Central America
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CentralAmerica monitoringstation results from across the re- largepopulation at seabeyond the reef at this gionmay provide some interesting results. season,at leastin someyears, from which an As if hurricaneswere not enough,Mother unhealthyfew are carriedinside the reefto Nature dealt more bad luck on 1 Octoben E1 shore.On 13 Aug,W. kala observedan ad. Salvador'slargest volcano, Santa Ana, erupted White-tailedTropicbird at closerange 200 m witha moderateexplosion that day, covering off s. AmbergrisCaye while fishing.While the upperslopes with nearlya meterof ash, therehave been several anecdotal reports of andflattening parts of itscloud forest. The ex- thisspecies in Belizein recentyears, this was plosionwas followed by a weekof heavyrain thefirst adequately documented since 1976. as Hurricane Stan crossedsouthern Mexico, In Guatemala,at least 100 AmericanWhite H. Lee Jones ß Oliver Komar causingnearly a meterof rainfallin some Pelicanswere presentin Montetrico,Santa partsof northernCentral America and lead- Rosaon the earlydate of 8 Oct (ACh), anda ing to hundredsof landslides.The bird band- MagnificentFrigatebird was seenflying low tropicalstorms and hurricanes in the ingstation in thevolcano's cloud forest (2 km overheadwell inlandat Rocj/•Pomtilfi, Alta heCaribbeanincrease mayin numberbe havinganda severity hugebut of from the crater) was abandoned, but at press Verapaz15 Oct (EC). TwoLeast Bitterns were largelyunnoticed impact on migratingsong- time, monthlybird monitoringhad begun at Rubelsanto 10 Oct (KE). In Panama, a birds. Paul Salaman of the American Bird onceagain. At the volcano,significant de- LeastBittern, the first for Chiriqut,was at a Conservancyreported an unprecedentedfall- dinesin residentbird populations are expect- smallmarsh near kas kajas beach 27 Oct (AC, outof migrantson San Andrfs Island, 220 km ed,as well asin migrantsaffected by thevar- DH, DMo). An imm.Fasciated •ger-Heron at eastof Nicaragua,during and following Hur- ious hurricanes. Cabeceras(w. of Santa Elena de Monteverde) ricanesWilma and Beta. He, ten instructors, Thisseasoh's report includes the first coun- 11Nov (ph.RH, WINGS) at about1400 m el- and 60 trainee handers visited San Andrfs to try recordsfor AplomadoFalcon in E1 conductan advancedbanding course spon- Salvador,Yellow-headed Caracara in soredby FundactOn ProAves and others. They Honduras(possibly a storm-drivenva- werepresent from the period immediately grantfrom the northcoast of Colom- lowingthe passageof HurricaneWilma (19 bia?), a possibleVirginias Warbler in Oct), which startedjust eastof SanAndr•s CostaRica, and Slate-coloredSeedeater andtracked northwestward, through the full in Guatemala. impactof HurricaneBeta a weeklater. In Dr. Salaman'swords: "The fallout of migrantswas Abbreviations:C.A. (CentralAmerica); unprecedented,particularly in the aftermath MUHNES(Museum of NaturalHistory of eachhurricane.. For example,on the 19th of E1 Salvador);T.E.C. (Instituto Tec- an estimated5+ millionmigrants arrived, pri- nolfgicode CostaRica). marily Bay-breasted,Chestnut-sided, and TennesseeWarblers, Gray Catbirds,Oven- DUCKSTHROUGH IBISES birds,tanagers, and thrushes.In subsequent In Guatemala, 5 ad. Black-bellied days,waves of otherspecies hit the island, Whistling-Ducks28 Aug, one with 7 Thisjuvenile female Aplornado Falcon flew •n•o a jetdunng particularlyIndigo Bunting,Yellow-billed very youngjuvs., establisheda first take-offat E1Salvador's international airport on 26 September Cuckoo, and other warblerssuch as Golden- nestingrecord for Rubelsanto, Alta Ver- 2005,establishing thecountry's first record for the species. winged.Sadly, the muscle and fat conditions apaz (ph. KE). In E1 Salvador,6 ad. PhotographbyRicardo Ibarra Portillo. fora largeproportion of hurricanefallout mi- MuscovyDucks at Lagunade Colima,Cus- evationon the Caribbeanslope of CostaRica grantswas horrendous.We are concerned catldn5 Aug(Nell) werebreeding in adjoin- (butvery near the continental divide) was the thatthe impact of bothhurricanes (as well as ing forestaccording to local wardens;the firstreport for the Monteverdearea and was the manyprevious hurricanes) could be sig- speciesis rarein thisdepartment. Five Blue- unusualin thatthe bird was perched in forest nificanton Neotropical migrant species popu- wingedTeal, including a male in alternate at theedge of a pasture,nowhere near its pre- lations.The trueextent of theseimpacts may plumage,were at LasCOncavas, Cartago 3] ferredhabitat of rushingwater. ]'his species not be knownuntil next breedingseason." Jul (DM). If migrants,they were exceptional- hasappeared in manynew areas in CostaRica Andthese are only the birds that made landfall ly early.If not migrants,they may represent in recentyears, especially along the s. Pacific on this one island. Think of the millions that the first summer record for Costa Rica. Also slope,perhaps aided by the risein thepopu- may havereached other islandsin an ex- noteworthyin Costa Rica were a female larity of trout and tilapiacultivation. hausted or emaciated state-•or never reached NorthernPintail at Bagatziricefields n. of GlossyIbis in a fieldnear kas kajas beach 27 land. The toll from these two hurricanes Palo Verde 15 Nov and a flock of 56 Lesser Oct (AC, DH, DMo) were the firstrecorded in alone must have been enormous indeed. In Scaupat Pelonde La Bajuraricefields nw. of Chiriqut. fact,migrants trying to make their way to PaloVerde four days later (both JRZ). Central America from eastern North America An exhausted Audubon's Shearwater was DIURNALRAPTORS would havebeen plagued by severestorms closelyobserved about 0.5 km off s. Amber- Thefirst effort to monitorfall hawk migration duringan unusuallylarge percentage of au- grisCaye 5 Aug (tSL). Belize'stwo previous systematicallyin n. C.A.,organized by RPat tumndays in 2005.The enormous hurricanes occurrenceswere of a recentlydead and a dy- Suchitoto,Cuscatldn it/E1 Salvador'scentral Katrinaand Rita of Augustand September ing individual,both found washed ashore in valley,produced a countof 327,000raptors 1 could have been disastrous for some of the late Jul/earlyAug, suggestinga patternof Sep-15 Nov and severalinteresting results. earliermigrants. An analysisof winterbird summeroccurrence and perhapsa relatively Themajority of thebirds passing were, as ex- 152 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS CENTRALAMERICA pected,Turkey Vultures (204,000), Swain- In CostaRica, a subad.light-morph Crest- de Lim6n 10 Oct (DM, PP). On the shoreof son'sHawks (97,000), and Broad-winged ed Eaglewas at the entranceto CarloHarold, L. Yaxh•, Pet•n, at least one Collared Plover Hawks (18,000), but over 5000 were Black Tortuguero18 Aug (ph. MC et al.). While a wasobserved with SemipalmatedPlovers and Vultures,a specieswhose migrations in the smallpopulation may be residentin the area, Kfildeer3 Dec(KE). Also noteworthy were 2 areaare poorlyknown. Some partial season thebird may instead have been a visitorfrom AmericanOystercatchers along the n. coastof resultsfor migrating raptors were also report- the extensiveareas of protectedforest just Hondurasat Jutiapa 21-25 Nov (DMe, DSet ed fromGuatemala's Pacific flyway From 23 over the border in Nicaragua.A Crested al.,fide OK). Oct-3 Nov, NH of the PROEVAL RAXMU Caracara11 Sepat T.E.C. in Cartagoeating In E1 Salvador,a WanderingTattler was Bird MonitoringProgram counted 209,000+ carrion with vultures(DM, JS, migratingraptors in thecities of Chiquimulil- CS) was only the 2nd recorded la and Taxisco,Santa Rosa;98 per cent on the Caribbean side of Costa (205,225)were lurkey Vultures, and most of Rica'sCentral Valley The species the rest (3761) were SwainsoffsHawks. has been spreadinge. and s. Impressivekite migrationswere observed throughoutdeforested areas of at Suchitotoby RP,GG, JR and others: a total the Caribbeanlowlands; howev- of 27 Hook-billed Kites was tallied 14 Oct-15 er, it remainsvery rare in Costa Nov,and during Sep, 10 Swallow-tailedKites Ricae. of Alajuelain the Central (2-7 Sep), a remarkable1729 Mississippi Valleyand is seldomseen this Kites (1156 on 4 Sep), and 29 Plumbeous high in elevation(1500 m). A Kites(1-3 Seponly) weredocumented. Ihe Yellow-headedCaracara flying w. MississippiKite flightsubsided in earlyOct, alongthe beach at Jutiapa, Atldn- with 41 counted in that month and the last tida 22 Nov (LA, RC, OK) was a seenon 14 Oct. Singlemale Northern Harri- firstfor Honduras.Although the Thisleucistic Green Violet-ear was on the Caribbean slope of Cordillera Central nearVara Bianca, Costa Rica 8 August-9October 2005 (here 11 August) 2005. ers migratingat Suchitoto28-29 Sepwere specieshas been expanding in re- PhotographbyYeudi Hernandez. earlyAlso surprising were unexpectedly high centyears in s. C.A.,it is perhaps numbersof severalother hawk species ob- moreplausible that this individual was blown foundat the mouthof R.Jiboa, La Paz 15 Oct served:for instance,11 Oct-9 Nov,37 Coop- acrossthe Caribbean from n. Colombiaby one (ph. TJ). E1 Salvador's2nd fall Long-billed er• Hawkshere approached the numberof of the season'shurricanes or tropicalstorms. Curlewwas at Bahiade Jiquilisco,Usulutdn Sharp-shinnedHawks counted (48), which Displacementof raptorsby tropicalstorms, 15 Oct (ph. TJ).Another Long-billed Curlew suggeststhat Cooper'smay be a morecom- however,has only rarely been documented. was observedin muddyfallow ricefields at mon winter visitor to n. C.A. than some have A juv. femaleAplomado Falcon was ob- Pe16nde La Bajura, 15 km s. of Liberia,Gua- supposed.A Cooper'sHawk at Montecristo servedto collidewith an airplane during