Xenornis

El viernes pasado, 20 de febrero, vi dos Masked Boobies que acompañaron el barco en que estoy trabajando entre la costa arriba de Colón y El Porvenir.  Es primera vez que las veo acompañando a los Brown Boobies y me llamó la atención.

A little update on that pair of Bicolored Wrens : On Sunday morning, 22 February 2015, Les and I and our friend Jim Danzenbaker stopped at the Yaviza cemetery on our way out of town. Along with the continuing pair of adult Bicolored Wrens, we saw a dependent chick following them around. It was very cute, with a stubby bill and yellow at the gape. Here's some video of the birds, shot on January 9 . And some bonus Spectacled Parrotlets , shot on January 8.

Darién and Camilo Montañez and César Trejos spent a few days of Carnaval birding the Canopy Camp and environs. Highlights follow. Feb. 15. A Streaked Xenops was seen calling insistently at the Río Mono bridge, perched suspiciously near a cavity in a dry branch that seemed just right for a nest hole. Also seen was Black Antshrike , plenty of White-eared Conebill s, and an eye-level Black-headed Tody-Flycatcher .  Later that day we went to the Yaviza Cemetery to try for Bicolored Wren, to no avail. We're blaming the noise from the Domingo de Carnaval festivities. The forest just before town had Barred Puffbirds and lots of Yellow-breasted Flycatchers . Just before dusk we stood guard by the right verbena bush and, just as promised, got a Ruby-topaz Hummingbird . Unlike the adult male seen more frequently, this was a young male: generally female-plumaged but with a broad dark stripe down the center of the throat that, when seen from the right angle, glittered a greenish gold. ...

Enero 30, 31 y 1 de febrero Un macho Lesser Scaup y lo que parece ser una hembra Ring-necked Duck fueron observados en un laguito ubicado en el centro de la isla Contadora, archipiélago de Las Perlas. Durante los 3 días que observamos estos patos, siempre estuvieron juntos, como si fueran parejas (¿será una híbrido?). Eran los únicos patos del lago, donde habían no menos de 30 Least Grebes. Observadores: Rosabel Miró y Karl Kaufmann. En otro lago, en un costado de la pista de aterrizaje, cerca del antiguo hotel Contadora, escuchamos tanto el 31 de enero como el 1 de febrero a los White-throated Crakes, en varias partes de ese lago. (Foto de Rosabel) Sábado 7 de febrero Antes del Censo Centroamericano de Aves Acuáticas Una Whistling Heron en la arrocera de Santa María, Herrera, cerca de la entrada del pueblo de El Rincón. Esta garza estaba junto con otras garzas locales. Observadores: Yenifer Díaz, Alberto Bethancourt, Roxana Alveo y Stephany Carty. (No sacamos fotos). Dura...

Not to be outdone, Natalia Sarco photographed this Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle  from the tower at Panama Rainforest Discovery Center tower this morning.

Osvaldo Quintero photographed this dark-phase Long-winged Harrier  at the entrance to Mono Titi Road at Parque Metropolitano, this morning at 7:15.

Rafael Lau and Genover Santamaría had a Peg-billed Finch at the seeding bamboo along the first part of El Respingo road on February 5. He also filmed it: On related news, Euclides Campos found Peg-billed Finch and Barred Parakeet on the bamboo at the entrance to Los Quetzales Trail on February 6.

Ismael "Nando" Quiroz photographed this male Ruby Topaz at the Canopy Camp on January 30 at 5:30 pm. Also present was a dull-plumaged bird, perhaps a juvenile? Both birds have been coming to the verbenas around camp for the last few days, always at the same time of day. Also, this female Stripe-cheeked Woodpecker was at the San Francisco Reserve on January 31.

Note to self: remember to check your twitter messages frequently. Check this one out: @xenornis - pomarine skua photo is a long-tailed skua #skuaconfusion #skua #Panama — Bartramia (@Bartramia_uk) November 11, 2014 The tweet refers to the jaeger  photographed on the Pedasí pelagic of October 25 . The Panama Records Committee was immediately alerted, and discussion ensued. Jan Axel Cubilla: I'm attaching the photos that Rafael took of this bird during the pelagic trip... four in total with just fractions of second of difference between them.  Number three is the photo that appears in Xenornis.  These photos were cropped and lightened... no changes were made in hue, saturation, exposure or sharpness. The only thing I remember about this particular individual is that it looked like a shearwater at the distance... in fact, I first shouted "shearwater" to the group when I first saw it... then it flew directly to us (as you can see in photos number 1 and ...

Between January 6-9 a party consisting of Bill Adsett, George Angehr, Charlotte Elton. Dave Klauber, and Les and Cindy Lieurance visited Darien, birding mostly around Canglon, and Yaviza. The following are some of the highlights (with photos by Bill Adsett). Pale-bellied Hermit . A few individuals seen on the El Salto Road and north of Yaviza on Jan 7. The hummingbird feeders at the Avicar Restaurant in Meteti on Jan 6 and 9 featured Scaly-breasted Hummingbird , Sapphire-throated Hummingbird , Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, Black-throated Mango, and Long-billed Starthroat. Spot-breasted Woodpecker . Two seen near Rio Iglesias on the afternoon of Jan 6. Barred Puffbird . Several pairs seen a few km north of Yaviza on Jan 8. Blue-and-yellow Macaw . A flyover by three individuals on Jan 6 about 7 km east of Rio Iglesias, on the south side of the Filo de Tallo, in a mostly deforested area. It's good to see the species still persists here. Spectacl...

[Tuesday, January 13] These are the popular Whistling Herons that are being reported frecuently from the pond at Gorgona's Malibu residential proyect; I finally decided to go and search for them to get my lifer; however the pictures are not so good due to the far distance and heat waves making the pictures blurry; well a success anyways!! Thanx to Rafael Lau and Justo Camargo for the information about the location to get to the place and to Niurka Castillo for joining me for an early start that day. I also happened to find this group of Masked Ducks consisting of one male and four females which spent the whole day foraging at the center of the pond far from the edges asociating with a group of nearby Blue-winged Teals and Common Moorhens. Through the day for many hours (and to my surprise) the Masked Ducks never searched for the concealment of the plants at the edge of the pond.

I had a Ring-necked Duck at Lago Calamito, Panama Rainforest Discovery Center on the afternoon of Sunday, January 11. Was with the continuing Masked Ducks . Lousy photos but the pale eyering and white ring on the bill can be seen. Not sure of its newsworthiness but there are still 2 American Wigeons hanging around at Gamboa Rainforest Resort Marina.