Xenornis

It sometimes pays to rummage through the trash. Carlos Bethancourt photographed this American Golden-Plover at Costa del Este on August 28.

El sabado 28 de agosto del 2010, cuatro miembros/colaboradores de Audubon (Kilo Campos, Jan Axel Cubilla, Gloriela Archbold y Rafael Luck) se dirigieron en la acostumbrada 4WD FJ Cruiser hacia El Copé en búsqueda del Umbrellabird y otras aves. Aquí fotos del Bare-necked Umbrellabird y Golden-olive Woodpecker de El Copé. [ Visit Jan Axel's Blog for more details]. Posteriormente visitamos las Salinas de Aguadulce y reportamos entre otros Reddish Egret , Stilt Sandpiper y una bandada de aprox. 150 Black Skimmers .

Just wanted to pass on a couple of the better sightings of the last few very rainy days in the Volcan area. At Finca Hartmann on 25/8 I found a Stripe-breasted Wren , I think a bit more than halfway up to Ojos de Agua, the first good pathc of forest I encountered en route. When I heard the bird it struck me as odd for the area, without really thinking about its usual range, so I employed playback, and the bird came in immediately and lingered for a minute or so, not 3m away. I collected audio of its response to playback, which will be posted on xeno-canto when I return home. I believe this would be a first record for Chiriqui- I'm hard-pressed to explain this, but anecdotal evidence from the Hartmann family suggests that heavy rains in the area drive some species to different locations, possibly explaining the wren's foray onto the Pacific slope. Also excellent for the area was a Bronzy Hermit , which came in to a plaintain tree as I was taking a bathroom break, of all t...

Itzel Fong Gadea photographed this Long-billed Curlew at Panamá Viejo on August 20.

We saw this pair of Killdeers foraging on the grassy areas of the Chitré airstrip; the birds were seen during high tide. A quick stop at Sarigua National Park added Common Ground-Dove , these doves seem to be easier to find here. Among some other birds we saw Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant, Mouse-colored Tyrannulet and two Roseate Spoonbills.

To file under suspicious birds: Jan Axel Cubilla and Osvaldo Quintero saw a flock of 20 odd-looking kingbirds at the Metropolitan Nature Park last sunday. Quoth Jan Axel: La verdad es que esos tiranos se ven algo raros. En primer lugar, ya antes habia visto muchos Tropical Kingbirds reunidos en árboles con frutas, pero no tantos (conté 20 por lo menos). Además, todos me parecían pequeños sin excepción, tanto así que la impresión general que me dieron fue la de una bandada de Tiranos Norteños. También me parecieron muy "nítidos", lo cual confirmo en las fotos (casi sin oliva en el pecho, cabeza bastante pálida acentuando la "máscara"). Las fotos sólo están cropeadas, no les he cambiado nada del color, ni contraste ni nitidez. Verifiqué algunas fotos en la web de el Tirano Gorgiblanco (Tyrannus albogularis) de suramérica (el cual es migratorio) y la verdad me han quedado ganas de regresarme a ver si todavía están allí para salir de mis dudas. Creo que voy mañana de...

Spent all of Sunday [August 8] at Playa Venao - we added Wandering Tattler to our lifelist. We walked down the beach to the left (east). Saw a number of birds working a lagoon area that's newly forming on the beach. Great Blue Heron, Whimbrel, Spotted & Solitary Sandpipers, Wilson's Plovers. crossed the inlet to the lagoon and had 3 Scarlet Macaws flying inland from the beach. Continued to the end of the beach where a small creek flows into the ocean. Across the creek & out further the coast gets rocky. On the rocky coast we saw what we believe was a Wandering Tattler - larger, plumper & grayer than either of the Sandpipers & bobbing. There is a small off-shore island there.

On Saturday, August 7, Claudia & Bill Ahrens, Rosabel & Karl Kaufmann, and Delicia & Darién Montañez braved the threatening skies over Pedasí and headed out for Islas Frailes. Frailes del Sur were covered in birds: about 500 Bridled Terns , including some in juvenile plumage, maybe 200 Brown Noddies, and 100 Sooty Terns , including some 25 in juvenile plumage that would often fly over our boat. Further out, and after deploying the chum, we started running into procellariids: one or two Galápagos Shearwater , a single Sooty Shearwater and a dozen Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels . Our persistence was rewarded when we approached a flock of noddies and ran into about 120 Galápagos Sheawaters sitting on the water, allowing for really close views. Of course, I completely forgot I had a camera on me. After this flock flew and floated away, we went out some more and found another similar flock, this time with about 80 Galápagos Shearwaters, similarly well-behaved. Our boatman estimated...

Following the previous report of The Montañez and Kaufmann, and with the objective of getting some nice photos, Dr. Osvaldo Quintero, Euclides Campos and Rafael Luck visited the Nusagandi area last saturday. We found lots of Brown-hooded Parrots, like 7 Syristes , 5 or 6 Slate-throated Gnatcatcher , Plumbeous Kite, White Hawk, Crested Guan and an unidentified (and unphotographed) large raptor that could have been a Crested Eagle. On the way back, we stopped at Tocumen Airport to look for the Cattle Tyrant and fortunately we found the bird right away [on the front lawn of the main terminal, between the parking lot and the access road].

Yesterday morning's Panama Audubon birdwalk for beginners culminated, as it has for the last couple of months, with a visit to the Common Potoo that's been roosting by the guard booth at the base of La Cienaguita trail. This time, though, the bird was perched over a ball of gray fuzz: a baby potoo. Photo by Les Lieurance .