Xenornis

Durante la gira de la SAP a El Real (Darién oriental), observé la primera tarde que estuvimos ahi (12-jun-09) en el camino del cementerio (aka Mercadeo Road) un individuo macho adulto de Lesser Goldfinch. A pesar que la observación fue sólo unos segundos, sí pude notar todas sus partes ventrales amarillas (incluyendo la garganta) y las partes dorsales negras con puntos blancos en las alas (en las terciarias). Se encontraba a nivel de la vista sobre una espiga a unos 5 m de distancia.  El último día, cuando nos encontrábamos de regreso a desayunar y empacar, escuché el llamado de otro individuo, el cual se posó en un árbol sobre el hospital. Éste era más bien oliva, pero con las alas igual a las del adulto (¿un macho joven?. Llamó un par de veces para luego alejarse con su característico vuelo ondulado en dirección al pueblo. En esta ocasión le pude enseñar el ave a Bill Ahrens quien también la observó. Sólo para el record, cuando paramos al regreso en Metetí para llenar el tanque, la

Mike Mulligan and Darién Montañez spent the morning of June 20 out beyond Islas Frailes hoping a pelagic bird or two would approach. A gorgeous, non-glary day with still waters and no wind provided excellent conditions, and allowed us to see floating shearwaters from far, far away. We must have had about 15  Galápagos Shearwater sightings, some floating obliviously about two meters away from our boat, but most flying around (we like to think attracted to our meager chumming efforts). The ones that definitely (perhaps) came in to our canned-tuna slick were the Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels, of which we had about 30 different sightings throughout the morning. We also had a Pomarine Jaeger fly by, paying no attention whatsoever to us. No other species of shearwater, storm-petrel, or jaeger were seen. Islas Frailes themselves were, as reported by our captain, full of birds. Two to three hundred Bridled Terns, about one hundred Sooty Terns, and about three hundred Brown Noddies stood in

A group of hardy Panama Auduboners spent last weekend braving weather and lodging and birding around El Real, Darién. After waking up at an ungodly hour on June 12 we made a quick stop at the bridge over Río Mono in the Bayano, where we heard a Barred Puffbird and nothing more. The Pan-American Highway is in excellent condition, and most of the 260 km from the Riande Hotel to Yaviza are freshly-asphalted, thus making it a pleasant four-hour drive. A stop at the marsh just out of Yaviza that had Large-billed Seed-Finches last November was also futile. After a quick lunch at the always-sweltering Yaviza we hopped on our boat and headed for El Real under a light drizzle. Ten minutes later we were being pounded by the heaviest of rains, that didn't stop until we walked into our hotel. During a lull in the storm, about halfway from Yaviza to the point where the Chucunaque River meets the Tuira River, Jan Axel Cubilla looked up from under his raincoat and saw a Black-collared Hawk. Not

Osvaldo Quintero shares these photos of two American Swallow-tailed Kite nests (both with chicks) taken on June 12 and 14 in Las Nubes, Cerro Azul. The group of observers included Jan Axel Cubilla and Gloriela Archibold, Osvaldo Quintero, junior and Rafael Luck.

Stop the presses! Sometime in June 2007, José Carlos García photographed this cuckoo near Río Mono on the Bayano. It was originally reported as a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, which would have no business in Panama during the boreal summer, but as it clearly was neither Dwarf, Dark-billed or Gray-capped Cuckoo, the three species of South-American vagrants previously recorded in Panama, the local consensus was that it was safer to call it a Mangrove Cuckoo and move on. Two years later, Pat O'Donnell chimes in with an alternate ID: Pearly-breasted Cuckoo. Quoth Pat: Pearly-breasted Cuckoo (Coccyzus euleri) may be a better candidate for this bird. Pearly-breasted Cuckoo is an austral migrant that looks more or less like a Yellow-billed Cuckoo but with no rufous in the wings and gray eye ring instead of yellow. Although the eye ring is hard to see, there is no indication of yellow in this image. The bird in the image also shows light gray on the throat lacking the buff tones of Mangrove. U

Sunday's PAS fieldtrip to the Bayano was an utter success by all counts. The crowd amounted to thirty participants, yet we didn't have any casualties. And if that weren't miracle enough, we saw many a good bird, and lifers for everyone. A first stop at the Bayano bridge produced the first of maaaany Cocoi Herons, a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Pied Water-Tyrant and great looks at a pair of Jet Antbirds. But the fun really started at the Río Mono bridge. Not five minutes after our horde arrived, Rosabel Miró spotted a raptor with a bright rufous back perched looking the other way in a distant tree. The head was buffy, whiter on the crown, and if you squinted you could even imagine some black in the chest. The back had sparse black streaking, and there was a slight dark eyeline, reminiscent of Yellow-headed Caracara. Even though the bird flew away before everybody saw it, we had no doubt we had a Black-collared Hawk (especially after seeing the better plate in Garrigues). Lu