When I arrived at Hempstead Town Park about 60 minutes later (after narrowly avoiding being sideswiped by a car full of women birders who did not know which way they wanted to turn off the Loop Parkway –check a map before starting out folks) the bird was staked out but not showing itself. A couple of times someone thought they saw movement, but couldn’t say what it was. About 15 minutes later, Lenore Swenson and Starr Saphir showed up in a taxicab after taking a train in from the city. Memo to self: when possible stand behind Starr. She found the bird in less than five minutes. However I was a few meters down the road from her at the time, and by the time I got over to where she was and pointed into the same tree, the bird had dropped down and out of sight again. At least it wasn’t hunkered down completely in all the wind as I had feared.

Five minutes later, as almost everyone including me was scanning and rescanning the same tree where it had recently appeared, hoping to see something move, Lenore spotted it in another tree off to the left; and I got on the bird this time for maybe a full 30 seconds or so as it moved up and down and around the pine, scavenging for what insects it could find. At first I thought I might be looking at a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. The back was sort of blue-gray with wingbars. However eventually it turned its head toward me, and I could clearly see a bright yellow throat, and yellow superciliary, and no kingletish eye ring. Bang! #800 Grace’s Warbler.

Normally I’d stick around and try for a photo and maybe scope views. However it was damned cold and windy out there. More importantly, as long as I had already rented a car and driven all the way out into Nassau County already, I wanted to try for the Mountain Bluebird too. So I said a quick goodbye, and hopped into the Sentra and headed up the Meadowbrook to the Southern State. I was hungry but I decided to skip lunch until I had at least tried for the Mountain Bluebird. If it wasn’t being cooperative, I could grab lunch in Suffolk County, and then try again before dark.

I got to the intersection, right around 2:30 PM. There were several other cars pulled off the road at various spots around the field where the Bluebird was most frequently seen. The driver of the first car kindly told me that the bird was still present in the expected location on the snow fencing paralleling Rt 25A. I walked back along the side of the road, carefully scanning the top of the fence with my binoculars. Well not that carefully, because I walked right past the bird without noticing it. Fortunately a driver in another car, pointed me back at the bird he’d been watching from the comfort of his vehicle. After convincing myself the bird was in fact a powder blue Mountain Bluebird and not an Eastern or Western Bluebird, I walked back to my car and grabbed my scope and camera gear. I tried digiscoping the bird unsuccessfully–I need to improve my digiscoping rig–but I was able to get some good if small photos of the bird with my 400mm f/4:

Two life birds in my home territory. That’s a pretty good way to start a year. I haven’t had more than one on the same day in New York since July 2007. I had tried for three after Brooklyn’s 2010 CBC but I whiffed on two of them.

My New York State list is now at 268 species, and that doesn’t include a few I recorded only before I started entering data into eBird. This is second only to California at 298. I wonder how high I can push that this year? There are several gull species that show up regularly around Niagara that I don’t have yet. Maybe four or five more from the Adirondacks: Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay, Black-backed Woodpecker, Three-toed Woodpecker, and Bicknell’s Thrush. There are also some pelagics I don’t have yet that might be found especially off Montauk: King Eider and various Skuas and Jaegers. Black Rail and Yellow Rail are still possible on Long Island if you know where to look (or more likely listen.) Last year Richard Fried set a new New York State Big Year record with 352 species, so there should be a couple dozen more somewhere to chase. I do generally take a pass on birds that I’ve seen elsewhere though. For instance, I didn’t bother to chase last year’s Tufted Duck at Cold Spring Harbor or 2010′s Hermit Warbler at Sunken Meadow State Park since I’ve seen both of them on their home territories before now. I did manage to twitch the Rufous Hummingbird at Lenoir Preserve in November though.

As I arrived at the tip of Van Brunt Street, Shane Blodgett was just leaving. He hadn’t found it there and was driving over to IKEA to scope from the other side of the basin. I walked up and down the promenade, but didn’t find it. I then drove over to the IKEA myself. Steve Walter also showed up at IKEA, but none of us could locate the bird, so one-by-one everyone gave up and decamped for Floyd Bennett Field to look for the Shrike.

At Floyd Bennett Field, An American Kestrel was incredibly cooperative. I found six Hooded Mergansers and a Common Loon in Dead Horse Bay. There were also some nice House Finches, a couple of Northern Flickers, and lots of Northern Mockingbirds that look vaguely shrike like if you aren’t careful. I also ran into Tom Preston, Rafael Guillermo-Campos, Rob Jett, and Heydi Lopes, all of whom were out looking for the Shrike; but none of us found it after a couple of hours of searching. Strike 2.

Around noon, I gave up on the Shrike and headed down the Belt Parkway to Jamaica Bay for the Barrow’s Goldeneye. There were over a thousand ducks on the far side of the West Pond, mostly Ruddy’s but with a few American Wigeons and Scaup mixed in. However if there were any Goldeneyes there, Common or Barrow’s, I couldn’t pick it out. Strike 3. I’m out. The wind was blowing, and it was cold, so after multiple scans across through the duck raft through my scope, I gave up and headed home around 1:00. Whiffed Again. I thought with three staked out birds I really had a shot, but you just never know.

Then, just as I was getting ready to turn onto Eastern Parkway (almost all the way home in other words) my cell phone goes off in my pocket. I pulled off to the side of the road, and miraculously managed to get the phone answered before it went to voicemail. It was Shane and the Shrike had reappeared right where it had been the previous day on the Christmas Bird Count. They had found it about midway between the two locations we’d previously been looking. Damn bird! I wasn’t sure exactly how to get back to Floyd Bennett form that location, but my GPS knew and soon I was speeding down Kings Highway to try one more time. 25 minutes later I arrived back at the runway from which the Shrike had been seen. Rob, Heydi, and Shane had left but several other birders were there; and they told me that the Shrike had been making regular appearances every few minutes for the last hour. I walked down the runway, and about kept scanning the southeast tree line looking for anything perched. And yes! There it was! No, damn it. That’s a Mockingbird. Back to the scanning the tree line. Hey! Something moved! And it’s grey! And it’s a…damn it another Mockingbird.

Then I turn around and notice the group behind me is looking at something on the Northwest side of the runway. I turn around and look right at a bird that’s so backlit it could be anything. But before it flies away, I get my scope on it for about three seconds and sure enough, it’s a Northern Shrike. And after last year’s miscall with the Loggerhead Shrike at Jones Beach, I’ve made sure I know what I’m looking for in advance. In my head I check off the field marks in about half a second. Narrow dark mask with white markings around eye? Check. Large bill with obvious hook? Check. Paler gray above? I don’t know. The bird was too backlit and without a direct side-by-side comparison, it’s hard to distinguish such subtle shading; but the hooked bill and white around the eye are good enough to make the ID. #799 Northern Shrike!

I’ve got 11 days left to make 800 this year, but there are no obvious candidates. The only places I’ll be for the next two weeks are New York City and New Orleans, but I’ve already seen everything that’s regular in either location at this time of year. I tell you, I’m really missing those last two birds I could have seen if I hadn’t been incapacitated in the truck on my last day in Panama and the Green-tailed Towhee I missed repeatedly in Texas. But all I need is one rarity. The New Orleans CBC is coming up on Boxing Day. It’s had some great rarities in the past including my life Mangrove Cuckoo. There’s still time yet. It could be worse. I could still be trying to find 10 more rarities this year like John Vanderpoel. :-)

There are a couple of festivals I could attend. The Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville in January might be my best shot for species that winter in Florida, but January isn’t a good month for me. Florida’s Birding and Photo Fest in April might pick up a few of these, but it’s further north than I’d like. There’s also a good Central Florida Photo Workshop with Jim Neiger and James Shadle I’m thinking about.

To try for all of these might take a week tacked on to any of these events.

• White-collared Seedeater (Upper Rio Grande Valley)
• Golden-cheeked Warbler
• Black-capped Vireo
• Hook-billed Kite
• Masked Duck (rare)
• Swallow-tailed Kite (rare; easier in Florida)
• Short-tailed Hawk
• Harlan’s Hawk
• Ferruginous Hawk
• Ferruginous Pygmy Owl (King Ranch)
• Prairie Falcon
• Lesser Prairie Chicken
• Scaled Quail
• Yellow Rail
• Black Rail
• Mountain Plover
• Red-billed Pigeon
• Elf Owl
• Cordilleran Flycacther
• Gray Vireo
• Black-whiskered Vireo (easier in Florida)
• Yellow-green Vireo (rare)
• Brown Jay
• Tamaulipas Crow
• Brown-headed Nuthatch (also in Louisiana and Florida)
• Rock Wren
• Canyon Wren
• Mountain Bluebird
• Sprague’s Pipit
• Swainson’s Warbler
• Golden-cheeked Warbler
• Crimson-collared Grosbeak (rare Mexican vagrant)
• Varied Bunting
• Canyon Towhee
• Green-tailed Towhee (missed repeatedly this past trip)
• White-collared Seedeater
• Lark Bunting
• Bachman’s Sparrow (easier in Florida)
• Cassin’s Sparrow
• Brewer’s Sparrow
• Baird’s Sparrow
• Pink-sided Junco
• Smith’s Longspur
• Mccown’s Longspur
• Chestnut-collared Longspur

Some of these I could get next year at the RGBVF again if I go to different spots. For others I may need to visit different parts of the state, especially West Texas.

I could grab a few at the Laredo Birding Festival in February which should find White-collared Seedeater, Cassin’s Sparrow, Varied Bunting, Red-billed Pigeon, and a few others.

Another good option is Wings over the Hills in April which offers great chances for two endangered species, Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo, and possibly other species since I haven’t yet visited the Texas Hill Country. Prairie Falcon and Cordilleran Flycatcher may also be possible here.

The Becard hadn’t been reported for a couple of days, so we were worried. We started in the “Tropical Area” where it had last been seen, following behind a bus group that was also visiting Estero Llano Grande. We found some good butterflies, Altamira Orioles, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, and then next to a driveway of all places, two Common Pauraques, #797:

You can see how this bird might be a little hard to find. These nocturnal birds sit motionless and noiseless in the leaf litter all day, relying on their incredibly cryptic coloration to camouflage them.

Not long after, the other group found the Rose-throated Becard and I managed to get over to it and get on it for about half a second before it took off. It was not cooperating. more people didn’t see it than did, I think. It kept popping at different points around that area of the the park border for just a few seconds at a time for the next several hours at least, never seen by more than three or four people before it took off again into the foliage. But I saw it long enough to count it, #798!

We also spent some time looking for a Green-tailed Towhee that had been reported in the area, but no luck there. It remains a nemesis bird. So I finished out the festival with a respectable 173 species. Of these seven were life birds, 21 were ABA birds, and 74 were Texas state birds. My Texas list now stands at 186, putting it ahead of New Jersey, but still 100 or so birds behind New York and California. My ABA area total is in the vicinity of 489 according to eBird, though that’s likely missing a few species from before I started entering data into eBird and includes some non-countable species such as Budgerigar and Cockatiel. The two systematic errors should roughly cancel each other out.

I need two more species to hit 800 in 2011. I only have one more trip planned, Louisiana in December, but Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Groove-billed Ani were the last likely life birds to chase there at this time of year, and I saw both in Texas this past week. A chaseable Northern Shrike could show up somewhere around New York City; and then after that I guess I’m hoping for an extreme southern rarity like last year’s Fork-tailed Flycatcher.

But if I don’t cross 800 this year, I should easily make it next year with just one trip to Florida, Texas, or points south. Heck, I could probably get it just by waiting for rarities to show up in Prospect Park. (Swainson’s Warbler, maybe?) Indeed if I manage one trip to Latin America and one trip to Europe next year, I could hit the 1000 mark in 2012. A concentrated effort in Florida or Texas could well push me over 500 for the ABA area.

I wad the 50mm lens on my camera when the flock flew over (I was practicing digiscoping) so no pictures. Basically it looks like a crow, or a raven; but there are no other crows or ravens around here so a flock of 24 large black birds bigger than Grackles pretty much has to be Chihuahuan Raven, though if one were side-by-side with a Common Raven I’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart.

Other species at the site included, in taxonomic order:

• Greater White-fronted Goose
• Snow Goose
• Ross’s Goose
• Gadwall
• Mottled Duck
• Blue-winged Teal
• Northern Shoveler
• Neotropic Cormorant
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Great Blue Heron
• Snowy Egret
• Black-crowned Night-Heron
• Roseate Spoonbill
• Turkey Vulture
• White-tailed Kite
• Northern Harrier
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Red-tailed Hawk
• American Kestrel
• American Coot
• Killdeer
• Black-necked Stilt
• American Avocet
• Solitary Sandpiper
• Greater Yellowlegs
• Western Sandpiper
• Least Sandpiper
• Dunlin
• Long-billed Dowitcher
• Wilson’s Snipe
• Forster’s Tern
• Rock Pigeon
• Mourning Dove
• Inca Dove
• Common Ground-Dove
• White-tipped Dove
• Buff-bellied Hummingbird
• Belted Kingfisher
• Green Kingfisher
• Golden-fronted Woodpecker
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
• Ladder-backed Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• Eastern Phoebe
• Great Kiskadee
• Couch’s Kingbird
• Green Jay
• Chihuahuan Raven
• Northern Rough-winged Swallow
• Tree Swallow
• Carolina Wren
• House Wren
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Ruby-crowned Kinglet
• Eastern Bluebird
• Northern Mockingbird
• Long-billed Thrasher
• Northern Waterthrush
• Orange-crowned Warbler
• Common Yellowthroat
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Wilson’s Warbler
• Clay-colored Sparrow
• Field Sparrow
• Vesper Sparrow
• Lark Sparrow
• Savannah Sparrow
• Lincoln’s Sparrow
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Summer Tanager
• Northern Cardinal
• Pyrrhuloxia
• Dickcissel
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Yellow-headed Blackbird
• Great-tailed Grackle

Besides the Chihuahuan Ravens, 111 of these were state birds for Texas. White-tipped Dove was also an ABA area bird, although I had seen it previously in Panama.

We made several more stops inside the park, and at one of them we picked out #794, Northern Beardless Tyrannulet. It’s a small flycatcher, and did not pose for photos.

Final stop was the hawkwatch platform. We were hoping for Hook-billed Kite, but that was a real longshot, and we didn’t get it. We did get some shorebirds, a few ducks, and a Loggerhead Shrike. And just before we left a few Cave Swallows, #795, flew over.

My total count for the site was about 60 avian species (plus a butterfly or two), not counting species a few other folks in the group saw that I missed:

• American Avocet
• White-tailed Hawk
• American Kestrel
• American Pipit
• Black-necked Stilt
• Black Vulture
• Cave Swallow
• Common Ground-Dove
• Crested Caracara
• Gadwall
• Green-winged Teal
• Great Egret
• Great Kiskadee
• Greater Yellowlegs
• Least Sandpiper
• Loggerhead Shrike
• Northern Harrier
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Snowy Egret
• Spotted Sandpiper
• White Ibis
• American Coot
• Great-tailed Grackle
• Marsh Wren
• Snowy Egret
• Great Kiskadee
• Clay-colored Thrush
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Golden-fronted Woodpecker
• Plain Chachalaca
• Pied-billed Grebe
• Black Phoebe
• Orange-crowned Warbler
• Olive Sparrow
• Northern Mockingbird
• Northern Cardinal
• Altamira Oriole
• Crested Caracara
• Mourning Dove
• Inca Dove
• Ladder-backed Woodpecker
• Long-billed Thrasher
• Green Jay
• White-crowned Sparrow
• Vermilion Flycatcher
• Sharp-shinned Hawk
• Ringed Kingfisher
• Pyrrhuloxia
• Osprey
• Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
• Neotropic Cormorant
• Great Blue Heron
• Eastern Phoebe
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Black Vulture
• Belted Kingfisher
• Barn Swallow
• Anhinga
• White-winged Dove
• American Coot

In addition to the three lifers, there were four more state birds for Texas; and Clay-colored Thrush and Ringed Kingfisher were ABA area birds. Not too bad. After yesterday’s relatively poor showing of one life bird, I was worrying that I had just about exhausted the possibilities, but apparently there’s more to be had yet. Tomorrow we’re visiting another spot along the border, the Southmost Preserve.

It was extremely windy today, even more so than yesterday. yesterday the wind only tried to steal my hat. Today it succeeded:

I was going to leave the hat there, but a fellow birder was braver than me and climbed off the boardwalk, into the swamp, ignoring the “Beware of Alligator” signs, to retrieve it. It wasn’t just me either. Jon lost his hat once too.

I also managed to miss, once again, Green-tailed Towhee. Jon and some other group members found it, but I did not. It’s turning into this trip’s nemesis bird.

After yesterday’s seven life birds I was hoping I might hit 800 on this trip. However, with only one new species today that doesn’t look likely unless things really perk up.

We left Harlingen around 6:05 AM and headed down Highway 100 to South Padre Island, adding a few hawks along the way. However, the real counting didn’t begin until we got to the South Padre Island Convention Center, where we tallied more than 60 species including my first life bird of the day, #785, Franklin’s Gull. This was a good one. I’d missed it by a few hours in Port Aransas earlier in the year, and I don’t think it was seen at all later in the week.

Next stop was a small patch of protected land in the middle of a residential and hotel area on Sheepshead Road. (LTC 036 on eBird). 16 species here including a rare Pine Siskin. However I missed potential life bird Green-tailed Towhee that Greg Miller spotted. This would become a common theme throughout the week as I repeatedly missed the Green-tailed Towhee at multiple sites.

We left the island around 9:30 and drove back up Highway 100 looking for raptors. We found several including #786, Harris’s Hawk. I didn’t bring my camera with me on the trip, since it slows us down, but here’s a Harris’s Hawk I shot on the last day of the festival:

We also found a not-really-countable Aplomado Falcon. (The species has been reintroduced in Texas after being extirpated around 1951.) However I’d seen that in Panama a few weeks before at El Chirru, so it wasn’t as big a deal for me as for some other participants.

We turned around and drove south on Highway 100. Next we stopped at a small industrial area off Highway 48 where we could view a bit of the bay, and added Marbled Godwit (initially miscalled as Hudsonian Godwit) and Mallard (Mexican subspecies). Then it was off to Sabal Palms along the Rio Grande.

Sabal Palms is a great site with a native palm habitat that’s very uncommon now due to the draining of the Rio Grande. We had about 30 species here including 4 personal life birds, #787 Plain Chachalaca, #788 Olive Sparrow, #789 Buff-bellied Hummingbird, and #790, Least Grebe:

We then took a long drive west on the Brownsville Highway (our route wasn’t really planned to minimize driving time) and along the way picked off #791, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, perched on a wire.

The final stop was Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, where we tallied about 30 species. However we missed all potential lifers there including the supposedly unmissable Common Parauque. (We got lost looking for it. More scouting would have helped.)

Our total for the day was a respectable but not prize-winning 125 species. At least two teams beat us, one with 147 and the winner with 153. We probably should have chosen a different route that had more birding and less driving. We also missed some species we could have picked up in Harlingen at either end of the day including Bronzed Cowbird, Yellow-throated Warbler, Lesser Nighthawk, Green Parakeet, and Red-crowned Parrot. But seven life birds is still a very good day. That’s the most I’ve had in the United States in a long time. I’m not sure there’s anywhere in the ABA area east of Attu where I could do that again.

• 333 total species
• 242 life birds
• 9 mammal species including four primates (10 if you include Homo sapiens)
• 2 endemics
• 13 Herons and Ibises
• 28 raptor species
• 21 shorebird species
• 7 pigeons and doves
• 3 cuckoo species
• All 3 Ani species
• 3 Owl species
• Both Potoos
• 5 swift species
• 29 Hummingbird species including the endemic Veraguan Mango
• 5 Trogon species; essentially evry one in the area
• 5 Motmot species
• 4 Kingfisher species
• 5 Puffbird species
• 5 Toucan species
• 5 Woodpecker species
• 17 Antbirds (actually lower than expected; these birds hide)
• 38 Flycatcher species
• 13 Wren species
• 14 Warbler species
• 18 Tanager species
• 3 Cacique species
• 5 Euphonia species
• 2 Oropendola species
• 0 ABA area species :-)

Panama makes for a really concentrated introduction to Central American birds. Lots of different habitat within just a couple of hours radius of Panama City. There’s a well developed ecotourism community to support birding (leaders, lodges, parks, etc.)

1. Great Tinamou
2. Little Tinamou (Heard only)
3. Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
4. Gray-headed Chachalaca
5. Crested Bobwhite
6. Wood Stork
7. Magnificent Frigatebird
8. Neotropic Cormorant
9. Brown Pelican
10. Rufescent Tiger-Heron
11. Great Blue Heron
12. Cocoi Heron
13. Great Egret
14. Snowy Egret
15. Little Blue Heron
16. Tricolored Heron
17. Cattle Egret
18. Green Heron
19. Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
20. Boat-billed Heron
21. White Ibis
22. Glossy Ibis
23. Black Vulture
24. Turkey Vulture
25. Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture
26. Osprey
27. Gray-headed Kite
28. Hook-billed Kite
29. White-tailed Kite
30. Double-toothed Kite
31. Mississippi Kite
32. Semiplumbeous Hawk
33. White Hawk
34. Common Black-Hawk
35. Savanna Hawk
36. Roadside Hawk
37. Broad-winged Hawk
38. Gray Hawk
39. Short-tailed Hawk
40. Swainson’s Hawk
41. Zone-tailed Hawk
42. Black Hawk-Eagle
43. Ornate Hawk-Eagle
44. Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon
45. Crested Caracara
46. Yellow-headed Caracara
47. American Kestrel
48. Merlin
49. Aplomado Falcon
50. Bat Falcon
51. Peregrine Falcon
52. White-throated Crake
53. Southern Lapwing
54. Black-bellied Plover
55. Collared Plover
56. Wilson’s Plover
57. Semipalmated Plover
58. Black-necked Stilt
59. Wattled Jacana
60. Spotted Sandpiper
61. Solitary Sandpiper
62. Greater Yellowlegs
63. Willet
64. Lesser Yellowlegs
65. Whimbrel
66. Long-billed Curlew
67. Marbled Godwit
68. Sanderling Playa Santa Clara
69. Semipalmated Sandpiper
70. Western Sandpiper
71. Least Sandpiper
72. Buff-breasted Sandpiper
73. Short-billed Dowitcher
74. Laughing Gull
75. Gull-billed Tern
76. Black Tern
77. Common Tern
78. Royal Tern Playa Santa Clara
79. Black Skimmer
80. Rock Pigeon
81. Pale-vented Pigeon
82. Scaled Pigeon
83. Short-billed Pigeon
84. Ruddy Ground-Dove
85. White-tipped Dove
86. Gray-chested Dove
87. Brown-throated Parakeet
88. Orange-chinned Parakeet
89. Brown-hooded Parrot
90. Blue-headed Parrot
91. Red-lored Parrot
92. Mealy Parrot
93. Yellow-crowned Parrot
94. Squirrel Cuckoo
95. Yellow-billed Cuckoo
96. Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo
97. Greater Ani
98. Smooth-billed Ani
99. Groove-billed Ani
100. Tropical Screech-Owl
101. Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
102. Mottled Owl
103. Great Potoo
104. Common Potoo
105. White-collared Swift
106. Chimney Swift
107. Short-tailed Swift
108. Band-rumped Swift
109. Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift
110. White-necked Jacobin
111. White-tipped Sicklebill
112. Band-tailed Barbthroat
113. Green Hermit
114. Long-billed Hermit
115. Stripe-throated Hermit
116. Purple-crowned Fairy
117. Veraguan Mango
118. Long-billed Starthroat
119. Violet-headed Hummingbird
120. Scaly-breasted Hummingbird
121. White-vented Plumeleteer
122. Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer
123. Violet-crowned Woodnymph
124. Snowcap
125. Blue-chested Hummingbird
126. Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
127. Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
128. Violet-bellied Hummingbird
129. Slaty-tailed Trogon
130. White-tailed Trogon
131. Gartered Trogon
132. Black-throated Trogon
133. Orange-bellied Trogon
134. Tody Motmot
135. Blue-crowned Motmot
136. Whooping Motmot
137. Rufous Motmot
138. Broad-billed Motmot
139. Ringed Kingfisher
140. Belted Kingfisher
141. Amazon Kingfisher
142. Green Kingfisher
143. White-necked Puffbird
144. Black-breasted Puffbird
145. Pied Puffbird
146. Barred Puffbird
147. White-whiskered Puffbird
148. Spot-crowned Barbet
149. Emerald Toucanet
150. Collared Aracari
151. Yellow-eared Toucanet
152. Black-mandibled Toucan
153. Keel-billed Toucan
154. Black-cheeked Woodpecker
155. Red-crowned Woodpecker
156. Cinnamon Woodpecker
157. Lineated Woodpecker
158. Crimson-crested Woodpecker
159. Red-faced Spinetail
160. Spotted Barbtail
161. Plain Xenops
162. Plain-brown Woodcreeper
163. Ruddy Woodcreeper
164. Northern Barred-Woodcreeper
165. Straight-billed Woodcreeper
166. Cocoa Woodcreeper
167. Spotted Woodcreeper
168. Fasciated Antshrike
169. Barred Antshrike
170. Western Slaty-Antshrike
171. Russet Antshrike
172. Plain Antvireo Chicken Farm
173. Spot-crowned Antvireo
174. Checker-throated Antwren
175. White-flanked Antwren
176. Dot-winged Antwren
177. Dusky Antbird
178. White-bellied Antbird
179. Chestnut-backed Antbird
180. Bicolored Antbird
181. Spotted Antbird
182. Ocellated Antbird
183. Black-faced Antthrush
184. Streak-chested Antpitta
185. Brown-capped Tyrannulet
186. Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet
187. Yellow Tyrannulet
188. Forest Elaenia
189. Yellow-bellied Elaenia
190. Olive-striped Flycatcher Chicken Farm
191. Ochre-bellied Flycatcher Trogon Trail
192. Yellow-green Tyrannulet
193. Rufous-browed Tyrannulet
194. Paltry Tyrannulet
195. Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant
196. Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant
197. Southern Bentbill
198. Common Tody-Flycatcher
199. Royal Flycatcher
200. Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher
201. Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher Chicken Farm
202. Bran-colored Flycatcher
203. Tufted Flycatcher
204. Olive-sided Flycatcher
205. Eastern Wood-Pewee
206. Acadian Flycatcher
207. Long-tailed Tyrant
208. Bright-rumped Attila
209. Rufous Mourner
210. Dusky-capped Flycatcher
211. Panama Flycatcher
212. Great Crested Flycatcher
213. Lesser Kiskadee
214. Great Kiskadee
215. Boat-billed Flycatcher
216. Rusty-margined Flycatcher
217. Social Flycatcher
218. Gray-capped Flycatcher
219. Streaked Flycatcher
220. Tropical Kingbird
221. Eastern Kingbird
222. Gray Kingbird
223. Fork-tailed Flycatcher
224. Purple-throated Fruitcrow
225. Blue Cotinga Trogon Trail
226. White-ruffed Manakin
227. Blue-crowned Manakin
228. Golden-collared Manakin
229. Lance-tailed Manakin
230. Red-capped Manakin
231. White-winged Becard
232. Red-eyed Vireo
233. Scrub Greenlet
234. Golden-fronted Greenlet
235. Lesser Greenlet
236. Green Shrike-Vireo
237. Black-chested Jay
238. Blue-and-white Swallow El Valle
239. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
240. Southern Rough-winged Swallow
241. Gray-breasted Martin
242. Mangrove Swallow
243. Bank Swallow
244. Barn Swallow
245. Cliff Swallow
246. White-headed Wren
247. Black-bellied Wren
248. Rufous-breasted Wren
249. Rufous-and-white Wren
250. Plain Wren
251. Bay Wren
252. House Wren
253. Ochraceous Wren
254. White-breasted Wood-Wren
255. Gray-breasted Wood-Wren
256. Scaly-breasted Wren
257. Song Wren
258. Long-billed Gnatwren
259. Tropical Gnatcatcher
260. Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush
261. Swainson’s Thrush
262. Pale-vented Thrush
263. Clay-colored Thrush
264. Tropical Mockingbird
265. Louisiana Waterthrush
266. Northern Waterthrush
267. Golden-winged Warbler
268. Black-and-white Warbler
269. Prothonotary Warbler
270. Tennessee Warbler
271. Mourning Warbler
272. Kentucky Warbler
273. American Redstart
274. Bay-breasted Warbler
275. Blackburnian Warbler
276. Yellow Warbler
277. Chestnut-sided Warbler
278. Rufous-capped Warbler
279. Buff-rumped Warbler
280. Canada Warbler
281. Bananaquit
282. Black-and-yellow Tanager
283. Dusky-faced Tanager
284. White-shouldered Tanager
285. White-lined Tanager
286. Crimson-backed Tanager
287. Flame-rumped Tanager
288. Blue-gray Tanager
289. Palm Tanager
290. Plain-colored Tanager
291. Silver-throated Tanager
292. Bay-headed Tanager
293. Golden-hooded Tanager
294. Scarlet-thighed Dacnis
295. Blue Dacnis
296. Green Honeycreeper
297. Shining Honeycreeper
298. Red-legged Honeycreeper
299. Streaked Saltator
300. Buff-throated Saltator
301. Blue-black Grassquit
302. Slate-colored Seedeater
303. Variable Seedeater
304. Yellow-bellied Seedeater
305. Thick-billed Seed-Finch
306. Yellow-faced Grassquit
307. Saffron Finch
308. Orange-billed Sparrow
309. Black-striped Sparrow
310. Common Bush-Tanager
311. Hepatic Tanager
312. Summer Tanager
313. Red-crowned Ant-Tanager
314. Red-throated Ant-Tanager
315. Carmiol’s Tanager
316. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
317. Blue-black Grosbeak
318. Dickcissel
319. Eastern Meadowlark
320. Great-tailed Grackle
321. Yellow-backed Oriole
322. Yellow-tailed Oriole
323. Baltimore Oriole
324. Yellow-billed Cacique
325. Scarlet-rumped Cacique
326. Yellow-rumped Cacique
327. Crested Oropendola
328. Chestnut-headed Oropendola
329. Yellow-crowned Euphonia
330. Thick-billed Euphonia
331. Fulvous-vented Euphonia
332. White-vented Euphonia
333. Tawny-capped Euphonia

And there are at least two more major birding areas of the country we didn’t visit with quite different avifauna, Darien and the Azuero Peninsula. There are other places I want to visit before coming back here (Belize, Trinidad, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and most of South America) but clearly I’ve only begun to scratch the surface here.