A rare (for me) sighting of a Gray-headed Kite (Leptodon cayanensis) at Guayabo National Monument cheered up an otherwise fruitless walk down the road to the Monument this week. I had walked downhill from well above the park entrance without making any sightings of note until almost out of the park area when a fairly large hawk came to perch right in front of me. Twenty minutes later it was in more or less the same spot. The key field marks make identification fairly easy: dove-like head, black back and white underparts.

Local tour guide Rosa Fernández appeared out of nowhere and snapped the photo above on her cellphone, aiming it through my binocular lens. The bird was still there when we each had to leave for our respective destinations. This species is reported from our area only infrequently and this is the first report of Gray-headed Kite on eBird for the Guayabo National Monument.