Xenornis

The highlight of the PAS fieldtrip to Panamá Viejo was a Long-billed Curlew, dicovered by Karl Kaufmann on the mudflats to the right of the visitor center/restaurant.

José Tejada Spent the day birding around Cerro Azul. The best part of his morning at Calle Maipo was meeting a flock of about 15 Blue-fronted Parrotlets feeding at a fruiting tree. They were very hard to see, as they were perched on the top branches, but once located he got good scope views of this seldom (well-)seen species. Then he went to the Kaufmann Villa to look for the Hawk-Eagles, but he decided to check the garden trail first and found it was full of birds. Many trees were fruiting, and they were attended by flocks of the usual fruit-eating species. There were also lots of hummingbirds, including a pair of Garden Emerald, a Green-crowned Brilliant and a bunch of Bronze-tailed Plumeleteers. It was while waiting for hummingbirds, sitting down at the spot where the trail loops back, that he noticed a Barred Puffbird quietly perched in the undergrowth just beyond the trail. The heavy, greenish bill, yellow eyes and white throat were very evident, it was rufous above, buffy below a...

If you still haven’t seen a Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle it must mean you haven’t been to the Kaufmann Cerro Azul Villa lately, as the species has become a regular (The horror! The horror!) up there. As you certainly must remember, Bill Porteous et al. found one there on November 10th, 2000, perched on a tree in the backyard. Well, on Sunday, August 12th, at around 3 P.M. Camilo Montañez, Tim Mitzen and Katie Svihlik saw one fly up from the valley and perch on the same tree. After they had great scope views the bird flew off and started soaring in circles above the yard, as a second individual perched in the same tree, where it was joined by the first one. The pair stayed in place, preening, for about 15 minutes, after which one darted off into the valley, not to be seen again. The second bird stayed for another 15 minutes, until a bunch of Swallow-tailed Kites chased it off. Then on Wednesday, August 15th, Rosabel, José Tejada and Joseph and Susan Bartell stopped to check the backyard a...

On the morning of Sunday, august 5th, Rosabel and Karl Kaufmann and Camilo Montañez saw a flock of Purple Martins flying over the Kaufmann Cerro Azul Villa. About five of them were adult males (with an all-dark plumage), but the age/sex/identity of the others could not be verified. Also, a few Cliff Swallows were tossed in for variety. Then on the following Saturday, August 11th, Rosabel and Karl saw another small flock, this time made-up exclusively of females/juveniles, perched on a wire somewhere in Altos de Cerro Azul. Then on the following Tuesday, August 14th, Tim Mitzen and Katie Svihlik, visiting birders from Colorado, and Darién Montañez had a flock of about 15 birds, males and females/juveniles, perched on and flying around the transmission lines over the railroad tracks by the Gamboa Ammo Dump. And then on the following Saturday, August 18th, the PAS fieldtrip to Tocumen Marsh had at least two males (and who know how many juvenile/females) flying over the rice fields on the ...

Bill Porteous reports finding a small flock of Odontophorus Wood-Quail at Cerro Campana. It was about 5 P.M. and quite dark inside the forest. Upon discovery, the flock scurried uphill twittering whithout giving any hints as to its specific identity. This is the first time in recent history that any Wood-Quail have been reported from the area. Black-eared Wood-Quail have been seen in Campana, but Marbled Wood-Quail remains a possibility.

Brad Herring, a peace corps volunteer, reported seeing a pair of Anhingas on a marsh near Remedios, Chiriquí. According to Ridgely the species is unknown in that province (or at least it was in 1989).

José Tejada drove out on the gravel road to Darién to look for Brown-chested Martins. At the ricefields beyond El Llano he found about 200 in two flocks, but the bird of the day was a Pale-bellied Hermit seen on a swampy clearing beyond the Bayano Bridge. On the way back to the city he found a few more Brown-chested Martins on a big flock of Gray-breasteds near Chepo.

Delicia and Darién Montañez acompannied Bill Porteous on a productive, week-long expedition to the Fortuna area. On Tuesday, July 17th, after a slow day on the Continental Divide and Río Hornito Trails we spent the later part of the afternoon at La Verrugosa Trail, where two Black-headed Nightingale-Thrushes were seen, one in response to a tape of its song and the second one as we climbed up to the cars, singing from the railing on one side of the trail. Also, we saw a female White-crowned Manakin. On the 18th, after being rained on on many different locations, we also spent the late afternoon at La Verrugosa, where we finally had a flock of 3 or 4 Ashy-throated Bush-Tanagers near (but not with) a mixed flock: olive crwons and backs, gray cheeks and throats and lighter gray vents separated by a yellow-olive chest, olive flanks. I managed to catch a glimpse of a Chiriquí Quail-Dove as it walked into the undergrowth and away from the trail. Rosabel and Karl Kaufmann joined us on Thursday...

Delicia and Darién Montañez spent the morning at the Volcán Lakes, looking for Gray-breasted Crake, Spot-crowned Euphonia and Rose-throated Becard. We heard the Crake, but every Euphonia turned out to be a Thick-billed, and every Becard a White-winged. The only noteworthy sighting was that of two American Coots that were browsing through the vegetation on the shores of the lake (with no chicks swimming nearby, in case you were wondering).

Two Peg-billed Finches were seen by Delicia and Darién Montañez on the trail to the waterfall at Parque Internacional La Amistad in Las Nubes, Cerro Punta. The first one, a male, responded to pishing at the first platform (about 100 meters before 'La Nevera'). At first it was assumed to be yet another Slaty Flowerpiercer, but its straight, conical bill with a horn-colored mandible indicated otherwise. It was slate-gray all over, slightly darker on the head and paler below, and there was definitely some yellow on the legs and (especially) around the toes, like the legs of a male Blackpoll Warbler in winter plumage. As we scrambled down the muddy trail we found a second bird, this time a female. Same bill, olive-brown above, buffier below with noticeable dusky streaks in the chest and two clear buffy wingbars. The female was also quite responsive to pishing and was (thus) observed at close range (a meter at most) as it called from a tangle on the left bank of the trail. Further d...

Delicia and Darién Montañez found small flock of terns at the water's edge at Playa El Agallito, Chitré, with two Elegant Terns, one in breeding plumage, and about two dozen Common Terns in various plumages. On another spot there was a smaller flock of a dozen Least Terns, one of which was in breeding plumage.

Bill Porteous sent in the following report: At about 11.00am on 7th June 2001, on the Podocarpus trail in Altos de Campana National Park, at an altitude of about 950m, I was attracted by a call that I did not recognise. I taped it and played it back, and the bird started to move round me in circles, but I had got the impression, from the call, that it was a biggish bird, and I was searching too far away. It therefore took me some time to see it, and I was almost ready to give up when it flew in and sang above my head. It stayed above eye-level, and I was able to note, on tape, that it was dark below, with prominent white streaking on the throat and breast, that it had a long bill, and that its tail was shortish and rounded. I also recorded the comment that I had no idea what it was (!) and this puzzled me, because I thought I knew, more or less, which species were likely to be present. Finally, when I was about to give up and move on, the bird dropped below eye-level, displaying a long...