Xenornis

Michael Gaston Harvey sent in additional information on the El Valle Blue Seedeaters: The Blue Seedeaters have been seen only at the trail up Cerro Gaital from La Mesa. From the main road through El Valle, follow signs to Chorro Macho. Pass Chorro Macho and the Canopy Adventure and continue up the road (now dirt) to La Mesa. Pass the first set of chicken farms and take a right at the fork. Follow this road for a bit until the next major fork just before another group of chicken barns. Take a right at this fork and follow it briefly until you see a small building next to a gated trail and sign for Cerro Gaital Natural Monument. Park here and walk up the trail through the gate. At the top of the grassy portion of trail, ascend a small set of stairs. Here you must decide between the right and left trails. Both have good stands of bamboo which attract the seedeaters and both probably should be covered in a search for that species. The left trail has been more productive for the seedeaters ...

Michael Gaston Harvey sent in the following report: I'm not sure if anyone still recieves these reports, but I thought some sightings from the last few months in El Valle/Altos del Maria would be of interest. I, along with Danilo Rodriguez and various other people, have found several unexpected species to be present and even common in the right habitat in this area. Barred Hawk, Black Guan, Purplish-backed Quail-Dove, White-tipped Sicklebill, Green Thorntail, Rufous-crested Coquette, White-tailed Emerald, Snowcap, Purple-throated Mountain-Gem, Orange-bellied Trogon, Tody Motmot, Blue-throated Toucanet, Red-faced Spinetail, Spotted Barbtail, White-throated Spadebill, White-thighed Swallow, Ochraceous Wren, Pale-vented Thrush, and Blue Seedeater all seem to be present fairly reliably, many of them in numbers. Other species seen on occasion include Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo, Black-crowned Antpitta, and Rufous-browed Tyrannulet. The Mountain-Gem, Snowcap, Spinetail, Barbtail, and Wre...

Delicia and Darién Montañez spent a week looking for Darién lowland specialties in Jaqué. Good forest was a two-hour hike away from town, but there were enough nice orchards and shrubby areas along the way to keep one distracted. The one day we hired a boat to go upriver (to the better forest) we had torrential rain which pretty much ruined any shot at real birding. Still, we scored some nice sightings, the highlight being a pair of Chapman's Swifts seen flying over the airstrip on the morning of July 5th: large, very dark swifts with long tails, shaped like Chimney Swifts. Every now and then one would fly against a dark background, showing the chin and chest to be only slightly paler than the rest of the underparts. The undertail coverts were not noticeably lighter than the breast. We never got a look at their rumps, but feel pretty confident about the ID. Total observation time was about a minute. All the other swifts seen were Band-rumpeds. Noticeably smaller, with the easily-se...