After a bit of a dry spell, typical of the very busy end of the dry season, a flurry of interesting reports came in from guides at the Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge. Number One on the hit list has to be the Marbled Wood-Quail reported by José Soto, found on Pipeline Road on May 10th. The bird was found about 500 meters past the Juan Grande bridge (the first one), near the first visible piece of the old pipeline, almost exactly where José Perez found this same species on March 19th of this year. Marbled Wood-Quail is extremely rare in the Canal area, known historically from Pipeline Road but with no reports for the last decade or so. Consider that José Soto is one of the senior guides at the Canopy Tower, and has birded Pipeline Road at least a couple of times a week for roughly the last ten years, and this sighting represented a life bird for him. Josés Perez and Soto may have come upon something of a hotspot for Marbled Wood-Quail, and I know exactly what my first stop will be when I return to Panamá in late June!
More good stuff came in from the Canal area; José Perez found a Cinnamon Becard on the grounds of the new Rainforest Discovery Center (accessed from Pipeline Road) on May 13th. This species is rather scarce in central Panamá, although Carlos Bethancourt and I heard one calling in the same area in early March; it appears that the grounds of the Discovery Center may provide appropriate habitat for this sought-after species. The day before, May 12th, Sr. Perez found male and female Great Jacamars on Pipeline, near the 2nd bridge (Frijolitos), where he had seen them the week before. This species seems to be declining in the region, but it has reported with increasing frequency in recent months, offering hope that it may be in recovery. Another fine sighting from José was that of a Northern Royal Flycatcher near the south entrance of Old Gamboa Road, also on 5/12. This rare and striking tyrannid is seldom-reported from the Canal area, and the smattering of recent sightings in central Panamá seem to have come from the foothills above El Valle.
From the Canopy Lodge very few reports have come in, perhaps in part because the guides and guests there have become accustomed to the unexpected! Danilo Rodríguez submitted two reports of Black-crowned Antpitta from La Mesa, above El Valle, on 5/4 and 5/12. A decade ago this species was considered a novelty in the region, but as of late sightings seem to occur on a rather regular basis. On the 12th Danilo also found an Emerald Tanager, another species that until recent years (months even!), was more associated with the moist Caribbean slope of central Panamá. On May 5th Raúl Arias de Para reported that the Rufous-crested Coquette was now being seen on an almost daily basis in the Lodge's gardens. For the last several years this species has been quite regular towards the end of the dry season, suggesting some manner of post-breeding dispersal.
