Mixed Bag

Advantage Tours' Euclides Campos sent in five months worth of notable bird reports:

• January 7, 2008: Euclides Campos and Dimas Alfonso spotted a Red-tailed hawk on the way to Chucantí [at the border between the provinces of Panamá and Darién] around 400m above sea level. We saw the bird perched on the top of a dead snag 25 m away, from where it flew off and started circling overhead. The red tail and dark mark along the leading edge of the underwing, the patagium mark were conspicuous. It is not the first time that I, Euclides, have seen a Red tailed hawk in Chucantí; I saw one last year.
• January 18: Yellow-breasted Flycatcher on on the road to Revesa (the turnoff of this road is located at the town of Río Iglesia, on the way to Puerto Quimba, Metetí.) I have also seen this flycatcher at the town of Kintin town (7 km from Setegantí, Darién in 2007.) [Yellow-breasted Flycatcher, a recent addition to Panama's—and A.O.U. North America's—birdlist, has only recently been reported away from El Real, where the original sightings occured.] A pair of Rufous-tailed Jacamars were seen on the same day.
• January 23: Sooty-headed Tyrannulet at San Francisco Forest Reserve. I heard the bird calling; it sounded like a Streaked Flycatcher’s dawn call. The bird came out at playback and perched conspicuously on the top of a Cuipo tree where it started singing again. I was using a Kowa scope 30x and a pair of Nikon Monarch 10 x 42 binoculars. I think is the second record for this bird at the upper Bayano Valley. I have seen the Sooty-headed Tyrannulet before and am very familiar with its call. One month later Guido Berguido saw a Sooty-headed tyrannulet on the same reserve.
• January 28: Female Painted Bunting around David Airport, spotted by Euclides Campos and Guido Berguido.
• March 17: Maroon-chested Ground-Dove at Finca Lérida on March 17th. Early in the morning I started birding around the old wooden house down by the restaurant. Suddenly I saw a flash of a blue dove flying away, and it perched in the bush nearby. I played a tape of its call and the bird answered right away, but it didn’t come out. Later I heard the same bird call around the new lodge at Finca Lérida. I again used the bird track, but this time both male and female perched in a small tree close to us. We got an excellent view of this rare dove. Last year I saw the same species at the seed feeders at Finca Drácula Gardens with some Slaty Finches.
• Cuesta de Piedra in Chiriquí was a very productive spot with birds such as the White-crested Coquete and the Charming Hummingbird feeding in the same Inga tree on March 18. On April 1 we saw Stripe-headed Brush-Finch (Buarremon torquatus costaricencis), Spot-crowned Euphonia, Brown Violet-Ear and Black-hooded Antshrike at the same location.
• April 4: a flock of Chestnut-collared Swifts were seen at Volcán Lakes. Some of them flew below the horizon, making the chestnut collar very visible.