Just a few reports have been collected for the month of September, but they are good ones, accompanied by a couple of fine digiscoped images courtesy of Carlos Bethancourt, senior guide at the Canopy Tower.   Noteworthy was the sighting of several Cerulean Warblers (pictured at right) at La Mesa on 9/13; this declining species is seldom reported from the El Valle area (I am only aware of two other records, including one of my own from September of 2006).   Another good report is one of a Scaly-throated Leaftosser from the Aqueduct Trail at the Canopy Lodge, spotted by José Perez on 9/10.   This very localized furnariid was unknown from the El Valle area until the spring of 2007, when Danilo Rodríguez found them at the same location (I recorded them myself several times this summer). The Aqueduct Trail was a short path that approached a water tank that supplied much of the fresh water for the Canopy Lodge, until landslides in November of 2006 inundated the tank and its associated stream. The resulting alteration of habitat seems to have attacted a number of interesting species, including the leaftosser and Eye-ringed Flatbill.   Finally, I received a brief report of a Yellowish Pipit found by Danilo somewhere around Juan Hombrón; this species of the savannah is seriously declining in Panama, so any sighting is great news. I await further details.

Below I present a digiscoped image of an immature Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo, shared with me by Carlos Bethancourt. Note the dark bill and generally dark plumage of this bird compared to its parent shown elsewhere on this page; this is the juvenille bird of the famous ground-cuckoos that entertained a legion of visiting birders during the summer of 2007, and the presence of this young one was probably the reason these birds were so unusually accomodating.