Xenornis

Eduardo Amengual and Robert Dean, of the Costa Rican Birding Club, spent three weeks birding around Panama. Highlights of their trip included a Plumbeous Hawk early on March 11 on Los Caobos Trail at the Metropolitan Nature Park, a male (and possibly a female) Cinereous Becard on one of the canal maintenance roads near Madden Lake on the 17, two Palm Warblers at Fort San Lorenzo on the 18, two Violaceous Quail-Doves in the forests of Fort Sherman on the 19, a male Rufous-crested Coquette on the entrance to Chorro Macho at El Valle on the 22, two White-throated Flycatchers around the Volcán airstrip on the 24 (as well as another two around the Hotel Dos Ríos on the 25), and a Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl mobbed by a flock of birds on the Volcán-Boquete Trail on the 26.

John Rowlett and Mitch Lysinger, with a group of 10 Field Guides participants, saw and tape-recorded a singing Russet-crowned Quail-Dove (Geotrygon goldmani) on Cerro Jefe, 3100 feet, on March 22, 2003, precisely the same date 92 years later that E. A. Goldman reached the summit of Cerro Jefe/Azul. Quite fittingly, the group also saw a beautiful male Violet-capped Hummingbird (Goldmania violiceps) on Jefe the same day. Goldman’s effort was roundly celebrated. On the 17th of March the same group of birders found, tape-recorded, and obtained lovely digital photos of an Ochraceous Pewee above Guadalupe in the mountains of Chiriquí.

Paul Coopmans saw, taped and photographed a Lanceolated Monklet along the Continental Divide Trail at Fortuna.

Seems the male Rufous-crested Coquette has taken permanent residence at the Kaufmann front yard at Cerro Azul. The coquette has been consistently seen since christmas day, 2000. The photo below was taken by Joe Fuhrman, who came on a VENT tour last month.

The following acount was stolen from The FieldEditor's Report, by George Angehr, published in the January-February issue of El Tucán. The highlight of this report is a new species for Panama, Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus). The bird was discovered in a weakened condition in the sea near shore at Isla Margarita, near Colón, by Karla and Rogny Aparico and Oris Acevedo, during the Atlantic Christmas Count on 5 January 2003. The bird was taken to the Smithsonian’s Galeta Laboratory, but died the night of 8 January. The bird’s upperparts, including the sides of the rump, were blackish, and the underparts, including the throat and undertail coverts, were pure white. The wing linings also were extensively white. The dark color on the side of the face extended well below the eye. The legs and feet were mostly dark gray, but pink on the inner sides. The slender bill and overall configuration indicate a shearwater of the genus Puffinus. Among small black-and-white Puffinus species, Audu...

An extremely cooperative male Rufous-crested Coquette hung out for two days at the Kaufmann's front yard at Cerro Azul, allowing for crippling views (and, of course, a bunch of pictures).

Yes, Xenornis will be on hiatus while the webmaster attends to his M.Arch. degree in Savannah, GA. I'll still update whenever i hear something, but i'm sorta out of the loop, so don't be surprised if the updates grow even sparser and shorter. Thank you.

The Kaufmann Cerro Azul villa was once again graced by the visit of a Black-and-white Hawk-Eagle. This time Guido Berguido heard it fly in and then perch on the tall dead trees left of the garden, where it stayed long enough for Karl & Rosabel to get crippling scope views and a series of digital photos.

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.