Panama 12/05/11 – 1/06/11

Panama 12/05/11 – 1/06/11
Darien Lowlands, Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge
By Bram Vogels
[email protected]
Practical information
We booked a flight with Delta-airlines from Brussels to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Panama City. This
had two advantages, one: it was cheaper than a direct flight and two: Delta ships your luggage by
itself to the next plane in Atlanta. So no worries about delays with luggage, border control etc… Just
relax, eat a burger and take the flight to Panama City.
For the trip we booked a trip on the website www.canopytower.com. You have a lot of choices and
we took the Best of Central Panama tour (one week in the Canopy Tower and one week in the
Canopy Lodge). Because we already had flight tickets to Panama and we were going to stay three
weeks, Raul proposed to take us the first days to the eastern part of Panama, Darién. This was the
first time they organized a tour to this part of the country, but it was obvious that they already had
done extensive scouting to find a lot of good birds. In the future they will open a lodge in this part of
Panama, which will make it even more extraordinary.
If you want more information, just contact me. ([email protected])
Day 1: arrival in Panama
We arrived in Panama City 15 minutes early and had to wait on the airstrip. After a little delay we
could get out of the plane, pick up our luggage, fill out a form for the border control, got a stamp in
our passport and then we could enter Panama. Everything went very fast and the people were
friendly. It was already dark, so no birding anymore that day. The only birds we saw were common
grackles in Atlanta. From now on everything was perfectly arranged by the people of the Canopy
Tower. We just had to take the free shuttle to the Riande Airport hotel where we arrived at 11.00 PM
and sleep to get rid of our jetlag.
Day 2: Riande airport hotel – Torti
Due to the jetlag I already woke up at 04.00 am or to be honest I just wanted to be as early as
possible at breakfast to go birding on the parking lot. Breakfast was at 06.00 am, which gave me 2
hours to bird on the parking lot before our guides picked us up at 08.00 am. Because it was my first
time to Central-America I already had a lot of lifers just on a small part of the parking lot: clay-colored
thrush, blue-gray tanager, yellow-crowned euphonia, gray-breasted martin, tropical kingbird, greattailed grackle, black vulture, red-lored parrot, streaked flycatcher, red-crowned woodpecker, tropical
mockingbird, crimson-backed tanager, yellow-bellied seedeater, house wren, black-striped sparrow,
southern-beardless tyrannulet, neotropic cormorant, southern rough-winged swallow, boat-billed
flycatcher, ruddy ground-dove, cattle tyrant and fork-tailed flycatcher. Not bad for just an ordinary
parking lot and a nice introduction to some common garden birds. I’m not going to repeat all the
common species on every stop, because the bird diversity is so big this would otherwise make a huge
list.
At 08.00 am, our guides, Benny (Venicio Robinson) and Moyo (Harmodio Rodriguez) of the Canopy
Tower Family, picked us up and we started to drive east, to Torti and made some stops on the way.
First stop was Bayano, a bridge over a lake where we had: Pied water-tyrant, striated heron, cocoi
heron, least grebe, orange-chinned parakeet, purple gallinule, neotropic cormorant, yellow-bellied
elaenia, rusty-margined flycatcher, otter, howler monkey and anhinga. Okay most target species on
the list, we could go further to Monkey bridge where we had our only sighting of a beautiful rufouswinged antwren. Besides this beauty we also saw thick-billed euphonia, plain xenops, plain-colored
tanager, golden-collared manakin, one-colored beckard, black-tailed trogon, black headed todyflycatcher, blue-backed grosbeak, blue ground-dove, yellow-olive flycatcher, black ant-shrike, bluecrowned motmot, dusky-capped flycatcher, streak-headed woodcreeper and yellow-rumped cacique.
At noon we arrived at our hotel in Torti. A nice and clean hotel, with a swimming pool and airco in
the rooms. Anyway with all the birds a swimming pool is a waste of time so no need to tell we didn’t
make it to the swimming pool. While we were waiting for our lunch we had a great kiskadee, our only
black-collared hawks, blue-headed parrots and a very late swainsons hawk.
Torti ariba
In the afternoon we went with the car on
a small road into the hills for some
birding. It was the first real test for our
jeep. On the dirt road we had barred
antshrike, buff-rumped warbler, ringed
kingfisher, giant antshrike, thick-billed
seed-finch, bananaquit, golden-fronted
greenlet, little hermit, red-legged
honeycreeper, masked tityra, piratic
flycatcher, white-collared swift, white
hawk, cinnamon beckard, plain xenops,
black antshrike and squirrel cuckoo. But
then it started raining higher up in the
hills and we had to return before the rivers would rise too much to cross. But no worry, we went to a
drier place at Hieronal. After a drive
through farmland we reached again forest
and could start birding again. At the edge
we had some farmland and forest edge
species like groove-billed ani, white-tipped
dove,
plain-breasted
ground-dove,
variable
seedeater,
red-breasted
blackbird, giant cowbird, some late
mississipi kites, south-american kestrels,
scaled pigeon and long-tailed tyrant. We
proceeded on foot for a little while and
Figuur 2 Going in the hills
Figuur 1 Gray-cheeked nunlet
found double-banded graytail, white-shouldered tanager, crested oropendula, tropical gnatcatcher,
pied puffbird, collared aracari, gray-cheeked nunlet, buff-throated saltator, mealy parrot, yellowrumped cacique, tropical peewee, lineated woodpecker, little tinamou, golden-hooded tanager and
rufous-tailed hummingbird.
Our first day of birding ended with a nice meal in Torti with choice of rice and beans with some sort
of meat. Very typical and very tasty. We had almost a hundred species on the first day, of which
probably 90 % was new, so it is probably the first time that I was really overwhelmed by the species
diversity, a feeling I’ve never had in North-America, Europa or Africa. This was off course also thanks
to our splendid guides who were two very keen birders.
Day 3 San Francisco
Early morning breakfast and we went to San Francisco forest. The day started with a king vulture,
nice bird. We first stopped at a little lagoon with least grebe, purple gallinule, wattled jacana… but
nothing special so we went further to the forest. And the trip list started growing again at a high
speed: snowy-bellied hummingbird, black-cheeked woodpecker, black-crowned tityra, white-winged
beckard,
black-throated
mango,
sulphur-rumped
tanager,
streaked
xenops, blue-crowned motmot, bluechested hummingbird, black antshrike,
rufous-breasted hermit, white-vented
plumeleteer, stripe-throated hermit,
golden collared manakin, large-billed
seed-finch,
buff-throated
foliage
gleaner, long-billed hermit, whitefronted nunbird, blue black grosbeak,
southern bentbill,
purple-throated
fruitcrow, rufous piha, spotted antbird,
zone-tailed
hawk,
black-throated
trogon, gray-chested dove, ornate
hawk-eagle, spot-crowned barbet, black hawk-eagle, blue-black grassquit, violet-bellied
hummingbird, orange-crowned oriole, rufescent tiger-heron, common tody-flycatcher, yellow
tyrannulet, bright-rumped atilla, white hawk, bat falcon and streaked saltator. Actually, a pretty nice
birding to start the day. After this visit we went back to the hotel to eat and went to a river in the
vicinity of the hotel. With
playback we got a nice
display of royal flycatcher,
including the raising of the
crest. Besides that we had
next to the river Pacific
antwren
(male
and
female),
cinnamon
beckard, lesser greenlet,
yellow-margined
Figuur 4 White-fronted nunbird
Figuur 3 Lowland rainforest
flycatcher, black antshrike, orange-billed sparrow, bay wren, white-winged beckard and scalybreasted hummingbird. After this intermezzo we returned to San Francisco forest and immediately
found a chestnut-backed antbird. At this place we had probably one of the most fascinating birding
experiences: an antswarm!! I don’t know how long we stood next to the swarm, maybe an hour,
maybe more. Anyway it was such a funny experience that I even forgot to take pictures. Around the
antswarm were bicolored antbirds, ocellated antbird (a stunning bird), bare-crowned antbird
(strange to see how the blue skull is so obvious to see in the dark forest), gray-headed tanager, plainbrown woodcreeper, northern barred woodcreeper, red capped manakin, white-flanked antwren,
slaty-tailed trogon and western slaty-antshrike.
To end the day we went to a viewpoint to have a look over the beautiful lowland rainforest. Although
we had a lot of sun, the Caribbean side obviously had a lot of rain. Against the rainclouds we had
some nice views of a yellow-headed caracara and a distant keel-billed toucan.
Day 4: Arimae and hydrological reserve
Again an early departure, but who cares. The Panamanian party next to the hotel was just finished
when we left the hotel at 5.00 am. Although it was pretty noisy, we had a good night sleep. Anyway
it was a nice nocturnal intermezzo and we learned a lot about Panamanian music. Just give a guitar
to two people and let them improvise, no matter if they can play a guitar or not. Another style is
talking a lot to the people and singing sometimes. We were thinking that there was someone
preaching, but apparently this was also a type of singing… Anyway, I didn’t go looking for a CD. But
the people were having fun and that’s probably a pretty universal characteristic of a good party and
also the most important one.
It took us one hour drive from Torti into
Darien. Had a nice chat with the border
control, who had never seen a Porsche before.
I wonder what kind of brand the guy wrote
down, but if we were missing they certainly
went looking for a different type of car. We
picked up our Indian guide and continued our
voyage to the rainforest. On the way we
already had roadside hawk and southern
lapwing. We ate breakfast when the fog was
disappearing and could start birding with a
sunny sky. A laughing falcon was the bird to
open the list followed by yellow-billed cuckoo, blue-headed parrot, mealy parrot, white-headed
wren, lineated woodpecker, black-tailed trogon, white-breasted wood-wren, black hawk-eagle,
white-tailed trogon, plumbeous kites, white necked-puffbird, pied puffbird, blue cotinga, white-eared
conebill, blue dacnis, black-throated mango, crimson-crested woodpecker, black-chested jay and a
lot of other common species. It was a muddy walk so we were getting hungry and went back to the
jeep for a nice meal.
Figuur 5 White hawk
In the afternoon we drove back and went to a hydrological reserve. On the way out, we had a nice
view of a common black hawk, with a purple gallinule as prey. The hydrological reserve had some
little trails, which were obviously not frequently used. But the birding was nice with our only sighting
of a great curassow, a female flying off her nest, which we didn’t notice. Besides this large bird we
also had yellow-backed oriole, white-vented plumeleteer, golden headed manikin (sadly a female),
purple crowned fairy, little tinamou, sirystes, band-rumped swift, red-throated caracara, buffbreasted wren and chestnut-headed oropendula. It the late afternoon it started to rain and we still
had a long trip to the hotel so we went back. We ordered our meal with the telephone, so we didn’t
had to wait too long in the restaurant, could take a quick shower and go to sleep.
Day 5: Tierra Nueva
Again an early departure at 5.00 am, a chat with the border control and then we could start birding
at the house of our indian guide where we had band-tailed barbthroat, yellow-breasted flycatcher
and grey-headed chachalaca. We drove a
little further to the river for breakfast and
could have a look on a crane hawk and
roadside hawks during breakfast. Then we
went on foot to a lagoon where we found
out that a lot of expensive flowers from
our European stores were growing
everywhere in the lagoon. The walk
started well with a little cuckoo, hookbilled kite and spot-breasted woodpecker
followed by a capped heron, black-capped
donacobius and yellow-tailed oriole. On
the way back Benny heard a jacamar and
with the playback a beautiful rufous-tailed
jacamar came sitting right in front of us. The green ibis was calling but we didn’t see it. On the last
track next to the river we had black-headed saltator, gray-cheeked nunlet, white-bellied antbird,
brown-hooded parrot and olive-sided flycatcher.
Figuur 7 Black-capped donacobius
During the snacks we saw some swallow-tailed kites,
a long-tailed tyrant and two short-tailed nighthawks
sitting on a branch. Then we got back in the car and
went to the place were in the future there will be a
third ecolodge, besides the Canopy Tower and the
Canopy Lodge. Anyway a fantastic place, with a lot
of opportunities. We had a little rest here due to a
short thunderstorm. Although looking at whiteheaded wren nesting, golden-green woodpecker
and great potoo is a pretty nice way of resting Figuur 6 Rufous-tailed jacamar
during the rain. We had also a little walk in the
forest, which was a little bit quiet but we had some nice species like tiny hawk and green
honeycreeper.
Day 6: Torti – Ibe Igar – Cuna-reserve – Canopy Tower
We had breakfast at 6.00 am in Torti with a
barred antshrike as guest in the bushes next to
the table. Then we drove back east and went
to the Caribbean side. Although we were
prepared for a lot of rain, the sun was shining.
Which was a relief, because my scope had a
close encounter with the concrete parking lot
last night. The scenery was completely
different, the trees were lower and a lot of
flowering trees gave the forest orange glow.
We went on the Ibe Igar walk and had shortbilled pigeon, rufous motmot, checkerthroated antwren, red-capped manakin, green hermit, tawny crested tanager and stripe-throated
wren. We missed the sapayoa which was seen here the day before us, so that’s a good reason to
return to this part of Panama.
Figuur 8 Caribbean slope
We continued to the Cuna-reserve and
saw a hook-billed kite and another
unidentified raptor. It took us some
time but finally we found a mixed flock
with tawny-capped euphonia, blackand-yellow tanager, tawny-crested
tanager,
sulphur-rumped
tanager,
violet-crowned woodnymph, long-tailed
tyrant, plumbeous kite, golden-hooded
tanager and garden emerald. With a last
nice look on the Caribbean slope, the
vast amount of small islands and still a
lot of rainforest we went to the Canopy
Figuur 9 Long-tailed tyrant
Tower.
On the way we had nice lunch in some American style
grill restaurant in Panama City. We arrived at around
4.00 pm in the tower and could immediately start
birding from the observation deck. We immediately had
a lot of swift species with band-rumped swift, shorttailed swift (funny bird actually), lesser swallow-tailed
swift (the most elegant swift) and vaux’s swift. Besides
the swift we had nice views of keel-billed toucan, palm
Figuur 10 Early morning on the canopy tower
tanager and red-legged honeycreeper in the treetops.
Day 6: Canopy Tower – Semaphore Hill road – Gamboa ponds
This was our first day with our new guide Domi (Domiciano Alveo) from the Canopy Tower. We
would start at 6.00 am on the observation deck. But it gets light at 5.30 am so I was on the
observation deck at 5.15 am. It’s nice to hear the rainforest come to life. Which is a pretty noisy with
howler monkeys and a bunch of red-lored parrots. The good thing about the observation deck is that
you see all the birds at eye-level very close and your
neck doesn’t kill you by looking high up in the trees.
Between 5.30 am and breakfast at 8.00 am we had
plain-colored tanager, mealy parrot, lesser swallowtailed swift, palm tanager (which is probably the 24/7
present on the observation deck), red-lored parrot,
rufous motmot, slaty-tailed trogon, golden-hooded
tanager, keel-billed toucan, scarlet-rumped cacique
(nesting on the parking lot), blue dacnis, scaled
pigeon, lesser greenlet, brown-hooded parrot, blueheaded parrot and green shrike-vireo.
Figuur 11 Keel-billed toucan on the observation deck
It was difficult to get to the breakfast, but we had to.
The Semaphore Hill road was waiting for us and two other American birders we would go with. We
had a quick breakfast, put on some sunscreen and started walking downhill. It started with a whitetailed trogon, a dot-winged antwren and then
immediately an antswarm. Because it was still pretty
early there were only some bicolored antbirds around
the antswarm. Later on the day we didn’t manage to
find the swarm again. We descended further the road
and found rufous motmot, plain-brown woodcreeper,
brown-capped tyrannulet, red-capped manakin, brightrumped atilla, checker-throated antwren, violaceous
trogon, green honeycreeper, broad-billed motmot,
squirrel cuckoo, black-bellied wren (< 1m from us),
fasciated antshrike, white-flanked antwren, cocoa
Figuur 12 Bicolored antbird in an antswarm
woodcreeper, golden crowned spadebill, fulvousvented euphonia, rudy-tailed flycatcher, purplethroated fruitcrow and slate colored grosbeak. So we
got downhill and thought it would be a long way up in
the heat. But then we got confronted with the luxury
that someone from the tower came to pick us up and
provided some cold drinks. A nice surprise.
In the afternoon the four of us got company of four
American birders and a photographer and went to the
Gamboa ponds. It was a nice drive with the birding
mobile, with pretty views of the Panama Canal and a
Figuur 13 American pygmy kingfisher
lot of very common species next to the road like fork-tailed flycatcher, panama flycatcher, claycolored thrush, variable seedeater and boat-billed flycatcher. It started nice with a dark morph shorttailed hawk, greact kiskadee, striped antshrike, rufescent tiger-heron, American pygmy kingfisher,
common tody flycatcher… The pool to the right of the gate was empty and there were some whitethroated crakes running around. I also found a yellow-breasted crake, which was a lifer for our guide.
I also had a short view of a completely brown crake, which was according to me a uniform crake.
After the crake adventure we walked a little bit around the pool and had grey-headed chachalaca,
rudy-breasted seedeater, osprey, green heron, mangrove swallow, orange-chinned parakeet, yellowbellied elaenia, plain wren and purple gallinule. It was a nice day with a lot of different species from
the ones we saw in Darien. So we could head back to the Canopy Tower, had a very quick shower and
a delicious meal. Actually we had a delicious meal every day.
Day 7: Metropolitan park and Summit ponds
We took a little bus to the Metropolitan Park. It’s nothing more than a big city park with some
natural growth, but much bigger than the city parks we know in Europe and with a lot of animals. It
started with dusky antbird, a lance-tailed manakin and rufous-and-white wren. Then we started to
look for red-throated ant-tanager and rosy-thrush tanager, skulkers and it took a lot of time and
several tries before everyone from the group had seen the birds. During the search we also had good
views of rufous-breasted wren, slaty-tailed trogon, keel-billed toucan, southern bentbill, blackchested jay, golden-fronted greenlet, paltry tyrannulet, dot-winged antwren, forest elaenia, rufousbreasted wren and long-billed gnatwren.
We went back to the canopy tower to eat and
in the afternoon Summit ponds was on the
menu. At the ponds was a gray-necked woodrail waiting for us together with mangrove
swallows, blue-crowned motmot, blackbellied whistling duck, boat-billed heron and
green kingfisher. We continued to the shrubs
to look for rufous nightjar which we missed
because the young already hatched. But
views of black-bellied wren, white-bellied
antbird, white-necked puffbird, olivaceous
woodcreepter and bat falcon were also nice.
Figuur 14 Spectacled owl
But one of the best birds of the day was the
spectacled owl. We ended the day with nice
views of a jet antbird.
In the evening we went looking for the moths at the Canopy Tower. Every night a white sheath is
hanged outside with a light to attract the moths. Although we didn’t know any of the species it was
nice to see all these, sometimes very big, moths. We also had a little walk with a flashlight and found
a Rothschild porcupine. When we told this the next day to our guide, he was very pleased because
it’s apparently a difficult mammal to find.
Day 8: Begin Pipeline road – Gamboa resort
Today we went to the beginning of the famous Pipeline road. It started pretty quiet but we
continued a little further and after a plain wren and a black-bellied wren we found our first mixed
flock with gray-headed tanager and black-tailed flycatcher as most special guests. A little walk further
we found our first piratic flycatcher, snail kite, golden-fronted greenlet, squirrel cuckoo, snail kite and
double-toothed kite. A lek of golden-collared manakin with their snapping wings is always great fun,
but sometimes these funny little colorful birds are pretty difficult to see. With a short-billed pigeon, a
white-tailed trogon and a dot-winged antwren we walked to a tree with Panamanian night monkeys;
very funny little monkeys, my first night monkey species. In the neighborhood of this tree was also a
song wren singing. I had terrific views of the bird, because he came out of the shrubs when the group
walked to the other site. Actually a pretty good trick to see a lot of birds very well. Just think what
moves the bird will make when the group goes a certain direction and find a good position. Normally
you will get the best views in this way, but off course sometimes it’s a wrong guess and you have to
run to the others to get a glimpse of the bird.
Figuur 15 Violaceous trogon
In the afternoon we went to the Gamboa
resort. Probably one of the most silent places
we’ve been to, but it’s the only place where we
had good views of a Collared peccary. Off
course we were already spoiled the last days
with huge amounts of birds, so probably the
reference isn’t that good. Besides the dinner
running over the pathway we had a flamerumped tanager, common tody-flycatcher,
cinnamon beckard, terrific views of redthroated ant-tanager, great antshrike, crimsoncrested woodpecker and on the lake a piedbilled grebe. The last one a thrash bird for the
Americans, but always a nice bird for European
birdwatchers.
During the night the guides took us down the hill with a torch. The best one of the night was
probably the choco screech-owl, in the books still indicated as vermiculated screech-owl but he looks
different. Although the color variation in screech-owls can be pretty big. Maybe this can become an
armchair tick when the split the species. After some opossums and 3-toed sloths we were back at the
tower where a black-and-white owl was calling. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the bird.
Day 9: Cerro Azul
A very early breakfast because we had a long way to go to a very promising area according to the
species list which you can find in the trip reports. On the stop for the restrooms we had our first
yellow-faced grassquit and we continued to a reserve. But due to the good weather the birds were
pretty absent besides a black-and-yellow tanager, southern nightingale-wren and a lot of swallowtailed kites. So we drove to another place where they were building a lot of vacation houses where
the birds started to appear and the list started growing pretty fast: thick-billed seed finch, masked
tityra, golden-hooded tanager, tropical peewee, scarlet-thighed dacnis, white-ruffed manakin, olive
tanager/carmiol’s tanager, western slaty-antshrike, violet-crowned woodnymph, green
honeycreeper, bay-headed tanager, brown-capped tyrannulet, paltry tyrannulet, speckled tanager,
white-whiskered puffbird, hepatic tanager and rufous-crested coquette.
We went for dinner to a nice bungalow with a beautiful view on the reserve and flying white-collared
swift, white hawk and a calling bicolored antbird. Unfortunately we couldn’t locate an antswarm.
During lunch we got distracted by a lot of hummingbirds around the feeders. After lunch we went to
an American family who had a lot of feeders around their house and a huge amount of
hummingbirds flying around. The sound they
make when flying around and chasing each
other makes the experience even much more
pleasant. We had long-billed starthroat, rufoustailed hummingbird, green hermit, whitenecked Jacobin, bronze tailed plumeleteer,
violet-crowned woodnymph and snowy-bellied
hummingbird. After some playback the stripecheeked woodpecker came also over to have a
look.
On the way back we also had Black phoebe and
Savannah hawk. We also made a quick stop
around the lagoons in Panama city which was
good for the trip list, but most waders are pretty
Figuur 16 White-necked jacobin
common species: wimbrel, willet, laughing gull,
western sandpiper, black-bellied plover, brown pelican, snowy egret, little blue heron, great egret,
neotropic cormorant, yellow-crowned night-heron, marbled godwit, skimmer, royal tern, short-billed
dowitcher, cocoi heron, black-crowned night-heron, common black-hawk and semi-palmated plover.
We arrived on time to have some spare time on the observation deck. Everyone rushes to the
showers, but actually diner is at seven and it gets dark around 6.45 so that gives you fifteen minutes
to get a shower and fresh cloths. More than time enough to spend every minute birding when it’s
light. This evening there were some big swifts flying around between the other species, which were
black swifts.
Day 10: Pipeline road
This was the day for the famous Pipeline road,
although only the four first kilometers are open for
the public it’s still a nice road. Actually I had the
impression that a lot of bikers were still riding the
complete road, but because it’s closed to protect the
harpy eagle, I can live with it. Unfortunately we didn’t
see this majestic bird of prey. We started the walk
with bay wren, moustached antwren, purple
fruitcrow, song wren, spot-crowned antvireo,
chestnut backed antbird, white-flanked antwren and
checker-throated antwren. With this last bird a
Figuur 17 Chestnut-mandibled toucan
photographer asked if we were looking at the toucan. Behind the antwren was a magnificent
chestnut-mandibled toucan which we almost missed by looking at these small birds. We had a flyby
of a barred forest falcon, followed by a dotwinged antwren, nice sightings of scaly-throated
leaftosser, facieated antshrike, slaty-tailed trogon, speckled mourner, gray-headed tanager, forest
elaenia and green shrike-vireo. At a little river we finally got our first sighting of a great tinamou and
green and rufous kingfisher.
We had lunch at the pipeline road and continued our walk in the afternoon. Due to the heat it was a
little bit more silent but we found cinnamon
woodpecker, black-breasted puffbird, spotted
antbird, brown twistwing and a slaty-backed
forest falcon. We had some tries to find a streakchested antpitta because they were calling at
different places along the road and finally we got
lucky. It’s pretty funny to see how well
camouflaged this bird is, even when he’s calling
just in front of you. The shape of the bird looks
like a big egg with feed, but it was a complete
new family to me. Although it’s probably the
Figuur 18 Streak-chested antpitta
most common antpitta in Panama, I was glad to
see one.
Day 11: Achiote road – San Lorenzo – Mangrove – Panama train
Today we had to be early because we had to cross the Panama Canal and that’s only possible during
short time gaps between the boats passing. Anyway we got in time at the locks and could continue to
Achiote road. The road isn’t that busy, but the traffic goes quite fast so it’s careful birding. Even if it’s
a strange place to bird alongside such a road we had good numbers of birds: meadow lark, yellowheaded caracara, chestnut-mandibled toucan, white-headed wren, black-breasted puffbird, yellowbacked oriole, spot-breasted barbet, rufous-breasted hermit, great kiskadee, gray-capped flycatcher,
red-breasted blackbird, giant cowbird, fulvous-vented euphonia, double-toothed kite and common
black hawk.
After birding the road we went to San Lorenzo to eat. It’s a long drive to find an old fortress at the
entrance of the original French Panama Canal. We didn’t have
much birds around this area and went to the mangroves where
we had our first real shower for about 30 minutes, not bad for
birding almost two weeks during rainy season. The thunder and
lightning show is actually one of the advantages you have during
rainy season, besides the beautiful cloud formations. After the
shower one of the first birds was a surprise, a prothonotary
warbler. Pretty late at the end of may and a long way to go to
the breeding areas in north-america. Besides this new-world
warbler we had white-tailed trogon, purple-crowned fairy (what
a beauty), slaty-tailed trogon, several black-capped pygmy
Figuur 19 Panama railroad
tyrant, ruddy-tailed flycatcher, squirrel cuckoo and black-tailed trogon.
After the mangrove we took back the car to get the Panama train alongside the canal. Because we
had to wait pretty long at the locks we had to drive a little bit faster in the busy traffic. We got just in
time at the train station. I have to be honest about the train ride, it’s actually pretty funny and you
will see a lot of snail kites. Besides that we also had saffron finch and white-tailed kite. The largest
rodent on earth was also standing beside the railroad, the capybara.
Day 12: Canopy tower – Canopy lodge
We spent our last morning from the beginning to
the end on the observation deck of the canopy
tower. Even after a week the views stay
impressive and I could probably stand there
every day of the year and just listen to the
sounds of the forest and the magnificent birds.
We ended our visit to the tower with great blackhawk, double-toothed kite, green shrike-vireo
and collared aracari.
At 10.00 am we got a transfer to the Canopy
Lodge and we arrived with rain. The Canopy
Lodge gets a lot more rain, but we only had one half day we couldn’t bird due to the rain. So that’s
not too bad. On the feeders we got flame-rumped tanager, thick-billed euphonia, blue-gray tanager,
ringed kingfisher, snowy-bellied hummingbird and tawnycapped euphonia.
Figuur 20 Early morning on the observation deck
Around 3.00 pm our guide Tino (Faustino Sanchez) took us to a
little park at walking distance of the Canopy Lodge. It’s probably
unnecessary to say, but also Tino knew his birds very well and is
a terrific guide. The walk was very productive with rufous-tailed
hummingbird, violet-headed hummingbird, stripe-throated
hermit, bay-headed tanager, bay wren, white-tipped sicklebill,
rufous-capped warbler, tody motmot and red-crowned anttanager. On the way back we heard a black-faced ant-thrush,
but seeing the bird was more difficult. After a lot of patience we
finally got glimpse of this small chicken like bird running around on the forest floor. Further down we
had tawny-crested tanager, gray-necked wood-rail,
gray-headed chachalaca and streaked saltator.
Figuur 22 White-tipped sicklebill
Day 13: Canopy lodge – Las Minas – Road to Las
Mozas
Waking up with a calling sunbittern at 5.30 am is
pretty nice. Running out and seeing one just next to
the river of your sleeping room is even nicer. The bird
was calling all the time and walking up and down the
Figuur 21 Sunbittern
river for a time and disappeared. A dusky-faced tanager came also to our balcony every morning,
another new tanager. After breakfast we took the jeep up the hill to Las Minas and started walking
around in the hills. In the more open areas we had common bush-tanager and wedge-tailed
grassfinch. Then we started descending in the forest and found orange-bellied trogon, rufous
mourner, spotted woodcreeper, scale-crested pygmy-tyrant, wedge-billed woodcreeper, spotcrowned antvireo, slaty antwren, russet antshrike, buff-throated foliage gleaner and the one I liked
most was a black-crowned antpitta for some minutes in full
view. On the way back we had tufted flycatcher, black-andyellow tanager, black-faced grosbeak and tiny hawk. In the
afternoon we went in the direction of Las Mozas with yellowgreen vireo and lesser elaenia as new ones.
Day 14: La Mesa – Cariguana
We started birding in the neighborhood of a chicken farm and
had some nice birds to add to our list: blue-throated
toucanet, chestnut-capped brush-finch, silver-throated
tanager and barred hawk. Besides the new ones we saw
swallow-tailed kites, hepatic tanager, paltry tyrannulet,
tawny-crested tanager and black-faced grosbeak. In the
afternoon it was raining a lot but we went birding for a while
in Cariguana trail and had some nice birds with brownthroated parakeet, tropical screech owl, lattice-tailed manakin, yellow-green vireo and yellow-bellied
elaenia.
Figuur 23 Tropical screech-owl
Day 15: Rio Indio – Jordanal
Today was a nice 4x4 ride over the hills to the other side. The road wasn’t good and you definitely
need a jeep, certainly during rainy season. The birding was nice in a beautiful scenery with yellowmargined flycatcher, keel-billed toucan, pacific antwren, white-thighed swallow, lineated
woodpecker, tawny-capped euphonia, white-lined tanager, green honeycreeper, a distant view of an
emerald tanager, cinnamon beckard, plumbeous kite, black hawk-eagle and red-legged
honeycreeper.
Around noon we arrived in a little village where we
heard a barred puffbird calling. Although he was
responding to the whistle of our guide we couldn’t
locate him. Luckily a local found the bird and we had
good views of the bird which was mobbed by other
small birds.
After a nice meal we walked around in the
neighborhood of the village and found green
honeycreeper, another barred puffbird, sulphurFiguur 24 Barred puffbird
rumped tanager, rufous-crested coquette, green
kingfisher, bay wren, spot-crowned barbet, white
collard swift and white-shouldered tanager. But around 3.00 pm we had to return. It was obviously
raining very hard at the top of the hills and we had to cross some rivers with the jeep. There was a lot
of water coming down the road, but the rivers weren’t swollen yet so we had no difficulties getting
back. So we were in time for dinner and due to the attention for birds I forgot to tell that the food is
incredibly good and I’m not going to tell in detail how good the home-made ice-cream at the lodge is.
Day 16: Pacific coast
We started our day in a grassy area El Chiru but it was a nice
walk with a lot of new birds: Lesser goldfinch, crested
bobwhite, ferruginous pygmy-owl, mouse-colored tyrannulet,
rufous-browed peppershrike, crested caracara, sapphirethroated hummingbird, grassland yellow-finch, pale-eyed
pygmy-tyrant and common pauraque. Besides the new ones
we had a lot of other birds like lesser elaenia, yellow-green
Figuur 25 Grassland yellow-finch
vireo, savannah hawk, red-breasted blackbird and fork-tailed
flycatcher. So the morning proved to be very successful.
At noon we went eating at Santa Clara where we had brown booby, brown pelican, magnificent
frigatebird (sitting just in top of the trees), sapphire-throated hummingbird, gull-billed tern and
yellow-crowned night-heron. A far flying booby was according to me a subadult blue-footed booby
but the others were too busy with the food that
they missed the suspicious bird.
Then we continued to Juan Hombron where we
had a drive through a lot of rice fields to reach
finally the coast. In the rice fields we had,
besides the usual stuff like herons, glossy ibis,
white-tailed kite, lesser yellow-headed vulture,
striped cuckoo and northern scrub flycatcher. In
the last remaining trees at the coast we found
three straight-billed woodcreepers and a pearl
kite. We continued to a grassy area to look for
spinetails. Although the pearl kite distracted our
attention several times we finally found a pale-breasted spinetail and got very good views of it.
Unfortunately the bird was always a little bit too fast to digiscope. We then started a search for
brown-throated parakeets and we saw a group landing further on. They were awfully difficult to
track down again, but thanks to the good guides we found these beautiful birds when they were
perched. With a flyby of a limpkin we ended the day and went back to the lodge.
Figuur 26 Striped cuckoo
Day 17: Cerro Gaital – Las Minas
We went to Cerro Gaital and had a walk up to a viewpoint. The day started with an orange bellied
trogon. You see a lot of trogons everywhere, but I think they are just a wonderful family with all
these colorful birds flying around. Further on we found slaty antwren, red-crowned ant-tanager,
orange-billed nightingale-thrush, violet-crowned woodnymph and common bush-tanager. In the
bamboo we looked for and found blue seedeaters and at the same place we had white-throated
spadebill and green-crowned brilliant. A little bit further up we heard a purplish-backed quail-dove
but were unable to find it. We ended the
morning with a ruffed manakin.
In the afternoon we went back to Las Minas
and had a walk in the more open area with
some steep forest patches. It was strange to
see a short-tailed nighthawk flying around in
broad daylight. In the forests we found a
spotted barbtail (which I only heard
unfortunately, besides a glimpse flying
away), pale-vented thrush and tufted
flycatcher. The most wonderful bird of the
afternoon was definitely a black guan which
was foraging in the canopy and gave us enormous good views.
Figuur 27 Viewpoint
Day 18: Altos del Maria
We only had a half day left to go birding in this area. It’s sad to see that the roads are actually build
to develop this area and that the owner is probably a little bit crazy because his house looks like a
bad replica of a medieval castle on top of the hill. To be honest I wouldn’t buy a piece of land here to
build a house, because it’s so steep that it’s the perfect recipe for landslides. On the road we had
tufted flycatcher, snowcap, pale-vented thrush, scale-crested pygmy-tyrant, olive-striped flycatcher,
hepatic tanager, bay-headed tanager, violet-crowned woodnymph, scarlet thighed dacnis, violetheaded hummingbird, silver-throated tanager, ochraceous wren, white-vented euphonia and spotted
woodcreeper.
After a good last lunch they brought us to the airport hotel. Some last birding on the parking lot and
enjoying those terrific crimson-collared tanagers, tropical kingbirds, etc. We had a meal in the hotel
and went to bed.
Day 19: return flight
At 4.00 am we took the shuttle to the airport. Flew from Panama city to Atlanta said hello to Uncle
Sam and went straight for a big portion of ribs. If there’s one thing I want to eat when I come in
America it’s definitely ribs. And then the vacation ended with our flight from Atlanta to Brussels to
see how we screwed up our little piece of land and just hoping that this would never happen in
Panama with it’s magnificent scenery, beautiful birds, funny mammals, … We ended up with a little
bit more than 400 species, which is not bad at all in this season. During the dry season it’s possible to
get a bigger list, but these are mostly common North-American birds which I’ve already seen a lot. So
my advice is go over there during the beginning of the rainy season, the weather is still good, it’s not
too busy, it’s cheaper and you can concentrate on the Central-American species.