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Paint-billed Crake Famil= y Takes a Stroll in Sarapiquí

2= 8 August 2007: Lance Barnett was stunned to witness two Paint-billed Crakes Neo= crex erythrops “crossing a small dirt road at one of our banana dump s= ites in Sarapaquí near our Gavilan farm. The area has wet dense grass (partially underwater) bordered by one of our forest reserves. The fir= st 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.”

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Northern Shoveler at Cho= mes

2= 7 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 Phal= aropus tricolor and 60 Least Terns Sternula antillarum.=

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Two Rare Furnariids Turn= up at Bajos del Toro

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2= 5 August 2007: Lance Barnett and Tom Deligiannis observed a Strong-billed Woodcreeper Xiphocolaptes promeropirhynchus and two Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner= s Anabacerthia variegaticeps while enjoying some roadside birding along the road above Bosque de Paz.

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Migrants on the Move

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2= 1 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 M= igrant list:

C= erulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea
Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera
Blue-winged Warbler Vermivora pinus
Canada Warbler Wilsonia canadensis
Olive-sided Flycatcher Contopus cooperi

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Lovely Cotingas Show at = Two Sites

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1= 8 August 2007: During a morning of birding at Tausito, Ernesto Carman and Herman Ven= egas 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 m= iddle elevation dwellers.

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1= 4 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.

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Slaty Finch Seen at Km 7= 0

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0= 5 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 of= f 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.

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Solitary Eagle South of Cahuita

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0= 4 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.

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Good Ground Birds at Are= nal

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2= 6 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.

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Slaty Finches Singing at Selvatur

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2= 5 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 the= re is abundant bamboo in seed.

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Black-and-white Warbler = gets an early start

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1= 5 July 2007: Christopher Wood, of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornothology, saw an ad= ult male Black-and-white Warbler Mniotilta varia that was mobbing a= Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl Glaucidium brasilianum in the gard= en of his downtown San José hotel. The warbler was also heard singing= .

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T= his 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.=

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Rough-legged Tyrannulet = on Cerro de la Muerte

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I= n early July, Paco Madrigal and Erick Castro were birding at the Mirador de Quetzal= es (km 70 on the PanAmerican Highway south of San José) and found a Rough-legged Tyrannulet (Phyll= omyias 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.

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Tropical Parula turns up= in Carara

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I= n 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 ot= her sea level records for this species on either side of CR.<= /span>

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American Wigeon makes fi= nal stop at Cocos Island

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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 t= hat it may have been killed by one of the island’s feral cats, or else di= ed of starvation and was partially consumed by feral rats.
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T= his is apparently the first record of American Wigeon for Cocos Island.=

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Large-billed Tern return= s to Caribbean coast

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1= 3 June 2007: Dennis Wille spotted a Large= -billed Tern Phaetusa simplex at Bo= ca de Matina, on the canal/river system south of Tortuguero. The only previous re= cord 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.

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D= ennis also saw two Black Skimmers Rynchops niger in the same area. Given the date, these may perhaps have been migrants from South America.

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Red-breasted Blackbirds = at Caño Blanco

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0= 9 June 2007: Conrad Weston reported seeing six Red-breasted Blackbirds Sturnella militaris<= /i> in a field about 1.5 km before arriving at Caño Blanco (one of the embarkation points for the boat journey to Tortuguero).
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First Nunbird sighting i= n ten years at Kèköldi

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0= 2 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 ob= served nothing out of the ordinary until they came across a foraging army ant swar= m 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 M= onasa 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.

F= or reports prior to these, please check previous Costa Rica Rare Bird Reports:

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May/Apr/Mar = 2007

Feb/Jan 2007=

Dec/Nov/Oct = 2006

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F= or reports prior to those, please check the Gone Birding Newsletter.

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H= ave 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 r= est 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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R= eturn to my home page.

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