Xenornis

On 9 September I walked up to about 3100 m on Volcan Baru. At around 3000 m I saw a Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl being mobbed by Peg-billed Finches and a Fiery-throated Hummingbird. A bit further up, at around 3100, the bamboo was seeding and there were plenty of Peg-billed Finches and Large-footed Finches feeding.

My excuse for the low activity in this blog over the last couple of months, besides the yearly lull in birding before the fall migrant season, is that I’ve been hard at work, together with fellow Audubon Panamá member and fellow blogger Jan Axel Cubilla , on revamping the base checklists and filters for the Republic of Panama on eBird, part of the new eBird Centroamérica portal . Yes, we are now regional editors. Fame and fortune, here we come! Quoth the Cornell University press report : Ithaca, NY--The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has launched eBird Centroamérica , a regional Internet portal providing birders, scientists, and the general public with open access to its worldwide eBird database. eBird is a citizen-science project collecting bird observations to document spatial and temporal patterns in bird distribution. Central America is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, with about 1,160 species of birds. eBird already includes 2 million observation records for the 7 count...

Charles Davies, Jan Axel Cubilla, Dan Wade and I made a trip to the Cerro Santiago and Cerro Colorado area from August 8 to 11. The road is now asphalted all the way to Entrada de Hacha (correct name for "Acha" in Where to Find Birds in Panamá) on the Continental Divide, ie beyond the area on the flanks of Cerro Santiago commonly—but erroneously—referred to as Cerro Colorado, where sightings have been made in previous years of the two endemics, Yellow-green Finch and Glow-throated Hummingbird.  We continued beyond Entrada de Hacha on the rough track that after a kilometer or so goes over the real Cerro Colorado and thence to the village of Ratón, where it ends. We stayed right on the Continental Divide at a basic cabin we have dubbed the Yellow-green Finch Ecolodge, about 4 km beyond Entrada de Hacha. Accommodation here costs $5.00 per night—great views and great birds! At and near the cabin we had good sightings every day of the finch and other good birds su...

I recently returned from a target trip to Panama and wanted to share a couple of sightings we had during our time there. The group consisted of myself, Harry Barnard, Jason Horn and Macklin Smith. Harry, Jason and myself arrived fairly early to Panama City from Costa Rica on June 30 and decided to see if there were any rarities hanging around [Panamá] Viejo, before Macklin arrived. After an hour of scanning with birds being very distant due to low tied we had a late breakfast and then returned to find the tide was now coming in, bringing birds with it. Amongst the Laughing Gulls and one breeding plumage Franklin's Gull (which didn't make it north) we found a gorgeous Gray-hooded Gull . I had read on Xenornis that one was seen in July of 2012. I was able to get a few definitive photos of this vagrant. A nice start to the trip to say the least. Macklin had seen the one in Coney Island so he had it on his North American list already. Our next surprise came the last ful...

I visited Cuesta de Piedra with Rick Kirwan on April 19, where I spotted this  Yellow-bellied Tyrannulet (photographed by Rick). This is the second time I see this bird in the area.

Johnathan Hruska and a group of his Cornell friends found this Lincoln's Sparrow whilst spring breaking in Chiriquí. The bird was seen on March 20 just before dusk, on one of the pastures by the main road in the town of Guadalupe, about 250 meters west of Los Quetzales Lodge. Lincoln's Sparrow is a very rare vagrant, with just three previous records, including one from Finca Lérida in 1988. Then on April 10, Genover Santamaría published another photo of Lincoln's Sparrow, also from Guadalupe. This is most likely the same bird, unless we're talking full-fledged invasion.

On April 5, Craig Bennett photographed this young male  Yellow-headed Blackbird  amongst a flock of Bronzed Cowbirds on the edge of a dry rice field on the road from David to Playa Barqueta. The site is approximately 15 km SW from David on the road to Las Olas, a Chiriqui beach resort. This would be the third record of the species from Panama, previously recorded from the Canal Area.

On a brief noon-birding trip to Puerto Armuelles I did manage to escape a couple of times to bird. The Rose-throated Becard was at El Manguito on April 5, about 10 km west of Puerto on the way to El Choorogo. This species has been seen on just about every trip to El Chorogo and twice before at almost this exact site. Mangrove Cuckoos are not uncommon on Burica but they are usually rather retiring. According to books, this species has not been found to nest or call in Panama. This individual was unusally active on April 6, flying around in open paddocks with scattered trees just behind the Romero supermarket in downtown Puerto Armuelles (!) More remarkably, it called several times. The underparts were really colourful, not pale at all.

El dia de hoy 11 de Abril de 2013 a eso de la 7:00 a.m. estabamos el Sr.  Alciviades Zarco, Sr.Ivan Muñoz (ambos de mantenimiento) y mi persona, Natalia Sarco, preparando todo para la apertura del Centro de Vistiantes del Panama Rainforest Discovery Center cuando de pronto escuchamos un fuerte sonido muy similiar a de una guacamaya (cáao cáao) cuando de pronto vimos un ave pasar a una altura de como 25 metros. Volo tan bajo q se le vio el color fuerte naranja de las patas. Tambien vi la parrte inferior color blanco desde la base  de la cola hasta mas o menos la mitad del ave (pecho) Luego era toda negra. El area inferior o debajo del pico era anaranjada. Lo que me convencio de que estabamos ante una Caracara Avispera fue el canto y la coloracion de la parte inferior. Esta discripcion y su tamaño es diferente a las otras aves que tenemos en el area. No pudimos hacer ningun video, foto o grabacion pues nos tomo por sorpresa la visita. Es la primera vez que veo y escucho esta ave...

Euclides Campos found Gray-throated Leaftosser at two different sites in Fortuna on April 1. This is the easternmost record of this rarely-reported species, which has been previously found at similar elevations further west. Other notable sightings included Black-banded Woodcreeper, Scaly-throated Foliage-Gleaner, Highland Tinamou, Sooty-capped Finch, Chiriqui Quail-Dove, Barred Parakeet and Ruddy Woodcreeper.

Feb 17 2013: Alfred Raab and Fritz Furrer and observed a male and a female Elegant Euphonia in Altos del Maria. The male was collecting nesting material and building a nest, elevation approx. 1000m. In the picture, the nest opening can be seen in the moss above the branch, top left corner.

Terry van Niekerk sent in this photo of a Magenta-throated Woodstar feeding a young Long-billed Starthroat at their Boquete garden. Photo taken February 16.