Xenornis

El pasado sábado 25 de julio fui con Osvaldo Quintero y Rafael Luck al Valle de Antón. Antes de llegar, en un camino que sale cerca de Los Llanitos (en la vía al Valle) observamos por lo menos SEIS diferentes Tody Motmots (dos tríos en distintos lugares del camino) que respondieron brevemente a las grabaciones. También escuchamos un Sepia-capped Flycatcher en el mismo sitio. Ya en El Valle, camino a La Mesa, nos detuvimos junto a unas heliconias que simplemente lucían iguales a todas las otras cuando de repente apareció un White-tipped Sicklebill, se posó sobre la flor unos segundos, para rápidamente desaparecer tal y como llegó. No regresó a pesar que nos quedamos esperándolo varios minutos. Escribí una pequeña crónica en mi blog por si quieren más detalles.

Location: Altos de Piedra—Guabal Road, second ridge, near the new facilities of Santa Fe National Park, still on the Pacific slope. Around 600–800 meters above sea level. Time: Saturday, july 18. Around 10:30 a.m. Cloudy. Habitat: Montane very humid forest border. Description: During a stop in the road, we detected a mixed flock about 7 to 10 meters away. Most of them were Dusky-faced Tanagers. But also presents were a pair of Flame-colored Tangers and one Crimson-collared Tanager. They were working along some Melastomes when someone noticed a different bird accompanying the flock. It was a little bit smaller and chunkier than the Dusky-faced Tanagers, with a big-eyed appearance. We (with Rosabel Miró) recognized it almost immediately as a Bush-Tanager (and we were aware of the presence of Yellow-throated Bush-Tanagers in the area). I got a view of the bird without obstructions during approximately 10 seconds with my 10x42 Leica Trinovid against a dark background (a mossy

A Plumbeous Hawk was calling at about 5:00 pm today [July 26], I suspect from a tall dead tree about 100 mts beyond the entrance to Calle Maipo, Altos de Cerro Azul. By the time I got round there from my house, it had gone—so unfortunately no photos!

Sólo quería compartir algunos avistamientos que Gloriela y yo hemos realizado desde el pasado fin de semana. Antes de encontrarnos con el grupo de participantes de la gira de campo de la SAP a Santa Fe, fuimos en horas de la tarde del viernes 17 de julio a las ciénegas de Las Macanas (Herrera). Sólo a destacar la presencia de al menos tres Aplomado Falcons a lo largo de la carretera nacional y otro (fotografiado) en la vía de acceso en las Macanas. El tiempo en Santa Fe no nos favoreció (mucha lluvia). Aún así pudimos llegar hasta cerca de la divisoria continental. Cerca del sitio de construcción de la nueva sede del PN Santa Fe en la carretera Alto de Piedra - Guabal (apenas en la vertiente pacífica) nos encontramos con una bandada mixta de tangaras conformada principalmente por Dusky-faced Tanagers con las cuales viajaba un sólo individuo de Ashy-throated Bush-Tanager (luego envio la documentación completa). Varios miembros del grupo pudimos observarla (inclutendo a Gloriela y

Glen Lee sent in this photo of Coiba Spinetail at its nest, taken July 13 at Coiba National Park's Los Pozos trail.

Osvaldo Quintero photographed this ibis in full breeding plumage at Las Macanas Marsh this morning. We are calling it a Glossy Ibis based on the dark iris and facial skin. White-faced Ibis (which has never been reported in Panama) whould have bright red eyes and facial skin, but if any of you have dissenting opinions, just let us know.

Euclides Campos sent in this photo of an Azuero Parakeet he saw at the town of Cobachón, Azuero Peninsula, on june 12.

Guido Berguido has been collecting comments on his cuckoo photos taken at Las Macanas on june 20 . hallo guido, In Suriname we have an observation of the y-b cuckoo in june 10 birds on 7 of june 1972 along the coast (see  http://webserv.nhl.nl/~ribot/php4/verspreiding.php4 ). Given the time to  fly back it comes near to your date. Nowadays they are rare by the way (about ten times less frequent now then before 1990, I guess). Best regards jan hein ribot "Birds in Suriname" website Yellow-billed Cuckoos I know quite well as a bird that breeds near to my home.  My experience with Pearly-breasted Cuckoo is far more limited, with a heard-only bird in Argentina near Iguacu Falls. Still, I have an opinion.  I see none of the rufous that I would expect on either an adult or juvenile Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  The uppertail also fails to show any white spotting. Accordingly, I believe that this bird is a Pearly-breasted. Any vocalizations? Larry Gardella Montgomery, AL

Ghislain Rompré sent in two photos of the Black-legged Kittiwake that he, Randy Moore and Doug Robinson saw in Costa del Este on April 3 . The bird has not been seen again.

We often get hummingbirds flying into our living room at Cerro Azul, together with the odd tanager, euphonia or thrush, but we don't really expect a bird of the forest floor to come out of the woods and do the same thing. This Scaly-throated Leaftosser came to visit us this morning, dirty beak and all. It crashed into a window, and took a while to recover, but it eventually flew away apparently unharmed, but hopefully somewhat wiser. Well, its not a rare bird, but its rarely if ever seen in this type of habitat.

Guido Berguido sent in a report of his group's visit to Ciénaga de Las Macanas. While leading an Advantage Tours birding group on our way back from Coiba Island last Saturday June 20th, I decided to break the drive and do a brief visit at Las Macanas wetlands. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a covey of Crested Bobwhites at the parking lot, promptly followed by views of Mouse-colored Tyrannulets, and flocks of Black-bellied Whistling-ducks, as well as a vocal Rufous-browed Peppershrike. Later we saw a pair of Pale-eyed Pygmy Tyrants near some Common Tody-flycatchers, and a flock of "Veraguan" Brown-throated Parakeets. While walking around the water's edge, we saw lots of Grooved-billed Anis and were fortunate to spot a roosting Striped Owl. Towards mid-morning we decided to wrap it up. Back at the parking lot we heard a pair of Gray-necked Woodrails nearby and decided to wait under the shade to try to see them. Suddenly, a cuckoo flew in front of us and perc

Botanists Alicia Ibañez, Fermín Hernández and Bonarge Rodríguez and I—the lone birder—spent two days in Santa Fe. On June 18 we ascended Cerro Mariposa using the route described in Where to Find Birds in Panama. (Note: In a previous message I said that this trail probably went to Cerro Delgadito; in fact it does go to Cerro Mariposa which is separated from Delgadito by a narrow canyon). The trail was not easy—long, much overgrown, muddy, rocky and very steep in places. There were recent cat tracks—probably ocelot—and an older Baird's Tapir print. The height of this hill is not marked on the map but using our GPS reading on Google Earth it is 1,364 meters (somewhat higher than expected). Very few birds were seen, but near the top we ran into a bit of higher elevation stuff— Common Bush Tanager, Collared Redstart, Ruddy Treerunner, and Purple-throated Mountain-Gem. On the summit, there was a sizeable flock of Chestnut-collared Swifts (40 individuals or more) accompanied by some da