Xenornis

Rarities and Anomalies in Parque Internacional La Amistad, a report by Michael Froude

2012-05-24T14:58:00.000-05:00

A spontaneous visit to the Cerro Punta area in late April yielded the following notable observations in Parque Internacional La Amistad.
On 29 April, near the lowest point on Sendero El Retoño, at about 2170m I had an extended intermittent sighting through tangled foliage of a Streaked Xenops, behaving very similarly to the familiar Plain Xenops, including hanging upside down. I noted the obvious streaking, supercillary and malar stripes of the same colour compared with those of different colour of the Plain Xenops and with the supercillary only of the larger Ruddy Treerunner seen the previous day, also hanging upside down. I had another brief sighting of Streaked Xenops (maybe the same one) the following day in tangled foliage just below the park entrance, at about 2100m. These altitudes are higher than the range quoted by Angehr.
At the spectacular cascade which is the destination of Sendero La Cascada, at about 2400m, on 30 April, I saw an Ochraceous Pewee, on an exposed perch high above the pool at the foot of the cascade, making repeated hunting sorties and returning to more or less the same perch. Having seen a Tufted Flycatcher the previous day I could make the following comparisons: larger, less pronounced crest, duller ochre breast (the difference was more pronounced than suggested by the illustrations in Angehr), pink lower mandible.
My mild irritation at the restricted opening hours of the park (8 to 4) was more than compensated by sightings of Resplendent Quetzal in the relatively open area at the entrance on both mornings whilst waiting for the park to open. On 29 April a male perched high in a tree took flight just as I got my binoculars on him and I didn’t see him again. But on 30 April I saw (the same?) male and a female flying back and forth and perched over a period of about 20 minutes. Can birding get any better than the sight of a male Resplendent Quetzal in brilliant emerald, scarlet and white breeding regalia in full sunlight, flying across a vivid blue sky? A little later I had the bonus of a further sighting of the perched male from my breakfast table on the terrace of the agreeable ASAELA restaurant just inside the park gate.

More Avocets at Aguadulce

2012-05-23T19:05:00.001-05:00

Venicio Wilson found a flock of eight American Avocets at Salinas de Aguadulce on May 15. These are different birds from the ones at Costa del Este, which are still hanging around.

The Costa del Este Avocets

2012-05-21T06:53:00.004-05:00

Gwen Keller went shorebirding at Costa del Este yesterday afternoon and as the tide was coming in she spotted maybe 30+ Marbled Godwits, 9 American Avocets, some with rufous plumage, and a number of short billed dowitchers among the usual cast of characters.

Capped Heron at Summit Gardens

2012-05-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Marianne Akers found this Capped Heron yesterday at Summit, wading in the crocodile pond (no crocodile present).

mixed bag: red-billed tropicbird, Veraguan Mango and more; a report by Kees Groenendijk

2012-05-07T13:25:00.000-05:00

Kevin Easley and some other avid birders from Costa Rica visited the Western Azuero and Coiba with me. On 3 May we went to Changuale (East of las Flores) to try and find the Azuero parakeet. Wer did not find it, but saw many King Vultures circling above us while walking along the Pavo river.

We left for Coiba on 4 May. Between Santa Catalina and Coiba we saw Red-necked Phalaropes, Brown Noddies, a juvenile Red-billed Tropicbird and a Parasitic Jaeger. On the Las Pozos trail on Coiba we found the Coiba Spinetail and the Brown-backed Dove. There was also a male Indigo Bunting in breeding plumage (The Angehr guide does not mention that Indigo Buntings occur on Coiba).
Furthermore, for the last three weeks, our hummingbird feeders are daily visited by a juvenile mango. I have attached a (small) picture of the bird. I think it is a Veraguan Mango.

That heron? Probably not a Lava Heron after all.

2012-04-27T20:10:00.004-05:00

Panama Records Committee Chair George Angehr chimes in on Venicio’s odd Butorides from Las Bóvedas:

Interesting bird. However, I showed it to heron expert James Kushlan and he said that Lava Heron has a thicker bill and thicker legs. Photos on line also seem to show that Lava Heron has a yellow eye. Kushlan thought it was just a melanistic Green/Striated.

Lava Heron? A report by Venicio Wilson

2012-04-25T20:05:00.001-05:00

Yesterday while walking Casco Viejo with a friend I spotted this "very dark" Green Heron on the rocks below Paseo Esteban Huertas at Las Bóvedas. I was looking at the picture I made with my cellphone and my binoculars (Binophonescoping) and the bird looks very similar to the pictures of Lava Heron from Galapagos Islands. With the high number of ships and sailboats crossing the Panama Canal there is a small chance for an accidental Lava Heron?

Green Ibis near Portobelo

2012-03-03T14:35:00.000-05:00

Zeke Jakub photographed this pair of Green Ibis near the bridge over Río Cascajal at Nuevo Tonosí, near Portobelo.

More and more avocets

2012-03-03T14:26:00.001-05:00

And, as promised, here are better photos of the American Avocets at Costa del Este by Osvaldo Quintero.
Justo Camargo went looking for them yesterday afternoon and he reports seeing at least eight individuals. Avocets are a rare winter visitor to Panama, and this is the first record of a flock. Have you gone looking for them yet?

American Avocets (as in, more than one) at Costa del Este

2012-03-02T11:53:00.002-05:00

While on a routine visit to Costa del Este this morning, Dr. Osvaldo Quintero discovered not one or two, but four American Avocets at the mouth of Río Matías Hernández. He checked a while ago and they are still in the area, so if any of you need this extremely rare winter visitor to Panama, go for it.
Better photos to come, for sure.

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron in Bocas del Toro, a report by Pat Wade

2012-02-22T21:07:00.001-05:00

Greg and Eileen Meyer of Santa Cruz, CA were recent visitors to Isla Colon. Greg had contacted Pat Wade, a resident of Boca del Drago, through Birding Pal about doing some birdwatching during their stay on Isla Colon.

While boating down the old banana canal between the Drago cut and the Changuinola River on Feb. 17 they sighted and photographed a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron. The bird was seen about 1 km from the entrance of the canal. According to Angehr and Dean's field guide, there has been only 1 other report of this bird on Panama's Atlantic coast, and that was from the easternmost part of the coast.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds in Mariato, a report by Kees Groenendijk

2012-02-16T23:07:00.001-05:00

Over the last few days we have been seeing a few unusual humminbirds in our garden (just south of Mariato, on the western side of the Azuero Peninsula). Today I finally managed a (not very good) picture of one of them. And managed to identify it as a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Even on this picture you can see the beginnings of the ruby throat. So this is a first year male. There is another individual of the same species with a more developed ruby throat.
[Ruby-throated Hummingbird is a regular winter resident in western Chiriquí, with a few records from southern Coclé. This may be the first record from Veraguas].

Gray-cheeked Thrush en Cerro Jefe, un reporte por Rosabel Miró

2012-02-12T11:59:00.000-05:00

Este Gray-cheeked Thrush lo vimos el viernes 10 de febrero, como a eso de las 10 am, ya casi llegando al sendero del Xenornis, en la última loma que lleva a ese lugar, en Cerro Jefe. Lo observó primero Bea Roy y estábamos con ella Sue Chamberlain, Karl y yo. Estaba en el piso, en lo que parece alimentándose de insectos. Tenía años que no veía a uno y es primera vez que veo esta especie en Cerro Jefe.

Birding Cerro Colorado, a report by Bill Adsett

2012-02-12T09:33:00.000-05:00

I spent 4 days in the Cerro Colorado area from 23 to 26 January with Ramón Pineda Jr as guide.

Most notably, we found a young Glow-throated Hummingbird (Selasphorus ardens) being fed by its mother, both of which were photographed. I base the identification as Glow-throated mainly on location (4km east of Cerro Flores on the new road to Llano Tugrí, at 1250m) and the white bellies of the birds. According to all books and my own experience, the Scintillant is not found to the east of Cerro Flores, and according to Ridgely, the very closely related female Scintillant Hummingbird (Selasphorus scintilla) has a cinnamon belly.

My theory after several visits is that the dividing line between the ranges of Scintillant and Glow-throated Hummingbirds is the ridge that separates the San Félix and Tabasará river basins. Cerro Flores forms part of that ridge.

The “main” road to Cerro Colorado runs more or less up that ridge, then turns off it slightly to the west at about 1500mt and after peaking at over 1600m continues west along the Continental Divide. Selasphorus hummingbirds are common to abundant at certain times of the year on that road—especially on or close to the Divide. Occasionally young males with partial gorgets are seen amongst such birds, and to my mind they all show the orange-red color of Scintillants (though not everyone will agree with this). An adult male killed by local children in Ratón (just to the west of Cerro Colorado) in September was photographed and was clearly a Scintillant. But in the last few months all these birds have disappeared. It is my belief that all or nearly all those birds are Scintillants that head westwards at this time of the year to breed nearer to Volcán Barú.

As far as Glow-throated is concerned, this theory is supported by Wetmore, but not by Ridgely, who suggested that Glow-throated was the dominant species “above Cerro Colorado”—i.e. on the main road—and Scintillants found in the area were “wanderers”. I believe that the reverse is true.

Unfortunately no male Glow-throateds were seen this time, but its quite likely that they are in meadows off the road in the same area where we saw the female and young. To enter such off-road areas you must get the permission of the landowner. Failure to observe this rule may get you locked up in the nearest village, or put in the “cepo” (stocks).

Magenta-throated Woodstar was again common along both roads with several males displaying their gorget which—according to Wetmore—is exactly the same colour as that of the Glow-throated Hummingbird. The Woodstar is definitely a confusion species (and should be mentioned as such in literature) and may account for some of the reports mentioned by Ridgely of supposed Glow-throated Hummingbirds “above Cerro Colorado”.

Black-headed Nightingale Thrush was again common in the same area as the Glow-throated Hummingbirds. One was glimpsed crossing a small open area, and the back was more ruddy than is indicated in book illustrations.

Another noteworthy sighting was of a Fiery-throated Hummingbird in a small clearing caused by a tree-fall west of Cerro Colorado, on the Continental Divide at 1750m. This is a range extension, similar to those we have reported previously for other species. Also of interest was a pair of Brown-billed Scythebills.

We went a little way down the Atlantic slope to about 1500m and found that Yellow-green Finch is if anything more abundant there than on the Pacific slope. Blue-and Gold Tanager was seen, well above its normal altitudinal limit. Amongst other species were Plain Antvireo, Buffy Tuftedcheek and a whole tribe of Ruddy Treerunners. A presumed Yellowish Flycatcher looked completely different from the illustrations in Ridgely and in Angehr, having a huge yellow eye-ring, a light yellow head and underparts and prominent broad yellow (not buffy) wing bars.

[Bonus photos: Sooty-headed Bush-Tanager, Black-and-yellow Silky-Flycatcher, Mountain Elaenia].

New for Panama: Gray-bellied Hawk, a report by Venicio Wilson

2012-02-11T08:04:00.000-05:00

On February 9th of 2012, at 7:17 AM while guiding a birding program for Sendero Panama, we spotted a raptor on top of a Cuipo tree near the road in the way to El Salto, Darien.
The bird was very similar to a Bicolored Hawk but inmediatly I noticed the paler gray on the belly and the lack of rufous on the thighs. Immediately our guest, Larry Wan took his 500mm camera and made several pictures of the bird which are the ones posted here. I also remembered a 2008 report of an immature Gray-bellied Hawk in Costa Rica and started pointing at the differences between both hawks.
The lack of rufous on the thighs, the paller grey in the chest and belly, the contrast between black crown and dark cheeks were the immediate marks we noticed.
While Larry and Sara were making pictures and observing the bird, I got to hear the bird call: 6 or maybe 7 notes, high pitch, 1 1/2 seconds apart from the other. I have heard and seen several times Bicolored Hawk in Bocas del Toro and this bird was lighter in color and called very different.
Sara Wan, Larry Wan and Christian Gernez were present during this sighting. The morning was hazy and not to bright. The present picture were made by Mr. Larry Wan with a 500mm Canon camera at about 250 to 300 mts.

Breaking: One Jabiru in Chiriquí Grande. And then another.

2012-01-31T14:00:00.000-05:00

As you read this, Jacobo Ortega is in Chiriquí Grande seeing the second Jabiru of the day. The first was seen from the main road on the fields on the south side, near the oil tanks up in the mountain.

The second one (photo below) was seen further out, also from the main road. Who's up for a flash trip out there?

The hunt for the Grasshopper Sparrow

2012-01-28T10:34:00.001-05:00

Success, pretty much. This morning, Jan Axel Cubilla, Venicio Wilson, Rafael Luck, Osvaldo Quintero, and Camilo and Darién Montañez converged upon the fabled spot near Penonomé to look for the Grasshopper Sparrow, unrecorded in Panama for fifty years. The spot, shown on the map we tweeted earlier, is on a dirt road on the left side of the Interamericana a bit over 6 km past the Penonomé McDonald's. About 100 meters in, there is a patch of short, green grass on the right shoulder of the road, and that's both where Jan Axel found the bird last Saturday and where we saw it today. Repeatedly. Very briefly. The first sighting was shortly after we parked at the spot: Osvaldo walked ahead of the cars and the sparrow flushed from the grassy shoulder into the field beyond, landing on a patch of short grass surrounded by taller grass. We followed, but hard as we looked we couldn't find it. It flew back to the shoulder, where it remained unfound until it flushed a few inches from my feet as I was walking to the car. So, in typical Grasshopper Sparrow fashion, it has a tendency to tuck into the shorter grass and freeze until flushed. This happened a number of times, and all the looks we got were as it darted from cover. Still, the field marks seen (or lack thereof) eliminate all the other expected grassland species: a tiny, grayish/buffy/streaky bird, paler below and with yellow on the bend of the wings.
We had a very windy morning. My recommendation would be to arrive at dawn before the wind picks up and check the grassy shoulder carefully. Oh, and it seems the tall grass on the fields around the area are being harvested, so I would hurry.

Grasshopper Sparrow (!!!) near Penonomé, a report by Jan Axel Cubilla.

2012-01-22T09:35:00.001-05:00

I just came from a short walk in the Cocle savana following the directions gave by Ken last year to find the Ring-necked Ducks close to Cocle town, 5 min west of Penonome (second dirt road to the left after the "push buttons"). After seeing the ducks (lifer), I was about to leave the place, more or less 300 mts from the Panamerican highway (I was able to see the cars in the highway), when I detected a movement right next to the car. It looked like a mouse, walking very low, even crawling under the grass, but eventually frooze no more than 4 mts from my car. It stayed for 5 minutes, only moving very quickly few steps to stand again. It didn't vocalize, not even a chip. I took plenty of photos... but I was not able to see its breast... I wonder if someone knows how to separate the migrant Grasshopper Sparrows in the field... I hope it is of the endemic race, thought to be erradicated due to habitat loss.

[More details on the sighting at Jan Axel's blog.]

Grasshopper Sparrow rediscovered?

2012-01-21T17:26:00.001-05:00

Breaking: Jan Axel Cubilla found a Grasshopper Sparrow near Penonomé earlier this afternoon. He went looking for the Ring-necked Ducks that Ken Allaire had found, and he stopped on a field on the way back, on one of the new roads opposite the push buttons. He was looking at some meadowlarks, when he saw a tiny bird running like a mouse.
This is the first record in eons of Grasshopper Sparrow, a near-mythical bird in Panama. Photographs were taken, too, so we'll hopefully determine if this bird was a migrant or if it's a surviving member our local subspecies that has been presumed extinct.
I'll try for it tomorrow, but there will probably be a full fledged expedition next weekend. Study up!

Snail Kite en Albrook, un reporte por Rosabel Miró

2011-12-10T12:38:00.001-05:00

Acabo de tomar esta foto, 11:20am. Esta hembra está posada en la recta que va detrás de El Rey de Albrook al área residencial, cerca del cuadro de beisbol y la piscina.

Lesser Black-backed Gull in Panama Viejo, a report by Rosabel Miró

2011-12-05T20:17:00.001-05:00

Rosabel Miró photographed this large gull, most likely an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, last Thursday, December 1, at 7:11 am whilst with a group of shorebird monitorers in Panama Viejo.

Clay-colored Sparrow at San Lorenzo, a report by Sue Osier

2011-12-04T14:23:00.001-05:00

I found a Clay-colored Sparrow at Fort San Lorenzo on December 3, 2011. It isn't on the listed on the species list for I have for Panama and I'm not sure if one has been seen here before.
I saw it at 4:52 p.m. in a Hibicus rosa-sinensis overlooking the Chagres River near the ruins of Fort San Lorenzo. I had my back to the ruins and it flew from behind me and into the Hibiscus. I got it in my binoculars and realized I needed some photos. I got four pretty bad shots and when I had the camera up, it flew off. I didn't see where it went and couldn't locate it again.

[This would be, indeed, the first record of Clay-colored Sparrow in Panama. Clay-coloreds normally winter in Mexico, rarely as far south as Chiapas.]

Long-billed Starthroat in Costa del Este

2011-11-28T20:34:00.001-05:00

Itzel Fong Gadea visited Costa del Este this morning, where she ran into Dr. Osvaldo Quintero and into this Long-billed Starthroat, quite the rarity anywhere near the city.

Red-tailed Hawk at Cerro Ancón, a report by Daniel Hinckley

2011-11-10T21:16:00.001-05:00

On November 3rd, 2011 I saw and photographed an immature Red-tailed Hawk at Cerro Ancón during the hawk count. A previous report from a few years ago was met with some skepticism so we hope this will lay any doubts to rest. We've also counted 7 Northern Harriers and 11 Merlins this year, all since October 1st. We'll be up there till November 18th, so please feel free to stop by for a visit. We're getting close to last year's record of 1.77 million raptors.

Yellow-collared Chlorophonia at Altos del María, a report by Carlos Bethancourt

2011-11-07T16:27:00.002-05:00

On Monday, October 31, two of our top guides, Danilo Rodríguez and Moyo Rodríguez, went to Altos del María for a full day of birding. What Danilo and Moyo did not know is that they would be finding a lifer for both of them: an immature male Yellow-collared Chlorophonia—found by Danilo and photographed by Moyo. The best part is that the only records for this bird in Panama are from Cerro Pirre in Darién at about 4,000 ft. It is now known from Altos del María thanks to our expert guides who are always looking for rarities on the area.