Xenornis

Matt Denton, birding guide at the Rancho Naturalista in Costa Rica sent the following Report: On January 25th, 2001 using the directions in Ridgely's book, I drove out to Cerro Colorado arriving at night and camped about 8km above Hato Chami. The road going up was very rough but still possible in a 4wd. The indigenous people are still taking up all types of trucks. That night there were very high winds and rain which continued all of the following day. I did most of my birding between 8 and 9.5 km above Hato Chami. Early in the morning I easily found 4 Yellow-green Finches moving in the open vegetation of the roadcuts. I also had 4 calling Barred Parakeets fly over. Seeing the Glow-throated Hummingbird took a little more effort. I kept a close watch on the pink Ericaceous shrubs in flower. These were guarded closely by the Fiery-throated Hummingbirds and also were visited by Green-fronted Lancebill, Purple-throated Mountain-Gem, and Stripe-tailed Hummingbird. Finally by about midda...

Bill Porteous sent in this report: On Thursday 25th January 2001 I was birding the north slope of Filo Riscó, which is reached on a road that leaves the new Punta Peña -Almirante road at Km 61, when a single Olive-throated Parakeet flew into roadside vegetation. It was a small parakeet, about the size of Brown-throated. The entire head, including the sides, was green. The very prominent white eye-ring was slightly broader in front of the eye than behind it, and the bill was creamy white, with a grey horizontal band on the culmen just below the nostrils. The mantle, back, rump, upperwing coverts and tail were green, the tail with some subterminal blue shading. The flight feathers were blue, the secondaries with prominent green margins. The underparts, from throat to belly, were uniform yellowish olive. The bird was watched for about 15 minutes at down to about 5m range with 7x42 binoculars as it climbed about in the vegetation and fed on 'balso' flowers.

aúl Arias also forwarded the following report by Allen Chartier. This would be the second Panama sighting of Long-winged Harrier: While waiting for an airplane to arrive from La Palma to take us on a much-delayed flight to Panama City, a largish dark raptor flew low over the canegrass at the north (?) end of the runway about 30 yards away. As viewed through Zeiss 10 x 42 binoculars, the bird had an all-black head and underparts. The upper and under-wing coverts were all black as was the back. The face showed faintly, but clearly, a suggestion of facial disks (characteristic of harriers). The bill was dark and the color of the cere was not determined as it wasn’t particularly conspicuous. The remiges were checkered (or barred) with black and medium gray both above and below. The tail had 5-7 black bars with the same medium gray between. The rump and upper tail coverts were black except for a very narrow white edge on the distal upper tail coverts. The bird was shaped very much like a No...