Xenornis

On the afternoon of Friday, October 25, Domiciano Alveo found a Spot-breasted Woodpecker  at the Ammo Ponds in Gamboa. The bird was calling and responded well to his whistling.

On the morning of October 10th, during a birding trip to the Bocas del Toro mainland, with a group based at Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, we observed a Jabiru ( Jabiru mycteria ) in the Chiriqui Grande area. That same day we observed a hawk migration, several thousands of Broad-winged Hawks ( Buteo platipterus ) and Swainson’s Hawks ( Buteo swainsoni ) and a few hundred Turkey Vultures ( Cathartes aura ).

Two Hudsonian Godwit were seen at Finca Bayano on Tuesday, October 25.  Other birds of interst: 3 Long-billed Dowitcher, several Pectoral Sandpiper, 1 White-rumped Sandpiper, 1 Kildeer.  Alexis Guevara was also present during this sighting.

Gwen Keller spotted this Inca Dove at her Las Cumbres backyard this morning. It seems today was first record for Panama day.

Jan Axel Cubilla and Osvaldo Quintero found this weird sandpiper at Finca Bayano today. If it turns out to be a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper , it could be the second record in Latin America ( there's a 2014 record from Bolivia ) of this Asian shorebird. And what's a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper? Audubon explains : This Asian shorebird is related to our Pectoral Sandpiper, and like that species is it a long-distance migrant, traveling from Siberia to Australia and New Zealand. A few reach North America every year, mostly fall migrants in Alaska and the Pacific northwest; a casual stray in other areas, rare in spring. And where was it? Jan Axel explains: en los campos semi inundados en el camino detrás de las instalaciones de mantenimiento y de la pista de aterrizaje Their eBird checklist has all the details : *mega. If accepted, first report for Panama (and Central America). Similar size to nearby Pectoral Sandpiper but more pot-bellied and short-necked. Contrasting chest...

3 Buhítos Pardos , ( Unspotted Saw-Whet Owl — Aegolius ridgwayi ) fueron vistos y fotografiados cerca de la cima del volcán Barú en la noche del 14 de octubre por un equipo de guias de observación de aves entre quienes destacan Raúl Velasquez, Plinio Montenegro, Rafael Gutierrez y Antonio Paniza. Esta especie de búho fue colectada una única vez en las faldas del Volcán Barú en febrero de 1965 y nunca había sido fotografiada en Panamá. En 2013, el conductor de autos de apoyo hacia la cima del volcán, Ronny Gutierrez, vio un búho “diferente” a orilla de calle. Le comento a su hermano, Rafael Gutierrez, fotógrafo y guía de observadores de aves, quien organizo una primera expedición en busca del Buhíto Pardo en noviembre de 2013 la cual no dio con rastros del búho. En diciembre de 2013 Jason Fidorra y Lena Ware logran ver y grabar esta rarísima especie de búho. Una de las pocas grabaciones recientes del búho puede ser escuchada en este enlace de Xeno Canto . En marzo de 2015 J...

Today, 9 oct 2016, Les Lieurance and I, along with Bill Adsett, Cedric Kinschots and Joris Deruwe, birded Finca Bayano for 6 hours. Along with the always satisfyingly large numbers of herons, egrets and gallinules, the highlights were 3000 Blue-winged Teal, 4 Roseate Spoonbills, 1 Collared Plover, 4 Buff-breasted Sandpipers, 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, 7 Wilson's Phalaropes, 8 Solitary Sandpipers, 5 Gull-billed Terns, 1 Black Tern, 1 Gray Kingbird, 4 Bank Swallows, and 40 Dickcissels. ​Video of the Buff-breasted and Pectoral Sandpipers, taken by Les Lieurance, can be viewed at  https://youtu.be/UY4QjbSYxOI  ​

​ On 5 September 2016, Les Lieurance, Bill Adsett and I birded Finca Bayano. The highlights included 3 Buff-breasted Sandpipers , 10 Pectoral Sandpipers, 7 Wilson’s Phalaropes, 8 Solitary Sandpipers, 11 Greater Yellowlegs, 7 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Northern Shoveler, 35 Blue-winged Teal, 1 Laughing Falcon, 7 Pied Water-Tyrants (including 1 feeding a recently-fledged chick), a migrating flock of 350 Dickcissels, along with the usual herons, egrets, ibis and gallinules. The attached photos of the Buff-breasted Sandpipers were taken by Bill Adsett.​

Bill Adsett, Mark Letzer and the undersigned visited the San Francisco Reserve in Tortí on Saturday, September 3, in search of Wing-banded Antbird (which we whiffed on). Around 8 a.m., while we were birding around the pond just before the entrance to the forest, we observed a mature Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle soaring over the forested ridge. The striking white head, white underparts of wings, black upperparts of wings, tail pattern, feathers on legs, orange cere and black around eye were all observed. I attach some pictures taken by Bill. Our bird was briefly molested by a pair of dark raptors, which we could not definitively identify. From my very vague shots (also attached), I would guess dark-morph Short-tailed Hawk because of the smaller size, yellow feet and pale primaries near the end of the wings.

Seems the Hook-billed Kite Jorge Herrera photographed last week was not the first Darién record after all, as they've been seeing it since 2014. Debo agregar que esta especie la hemos visto desde el 2014 junto a Karla Aparicio, Carol Gantes, Kenneth Contreras y guías locales de este lado de Garachiné, coordenadas (17P 0783655 UTM089019; 30msnm) en el orden cronológico: 09 agosto 2014 09:03am. 18 marzo 2015 03:09 pm. 11 agosto 2016 08:30 am. 

Matias Díaz found a pair of Cattle Tyrants this morning at the pastures near Río Alejandro, the same place that produced Northern Jacana a few weeks back. 

On September 3, the Panama Audubon trip to Coiba ran into an Arctic Tern on a floating log on the open seas beyond Isla Gobernadora. Notice the short legs, slight bill and mostly pale underwings with dark tips on the primaries. The photos, the first photographic evidence of the species in Panama, were taken by Rolando Jordán.