

As promised, Alfred Raab sent in photos of the Long-winged Harrier seen by him, Mark and Joanie Hubinger an Ken Allaire on April 11, 2010 . From the photos it looks like a normal-morph adult, perhaps a male (although the underparts in the last photo look pretty buffy).

Alfred Raab, Marc and Joanie Hubsinger and I found a Long-winged Harrier on Sunday at about 1:00, completely by coincidence as we had not read Kilo's post. Alfred and Marc both obtained excellent photo documentation, which will be posted at their earliest opportunity. But our bird was definitely a light-morph male, not a dark-morph as Kilo described— our photos prove this conclusively. We also got close to a couple of rice fields and I had an all-too-brief look at a Spotted Rail in a small patch of irrigated rice.

Euclides Campos and Alex Guevara tried to visit the now off-limits Tocumen Marsh this morning; access was denied, as is often the case of late. Still, they stopped at a lookout over the rice fields and, using a spotting scope, identified a distant all-black harrier with gray primaries as a dark morph adult male Long-winged Harrier . Alas, the rice fields were too far off to try to spot any rails.

Yesterday morning I visited Tocumen ricefields. Saw thousands of Dickcissels in huge flocks plus 1 Spotted Rail (+1 heard), and 2 Paint-billed Crakes . At least that is what I guess they were due to bright red shields. Unfortunately I did not see the underside of the tail. The crown was definitely gray, not brownish.

Karl Kaufmann and George Angehr visited Tocumen Marsh this morning for the harvesting of the rail rice patch. Unfortunately, most of the rice was already gone by the time they arrived at the spot and so were the birds. A Yellow-breasted Crake was still around, though. And so it ends. Who knows where they all went. Hopefully we won't have to wait another 24 years for more reports of Spotted Rail or Paint-billed Crake.

Dave Klauber sent in an update on the Tocumen Marsh rail invasion. Photo by Bill Adsett. This morning [March 28] there were 5 of us who arrived separately, Bill Adsett and Mark (family used to own Tocumen) and Bill and Claudia Ahrens and me, arriving around 6:45. A Field Guides group led by John Rowlett arrived shortly after, but from talking with them they didn't see much different from what we saw. Rowlett commented on I think 6 Spotted Rails, 4 adults and 2 sub-adults. We probably had at least 4, including one or two adults and sub-adults, but no downy young, other than black downy Purple Gallinule chicks. We all had great, long views of a Yellow-breasted Crake (lifer!) and Mark may have seen one or two more. NOT seen or heard were Paint-billed or Gray-breasted Crakes. Several Soras were also seen. In the first hour or so there were only one or two, but a bit later a few came out, including at least two that were doing a strange wing shaking behavior in plain sight on the ber...

Here's another batch of Tocumen Neocrex photos taken by Jeremiah Trimble on March 9. Especially intriguing is this last photo, that seems to show a bird with both a buffy undertail and black-and-white barring on the flanks (or sides of the tail). Upon examining it, George Angehr remarked Curiouser and curiouser. The specmen I have, while very extensively barred below, has a very few buffy feathers just below the tail. The top of the crown is definitely slaty, with the brown feathers starting just at the rear end of the top of the head. Paint-billed is supposed to have the center of crown brownish, according to the Rails book. As Dodge has already pointed out, the first photos Rosabel got last week seem to show a Colombian. While th full underparts aren't visible, the area just below the tail, the thighs, and lower flanks appear to be buffy without any clear barring, although there are a few pale flecks. The crown appears to be entirely slaty. From the illustration in the Rails...

Karl Kaufmann reports. Here are some more photos taken March 15 at Tocumen. We had about 10 people this time. We spoke with the person who is leasing the property to grow rice. He said that the field on the west side of the road which had just been harvested was the dry variety of rice while that on the east side was wet rice. He plans to harvest the wet rice in April, so we have a few weeks more to see the rails. His lease runs out in 4 years, so apparently the fields will remain as rice fields at least until then. He also said that this year was the first year that he, or apparently anyone, had planted rice in October instead of December. Apparently the rice responds well to the extra sunlight available in the first part of the year. Perhaps this is related to the reason for such an unusual concentration of crakes and rails. In two more months, the young rails might be able to fly and the parents would disperse when the rice is harvested. Or maybe not. A pair of soras, showing size d...

This is what Tocumen Marsh's former rail haven looked like this morning, post harvesting and burning. The berm of plenty is now surrounded by scorched earth. Compare with the picture taken on Sunday. Luckily, the other side of the road is still lush and raily. Spotted Rails were still pretty common. Today we saw many more adults than on Sunday, but there were plenty of juveniles and chicks of all sizes present. Soras remained dirt common and we saw a few White-throated Crakes. No Gray-breasteds, though. Also we had great views of two Paint-billed Crakes sunning on the berm at the edge of the rice. These were more like the typical fieldguide illustration of an adult Paint-billed: bright salmon legs, bicolored bill, prominent black-and-white barring on the flanks and undertail. We even got to see the red eye and brown nape and crown. Also seen a couple of times (even photographed by Rosabel) was Yellow-breasted Crake, a lifer for most of the audience (which included Rosabel Miró, ...

Word has it that Venicio Wilson visited the rail spot on Tocumen Marsh yesterday and saw Spotted Rail and Paint-billed Crake but, more importantly, farm equipment being deployed for the imminent harvesting of the rice. Then this afternoon Jan Axel Cubilla spent the afternoon on the site and reported the whole right side of the road, where the raily berm was, had been harvested and burned, but the left side was still intact. So, you better hurry. A group of brave birders is again planning to hit Tocumen tomorrow morning, so expect a first-hand report tomorrow.

Karl Kaufmann sent in some pictures of the rail site and the rails themselves taken last Saturday and Sunday. The road out to the beach, flanked by channels of iffy-smelling water on both sides. Happy birders looking at the berm. The berm, running perpendicular to the road. The berm, crawling with rails: six soras and a Paint-billed. Juvenile Spotted Rail. Adult Spotted Rail.

Rosabel Miró sent in two additional photos of the Paint-billed Crakes seen yesterday morning at Tocumen. Then George Angehr also sent in photos of the specimen he wrestled from a hungry Great Egret. Notice the noticeable barring on the flanks, thighs and undertail, visible on today's batch of Rosabel photos, but NOT on yesterday's. This raises the question: were there Colombian Crakes present after all? Some brave birders are again hitting Tocumen Marsh on Wednesday morning to try and find out. Stay tuned. Here's a photo by Jeremiah Trimble: Then Carlos Bethancourt sent in the cream of his crop of Leica photos. Notice on the photo above how the barring on the flanks is very prominent. Also, the legs are brighter red than on the bird on the top two photos. This looks more like the adult Paint-billed Crake from your average field guide. Perhaps the plain-looking birds are juveniles? Finally, here's Carlos' photo of the dead Paint-billed, fresh out of the egret's j...

As promised, early this morning found a group of intrepid birders (including Rosabel and Karl Kaufmann, George Angehr, Carlos Bethancourt, Jeremiah Trimble, Steve Langer and Darién and Camilo Montañez) at Tocumen Marsh, hoping for the Spotted Rails and Paint-billed Crakes seen in the area since last Friday. And o what a morning it proved to be, with six species of Rallids seen and lifers galore for everyone involved. A juvenile Spotted Rail was spotted almost immediately upon reaching the spot, which is on the road out to the beach, about 100 meters before the end of the section of road with rice fields and ditches on both sides. More interesting was the gray wing and red leg dangling out of the bill of a Great Egret, which flew off a bit but then was convinced by George to give up its booty: the third Panama specimen of Paint-billed Crake. After a few White-throated Crakes (seen by Camilo), lots of Soras and a smaller number of Spotted Rails, Rosabel called the group from a spot fu...

Rosabel Miró sent in a full report of today's goings at Tocumen Marsh, lavishly illustrated with some amazing photos: A las 7:21 am del sábado 6 de marzo, a los 5 minutos de haber estacionado el auto, observé en las Ciénagas de Tocumen un rálido que a la distancia parecía un Gray-necked Wood-Rail. Al verlo con binoculares me di cuenta que era un Spotted Rail adulto (patas rojas, pico amarillo con rojo, pecho blanco y negro) y alerté al resto del grupo. En esta primera observación estaban Claudia y Bill Ahrens y Karl Kaufmann. Minutos después se nos unió Samuel Britton de Ancon Expeditions y dos turistas que lo acompañaban (Marie Joan Hardie y Jean Okuye). En el transcurso de las 2 horas que estuvimos observando en el mismo lugar, un montículo de tierra al lado de un canal de agua, pudimos observar cómo un grupo de 8-10 Jacanas compartían la misma área con 6 Spotted Rails (3 adultos, 3 juveniles), 15 Soras (habían más volando en los campos de arroz), un juvenil de Purple Gallin...

Rosabel Miró visited Tocumen Marsh this morning looking for Spotted Rail. Seen were a couple of Soras, four Spotted Rails and a Paint-billed Crake, also unreported from panama since 1984. Again, more details to come as they become available.

Carlos Bethancourt sent in apparently the first Panama record of Spotted Rail from Panama since 1984. The birds, an adult and chick, were seen this morning in Tocumen Marsh by Field Guides Inc.'s Chris Benesh and George Armistead and Canopy Tower's José Perez, who took the amazing photo above. They were at the edge of a rice field along the road to the beach. A flock of birders is assembling to hit the spot early tomorrow morning, so expect an update within 24 hours.

The Canopy Tower's Carlos Bethancourt sent in the following reports: I am just writing to report a couple of bird sighting that I had last week while leading a VENT tour with Kevin Zimmer. On Wednesday Feb 6 around 8:30 am we had a White-eyed Vireo that was very vocal. The bird was on the road to the spillway area in Gatún Locks; I was able to get a decent recording of it. In the same area we had about 6 females Indigo Bunting plus a pair of Dickcissel. On Friday Feb 8 in Tocumen marsh I had a nice Northern Shoveler. I was able to get a picture of this bird that was very far away as you can see a little bit of the white crescent that show on the side of the face. Also attached is a picture of that elusive bird, the Pheasant Cuckoo, that I saw on Plantation Trail this morning. They are getting into the season since they have been very vocal lately.

The Canopy Tower's Carlos Bethancourt reports a male Hooded Warbler seen today, somewhere in Metropolitan Nature Park. This seems to be a good season for hoodeds, with males seen both on the Central christmas count (beyond the telephone tower enclosure atop "Renacer" hill) and on the Atlantic count (at the former Fort Davis.) He also reports seeing a single Long-billed Dowitcher yesterday morning, in with a flock of Short-billeds on the road out to the beach at Tocumen Marsh. The Long-billed was identified mainly based on its call. Also seen there was Stilt Sandpiper.

Ariel Aguirre sends in these photos of an adult Lark Sparrow seen at Tocumen Marsh on November 20, whilst in the company of George Carpentier, Tony Bigg and Peter Hogenbirk. More details coming soon, hopefully.