Xenornis

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.

A group of hardy Panama Auduboners spent last weekend braving weather and lodging and birding around El Real, Darién. After waking up at an ungodly hour on June 12 we made a quick stop at the bridge over Río Mono in the Bayano, where we heard a Barred Puffbird and nothing more. The Pan-American Highway is in excellent condition, and most of the 260 km from the Riande Hotel to Yaviza are freshly-asphalted, thus making it a pleasant four-hour drive. A stop at the marsh just out of Yaviza that had Large-billed Seed-Finches last November was also futile. After a quick lunch at the always-sweltering Yaviza we hopped on our boat and headed for El Real under a light drizzle. Ten minutes later we were being pounded by the heaviest of rains, that didn't stop until we walked into our hotel. During a lull in the storm, about halfway from Yaviza to the point where the Chucunaque River meets the Tuira River, Jan Axel Cubilla looked up from under his raincoat and saw a Black-collared Hawk. Not ...

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...