Xenornis

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...

Emilio González and Geovanny Comparaz had great viewos of a White-tipped Sicklebill perched at close range at El Patriarca trail in Altos de Cerro Azul.

While zipping past Summit Gardens on their way to the PAS Pipeline Road fieldtrip, Rosabel & Karl Kaufmann saw a Capped Heron, on the edge of the small pond just beyond the fence 20 meters before the parking lot.

Just like last year, Delicia & Darién Montañez found an Ochraceous Pewee at the Parque Internacional La Amistad at Las Nubes, Cerro Punta. The bird was calling and flitting around high in a tree above the trail up to the waterfall, but would sometimes come lower allowing for reasonably good looks. A Tufted Flycatcher was seen and heard further up the trail, and in comparison with the pewee was much smaller and lacked the conspicuous buffy wingbars.

Iann Sánchez and Geovanny Comparaz have been seeing a pair of Bat Falcons from their office window on the fifth floor of the Bell South building. The falcons have been seen flying around and perched on a TV antenna on a nearby tall building.

Delicia & Darién Montañez had a fleeting view of what had to be a pair of Glossy Ibis when their bus to Chitré was passing next to the rice fields around the entrance to El Rincón de Santa María, near Ciénaga de Las Macanas. They were near a small group of assorted egrets on a shallow pond about 10 meters from the bus traveling at about 80 km/h.

Darién Montañez had a pretty good view of a Franklin's Gull in breeding plumage when his taxi was zipping down Avenida Balboa. The characteristic chunky jizz was what first called my attention, and the wing pattern (on the upperwing black tips separated from the gray mantle by a broad white band above, and below black tips contrasting sharply with the white underwing) confirmed my suspicions.

On the PAS fieldtrip to Cerro Jefe, Bill Adsett's half of the group found a Stripe-headed (Black-headed) Brush-Finch to the west of Cerro Vistamares. The species, one of the Cerro Jefe specialties, had not been recorded in the area for many years.

On May 1st, 2002, I was birding at the Metropolitan Nature Park. I started my day at the Mono Tití trail and then continued at La Cienaguita trail. At 9:34:07 A.M., at the eleventh station, I saw a bird hanging almost upside down on a branch of a monkey ear tree (Enterolobium cyclocarpum). It was a Crane Hawk. It was slate colored, more grayish than blackish, with thin, long red-orange legs and two white bands on its tail. I stood there watching it for a while, and then another bird flew in and perched on another branch of the same tree, a second Crane Hawk. It was enough for me to see one, but I never thought that I would see two in the same place.

José Tejada, Luis Paz and Emilio Contreras saw a Black-whiskered Vireo at noon at about halfway up Semaphore Hill Road. Later in the day they went to Costa del Este, where they had a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a Western Wood-Pewee (ID'ed by voice).

On Sunday, March 31 at Finca Batipa, Chiriquí, at around 10:00 am, Luis Ríos, Janice Jorgensen and Loyda Sánchez saw a male and two female Vermillion Flycatchers. The male was seen briefly and its red plumage contrasted with the green foliage of the bushes where the females were perched. The females had whitish chests with dusky vertical streaks, white throats and yellow undertail coverts. The females were seen first, and were observed for about five minutes from a distance of about 10 meters. The birds we saw match the illustration of a first year female in The Sibley Guide to Birds (p. 331). The male, which was only seen for about five seconds, had its characteristic red-and-black plumage and was unmistakable. The facial pattern of the females was similar to that of the male, but in white and gray. (report sent in by Loyda Sánchez)

On March 16 visiting bird tour guides John Coons and John Rowlett birded the Xenornis Trail with Dave Kluber and myself. We saw and/or heard many of the specialities - Brown-billed Scythebill, Black-headed Antthrush, Crimson-bellied Woodpecker, Tawny-crowned Greenlet, Black-eared Wood-quail, Slaty-winged Foliage-Gleaner, Striped Woodhaunter, Plain Antvireo, a very tame Tawny-Throated Leaftosser etc., - but no Xenornis. However, there was a pair of Stripe-throated Wrens. As far as I know, the first record of this species in the area was two years ago on the north side of Cerro Vistamares, in rastrojo. Until then, the species had not been recorded west of Nusagandi. This new record is from the west side of Cerro Vistamares, in heavy forest. The birds were identified both by sight and by voice. There was again no sign of Black-headed Brush-finch. I have come to the reluctant conclusion that if nobody sees it soon in the Cerro Jefe-Cerro Vistamares area, we shall have to assume it has been...