Paint-billed Crake Family
Takes a Stroll in Sarapiquí
28 August
2007: Lance Barnett was stunned to witness two Paint-billed Crakes Neocrex
erythrops “crossing a small dirt road at one of our banana dump sites
in Sarapaquí near our Gavilan farm. The area has wet dense grass
(partially underwater) bordered by one of our forest reserves. The first
one crossed the road and my jaw dropped. It had three chicks following
it. I grabbed your book to validate and another one crossed with two
chicks. Definite bicolored bill and markings of the species. Since
they had chicks, I assume they are breeding there.”
Northern Shoveler at Chomes
27 August
2007: Jim Zook and Dennis Rogers found a male Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata in eclipse plumage at Chomes. Jim surmised that it was an
oversummering bird.
Also of note during their visit to Chomes were some 20 Wilson’s Phalaropes Phalaropus
tricolor and 60 Least Terns Sternula
antillarum.
Two Rare Furnariids Turn up at
Bajos del Toro
25 August
2007: Lance Barnett and Tom Deligiannis observed a Strong-billed Woodcreeper Xiphocolaptes promeropirhynchus
and two Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaners
Anabacerthia variegaticeps while
enjoying some roadside birding along the road above Bosque de Paz.
Migrants on the Move
21 August
2007: Jim Zook spotted two female/immature Cerulean
Warblers Dendroica cerulea
in a coffee plantation near his home in Naranjo.
As expected, North American migrants are beginning to show up around
the country now. However, on this page I will limit reports to those species
that are very uncommon or rare in Costa Rica and the five species that are on
the eBird Priority Migrant
list:
Cerulean
Warbler Dendroica cerulea
Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera
Blue-winged Warbler Vermivora pinus
Canada Warbler Wilsonia canadensis
Olive-sided Flycatcher Contopus cooperi
Lovely Cotingas Show at Two
Sites
18 August
2007: During a morning of birding at Tausito, Ernesto Carman and Herman Venegas
saw a total of three male Lovely
Cotingas Cotinga amabilis! As if
that weren’t enough, they also had Sharpbill
Oxyruncus cristatus, Rufous-browed Tyrannulet Phylloscartes superciliaris, and Blue-and-gold Tanager Bangsia arcaei, among many other middle
elevation dwellers.
14 August
2007: Marco Fallas and Pedro Bolaños watched a pair of Lovely Cotingas Cotinga amabilis feeding in a fruiting tree by the upper parking
area at Arenal Observatory Lodge. This is apparently the same spot where
sightings occurred last year.
Slaty Finch Seen at Km 70
05 August
2007: Julio Sánchez had a singing male Slaty Finch Haplospiza
rustica near the huge Cipresillo tree Podocarpus
oleifolius at Jorge Serrano’s Paraíso del Quetzal, just off km
70 on the PanAmerican Highway south. He also heard two more the birds in
the area, but didn’t notice whether there was any seeding bamboo, or not.
Solitary Eagle South of
Cahuita
04 August
2007: Hernán Araya was driving from Cahuita towards Puerto Viejo de
Limón when he happened to notice a Solitary
Eagle Harpyhaliaetus solitarius
soaring above the forested ridge to the right of the road.
Good Ground Birds at Arenal
26 July
2007: Leo Chaves reported finding a Violaceous
Quail-Dove Geotrygon violacea at
the Arenal Observatory Lodge. It was apparently new for the lodge list.
Likewise, previously unreported for the lodge property was a Tawny-throated Leaftosser Sclerurus mexicanus.
Slaty Finches Singing at
Selvatur
25 July
2007: César Sánchez heard three singing Slaty Finches Haplospiza
rustica along the Selvatur walkway, near the Santa Elena Reserve. More
precisely, the birds were scattered between bridges two and five, where there
is abundant bamboo in seed.
Black-and-white Warbler gets
an early start
15 July
2007: Christopher Wood, of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornothology, saw an adult
male Black-and-white Warbler Mniotilta varia that was mobbing a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl Glaucidium brasilianum in the garden of
his downtown San José hotel. The warbler was also heard singing.
This is an
extremely early record for an NA migrant passerine. Normally, this species
doesn’t begin showing up in CR until the middle of August.
Rough-legged Tyrannulet on
Cerro de la Muerte
In early
July, Paco Madrigal and Erick Castro were birding at the Mirador de Quetzales
(km 70 on the PanAmerican Highway south of San José) and found a Rough-legged Tyrannulet (Phyllomyias
burmeisteri) that was singing incessantly from about 30 meters up in the
canopy. Playback brought the bird in closer for several good looks at this rare
flycatcher.
Tropical Parula turns up in
Carara
In early
July, Paco Madrigal and Erick Castro saw a Tropical
Parula Parula pitiayumi
while birding on the loop trail at Carara NP. I’m not aware of any other
sea level records for this species on either side of CR.
American Wigeon makes final
stop at Cocos Island
15 June 2007: While visiting Cocos
Island, Felipe López observed a male American Wigeon Anas
americana at the mouth of the Río Genio in Wafer Bay. He saw the for
bird several days and took the accompanying photograph before eventually
discovering the headless corpse of the bird on the beach. Felipe surmised that
it may have been killed by one of the island’s feral cats, or else died
of starvation and was partially consumed by feral rats.
This is
apparently the first record of American Wigeon for Cocos Island.
Large-billed Tern returns to
Caribbean coast
13 June
2007: Dennis Wille spotted a Large-billed
Tern Phaetusa simplex at Boca de
Matina, on the canal/river system south of Tortuguero. The only previous record
of this species in Costa Rica was a bird that was seen and photographed in
Tortuguero in March 2003. So far, I haven’t heard of any further
sightings of the current individual.
Dennis also
saw two Black Skimmers Rynchops
niger in the same area.
Given the date, these may perhaps have been migrants from South America.
Red-breasted Blackbirds at
Caño Blanco
09 June
2007: Conrad Weston reported seeing six Red-breasted
Blackbirds Sturnella militaris in
a field about 1.5 km before arriving at Caño Blanco (one of the embarkation
points for the boat journey to Tortuguero).
First Nunbird sighting in ten
years at Kèköldi
02 June
2007: Daniel Martínez joined Lucas Chaves of the Kèköldi
Indigenous Reserve on a hike to Wimb'ta Hill, a peak with primary forest at an
elevation of 220 meters. Daniel was interested in checking out this seldom
visited part of the reserve to see what birds might be found there. They
observed nothing out of the ordinary until they came across a foraging army ant
swarm on the return hike. The usual assemblage of antbirds were in attendance,
but Daniel heard a different call. Imitating the sound, a White-fronted Nunbird Monasa
morphoeus flew in and remained perched above them for about ten minutes.
According to Pablo Porras, of the Talamanca Hawk Monitoring Program, there have
been no reports of nunbirds in the reserve in the last ten years.
For reports
prior to these, please check previous Costa Rica Rare Bird Reports:
For reports
prior to those, please check the Gone Birding
Newsletter.
Have you
seen a rare bird in Costa Rica, or a species in an unexpected locality, or
exhibiting odd behavior? If you have any noteworthy sightings, I (and the rest
of the birding community) would appreciate hearing about them. Please send
reports to Richard Garrigues gonebirdingcr@gmail.com and include pertinent details such as
location (as precise as possible), date, time, and observers’ names. If
you have digital images, all the better; however, please send images at file
sizes of less than 500 kb.
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