Xenornis

Botanist Alicia Ibañez invited George Angehr, William Adsett and Venicio Wilson to join her expedition to Damani-Guariviara Ramsar Site in the Ño Kribo Region, Kusapin District in the Ngabe-Bugle Reservation. Before departing to Rio Cañas, we visited the trail to La Estrella community, next to the Rio Guarumo River in Punta Peña-Almirante Road looking for Melodious Blackbirds. Instead, we found 2 Grayish Saltators . This sighting extends the range of this recently reported species a bit more into the east. During our visit to Rio Caña and the Damani-Guariviara Wetlands we had some interesting findings. White-crowned Pigeons were seen 3 days in a row in the town of Rio Cañas, a new locality for this species in Panama. Three Crested Guans were spotted while navigating the Tiger Head River (Tagajed in the maps). Green Ibis were common, as was Olive-backed Euphonia . The most remarkable findings were the dark form of the Green Heron (described by Ridgely in his book), Least Bittern ...

Björn Anderson photographed a pair of Speckled Antshrikes at Nusagandi today.

Bill & Claudia Ahrens photographed this male Rufous-crested Coquette feeding at the raspberry flowers in their Cerro Azul yard this afternooon. UPDATE: Leslie Lieurance visited the Ahrens this afternoon and filmed a female coquette. Video here .

Bueno, la semana pasada me la pasé pajareando por la Serranía de Pirre con Alex Guevara y nuestro guía Isaac Pizarro. El 8 de mayo observamos un Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper en una quebrada cerca de Rancho Plástico, el mismo lugar que George menciona en su libro. La Yellow-collared Chlorophonia la vimos el día 11 exactamente en la parte más alta de la Serranía de Pirre, ya que encontramos un bench mark (punto geodésico en forma de pirámide de aluminio). El GPS marcaba 1456 msnm pero en el mapa aparece 1444 msnsm lo que nos indica que estabamos en el punto exacto. Otros pájaros de interes vistos durante nuestra visita fueron: Green-naped tanager, Golden-crowned Flycatcher, Beautiful Treerunner, Bare-shanked Screech-Owl, Gray-and-gold Tanager, Tooth-billed Hummingbird, Varied Solitaire, Choco Tapaculo, Pirre Bush-Tanager, Sooty-headed Wren, Russet-crowned Quail-Dove, Yellow-green Grosbeak, Pirre Humingbird, Sharpbill, Ruddy Foliage-Gleaner, Winged-banded Antbird, Yellow-browed Shrike-V...

The numbers are in, and only five months after the fact. Total species reported during the 2009 Christmas Bird Counts are as follows: Pacific Count (Dec. 20): 304 species, 20 observers. Central Count (Dec. 27): 287 species, 20 observers. Volcán Count (Dec. 27): 170 species, 40 observers. Atlantic Count (Jan. 3): 282 species, 20 observers. The totals for the Central and Atlantic counts are the highest since 2001, thanks no doubt to the total number of participants, which was at its highest since 1999.

Jennifer Wolcott photographed this white phase Reddish Egret at Playa Pedasí (across from Isla Iguana on the mainland) on February 4. Reddish Egrets are rather rare in Panama, and the white phase is even rarer, with only one previous report from Playa El Agallito.

Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoos continue at Rainforest Discovery Center. Bill & Claudia Ahrens took us there today. With the help of Norteamericano birders we found the ant swarm, which seemed pretty quiet to me. The spot is found by walking from the parking lot, back up the entrance road and entering the trail system at the "Salida Exit" sign on the gate. Just past the observation platform at the Mirador we walked down the ravine to the flat portion at the bottom, where Cindy spotted the first bird. Also present were several Ocellated and Bicolored Antbirds. Soon, one of the Center's guides led 4 Dutch birders down to the spot who also saw the birds. Later, at the Center, the Dutchmen told me they eventually saw 3 birds.

A group of three Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoos have taken residence at an army ant swarm that's taken residence around the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center. First seen on Wednesday, the birds were still present as of this afternoon.

A report by Octavio Ríos: El pasado 20 de Abril en horas de la tarde me encontraba realizando una gira de Kayak en los manglares del área de Portobelo. Ya les habia comentado que había visto algo que parecia un Scarlet Ibis y después de un año lo pude ver nuevamente. En este caso le pude tomar fotos las cuales adjunto. Habia un grupo de White Ibis y sólo uno color rosa. Como no tenia binoculares en ese momento no pude ver detalles pero me parece algún tipo de inmaduro. Discusion: The closest to Panama that Scarlet Ibis is normally found is in the lower Magdalena Valley in Colombia. White Ibis and Scarlet Ibis hybridize often in areas where their ranges overlap in Venezuela and Colombia, leading some scientists and experts to consider them a single species composed of two subspecies. Hybridization was first documented in Florida, where Scarlet Ibis eggs were introduced from Trinidad in 1961. The first hybrids were pink and salmon colored. In colonies where hybridization occurs, ...

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 ...

This Brown Violetear was photographed today at the barranca in Alto Boquete. Quoth J, the photographer: Finally got a photo (took it a few minutes ago) of the Brown Violetear. The last time this guy was here was July 2007 when he hung out for about a week. Anyway it's nice to finally prove this bird gets to this area.

This weekend Björn Anderson, Euclides Campos and I took a whirlwind trip to Chiriquí to seek out a few target birds. On Saturday we visited Cerro Santiago; Yellow-green Finch [a Panama endemic listed as Vulnerable by IUCN ] was found easily (photo by Björn), almost from the moment we stepped out of our transport, but Glow-throated Hummingbird [another Panama endemic listed as Vulnerable by IUCN ] made us work. For most of the morning we had only female or immature Selasphorus , and one male that only I saw briefly, almost certainly a Scintillant. A male Glow-throated finally appeared just before we were to depart, much to our relief. We carefully studied the tail patterns and underparts of a number of females, and Björn captured some outstanding photos. When he's sorted through we plan to create a webpage, as a Google search of the Glow-throated Hummingbird offers little regarding females of the species, and even Ridgely and HBW offer somewhat confusing information and illustrati...