Xenornis

I've been in the Volcan area for the last few days with my family, and have managed to sneak some birding in between the family fun (sometimes the two things go hand-in-hand!). I came here with a few particular target birds among the residents, but North American migrants have stolen the show—a revelation for me, as this is the first time I have spent time in Chiriqui at this time of year. Yesterday, 22/10, we visited Finca Dracula, where I found my number one target, a male Maroon-chested Ground-Dove that revealed itself briefly near the bamboo stands along the entry road. This was topped by a Blue-headed Vireo I found later in the morning in the gardens. I saw the bird well, at eye level and not 3 meters away. I identified it without thinking, as I saw thousands of these in my time in New York. When I thought about it for a minute in the context of Panama I chased the bird, and confirmed my i.d. Also noteworthy was the presence of dozens of Slaty Finches at their seed feed...

On the early afternoon of Sunday, October 17th, the hawk counters and volunteers of the ongoing Panama Audubon Raptors Ocean to Ocean Count 2010 saw a Cooper's Hawk. First seen by Venicio Wilson, photographed by Juan Pablo Ríos. Panama Records Committee chair George Angehr sums up the fieldmarks thusly: The large head, projecting well in front of the leading edge of the wings, and the proportionately long tail with a rounded tip appear to indicate the bird is a Cooper's Hawk rather than a Sharp-shinned, which would have a proportionately smaller head and a relatively shorter tail with a square tip. There are two previous sight reports of Cooper's from Chiriqui; this would be the first photographic documentation. This is only the third record of this rare boreal migrant in Panama, and the first from the Canal Area (previous sightings are from the road to Fortuna and the road to Boquete in Chiriquí.) Cooper's Hawk normally winters to Costa Rica, but there's a record...

A few of us Boquete Birders saw both a Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl and a Maroon-chested Ground-Dove during a recent bird outing [August 10]. Our elevation was about 2100 meters where the pair (male and female) of ground doves were spotted. The area has thick stands of bamboo growing alongside the road. The ground doves “calling” is what drew our attention to them. Unfortunately I was unable to catch a photo of the ground doves as they moved about. We spotted the owl perched and at a slightly lower elevation along the road. We were viewing a Scintillant Hummingbird when the owl was noticed directly behind and a few feet away. About the ground-dove, Craig Bennett says: As for the ground-doves we were watching, I can only come to the same conclusion we had in the field - Maroon-chested Ground-Dove. In the poor light conditions of the first bird we observed the clearest characteristic I noted was the two solid wing bars. The Costa Rica book says "the only CR dove with wing bars; a...

Hoy domingo, como a eso de las 4:30 pm Karl y yo estábamos en los llanos de Costa del Este (los terrenos que no han sido vendidos y que tienen hierbas y acumulación de agua de lluvia). Nos salió una Sora y muy cerca, en un charco, estaban 3 Pectoral Sandpipers. No vimos a los otros 3-4 Solitary Sandpipers que han estado en el último mes en el área. Luego nos fuimos al Parque Ecológico lo único que vimos fue 2 grupos de 4-5 Whimbrels. Ambos sitios tienen bastante agua y están buenos para playeros que prefieren este tipo de hábitat.

We went back over to Birder's View this morning... We'd gone over there on Thursday late afternoon to walk your trail and hopefully get one more bird for the 3rd quarter of 2010. On Thursday we thought we'd possible seen the Speckled Antshrike but it had gotten late and was too dark to make a good ID. There is a pretty large ant swarm in the woods and yes we did see, today, the female Speckled Antshrike (twice). Nando was there working and he said he'd heard what he thought was the Ground-Cuckoo early this morning. We also got Black-crowned Antpitta , the normal contingent of Antbirds (Spotted, Bicolored and Ocellated) and many Woodcreepers (Plain-brown, Ruddy , Northern Barred and Cocoa). The antswarm was on the lower trail before you get to Nando's new trail.