Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo, Brown-throated Parakeet

Guido Berguido sent in the following reports:

Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo: On Saturday Jan 5th, 2008, while doing a nature walk with four Canadian folks along the Pipeline Road we hit a nice Eciton Army Ant Swarm. On it were all the usual suspects: Plain-brown and Northern Barred Woodcreeper, Bicolored, Spotted, and a few Ocellated Antbirds. Also along were a couple of Grey-headed Tanagers, and an opportunistic Black-breasted Puffbird; but the highlight at the swarm was an elusive Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo. The bird was first seen by Wiljem Zitman who was with us. He just said that a large "chicken" had ran along the back of the swarm. At first I thought it was just a Great Tinamou, but then he told me it had a long tail! This was only the third time I've seen this bird so it was exciting.

Brown-throated Parakeet: On Monday Jan 7th while visiting relatives in the neighborhood of Parque Lefevre I heard a bunch of parakeets feeding on a blooming Erythrina tree. Among the common call of our regular Orange-chinned Parakeets I could hear a different vocalization, reminescent of what I had heard before in Western Panama. I though that it couldn't be, but was considering going back to the car to get my binocs and check the tree when a friend of mine told me that he had just seen a couple of "odd-looking" parakeets fly into the tree, and that they had a long tail....
By then I already had my Swarovski 10x42 binocs and was able to see a Brown-throated Parakeet feeding on the flowering tree, with its characteristic yellow facial markings; seconds later five more flew in front of me, much to my amusement. When I first saw the one, I thought it was just an escapee, but when the flock of five flew out I thought that maybe this represents a real expansion on this species' range.