Xenornis

Bill Porteous reports seeing a pair of Crimson-bellied Woodpeckers foraging in the undergrowth along a trail on the road to Altos de Pacora, beyond the entrance to Altos de Cerro Azul. On the same day he also saw six species of Tangara tanagers: Plain-colored, Emerald, Speckled, Bay-headed, Rufous-winged and Golden-hooded.

Delicia, Pedro and Darién Montañez saw a female Snail Kite eating a snail on a fencepost by the main entrance to El Rincón de Santa María. An ANAM park ranger said that it has been around for about a month. This is, to my knowledge, the second report from Azuero of the species. The flock of Lesser Scaup was not at the Ciénaga, and neither were the Caspian Terns. The Scaup were still there on wednesday (Feb 16), though. Francisco Delgado reports American Oystercatchers at Isla Iguana, possibly the first time they've been seen there. Also, he found a Gray-breasted Crake dead-on-the-road at Playa Blanca, and a Forster's Tern at El Agallito. On February 20, a brief morning visit to the road that goes into the mangroves at the right from El Agallito produced an even briefer sighting of a female Common Ground-Dove. Also, a White-winged Dove made a fly-by appearance.

Bill Porteous and Indra Candanedo spent the weekend on the Azuero Peninsula and sent a report on some interesting sightings: Aplomado Falcon. An adult, possibly 2, or the same bird seen twice. First seen on Friday 11 Feb hunting over a recently cut cane field just south of Divisa on the road to Chitré. Then on Sunday 13 Feb perched on a utility tower just west of Aguadulce by the side of the Panamerican Highway. These two sites are quite close together, which is why I think it may be the same bird. Caspian Tern. Two, with Gull-billed Terns, at the Ciénaga de las Macanas in Herrera, on 13 Feb. We watched both of them for some time as they flew around near the observation tower. The all-dark crown and thick, dark red bill were well seen as was the obvious dark tip on the underwing formed by the dark outer primaries. There was a flock of about 45 Lesser Scaup there as well. Prairie Warbler. An adult male in good plumage. This one was in a patch of mangrove 24Km west of Pedasí on the road ...

Peter Burke sent in a few interesting reports from a visit to Central Panama in Early February. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: an adult female along the first 2km of Pipeline Road, Feb. 8. Stripe-throated Wren: an adult at Nusagandi with a foraging flock of mainly antwrens, Feb. 5. We both had extensive looks at the bird for a couple of minutes. Several hundred Dickcissels at the Tocumen Airport, February 1. There were probably many hundreds more as we only stayed for 15 minutes and they were passing overhead with great frequency in large groups. This flight occurred at 5:00pm or so.

Today Rosabel and Karl Kaufmann and Darién and Camilo Montañez stopped by the Bohío Turístico at noon, where the gulls forage in the mudflats at low tide. Try as we did, we did not see the Gray Gull, but had an interesting sighting anyways. Standing in the mud next to a few Laughing Gulls was a gull of about the same size, but with bright yellow-orange bill and legs. The back and wings were uniform gray and the head and underparts were white. The ear-coverts were dark gray, and the nape was also gray, ligter than the back. The wing-tips appeared to be black, as was the tail. So, in fewer words, the plumage was that of a Laughing Gull in winter. When the bird took flight the wing pattern was observed to be, also, like the one a Laughing Gull. So, our best guess is that this was an aberrant individual. In fact Peter Harrison's "Seabirds, an identification guide", says that the Laughing Gull has been "recorded with anomalous bare parts colours". So now you have two...

Bill Porteous' pishing near some pines on the way up to Cerro Campana attracted the attention of two Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Black-throated Green Warbler and a Blackburnian Warbler.

George Angehr, Gilles Seutin and I spent a few days in Fortuna and Palo Seco last weekend. George will no doubt be covering things in the FieldEditor's report, but here are some things you might wish to put in the Xenornis. January 30 - Three Snowy Cotingas and one Lovely Cotinga (and two Keel Billed Toucans!) were all seen sitting on the top of a single large tree at about 5.00 pm from the lookout at Km 28 of the new Punta Peña-Almirante road. The tree was in swampy coastal forest, close to an area cleared for cattle pasture. The whole length of the road is now open, with no restrictions at weekends. During the week, however, the middle part is closed for most of the day. There is a fair amount of forest, especially along the first half of the road, but it is not easy to stop and pull off due to steep drop-offs. We saw timber being extracted, almost certainly without ANAM permits, at several points. February 1 - A small group (5 to 6 individuals) of Ashy-Throated Bush-Tanagers was...