On December 29th, Erica and I headed for
Panama City – it was only our second trip to Central America, so the anticipation was very high, especially since we were going with friends who were naturalists like us!
This blog post is a day-by-day account of the trip (Warning: it is lengthy!).
Day 1 – December 29. Toronto to Panama City
We left Kitchener and picked up John (a friend from my Algonquin Park days and currently a zoologist with
the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre) before heading for
Pearson International Airport in Toronto. Before getting
off the 401, we scored our first bird of the trip – a Snowy Owl sitting on a sign above
the highway. We managed to see 3 more Snowy Owls on the runways at
Pearson (no other birds!). At the airport we met up
with Alison (a friend from Algonquin and currently working at Pinery Provincial
Park), Chris (friend from Algonquin and currently the head naturalist at
Charleston Lake Provincial Park), and Sarah (friend of John's who works as an
ecologist at the ACCDC) before takeoff.
We had a three hour lay-over in Houston where we added Rock
Pigeon, Ring-billed Gull, Eastern Meadowlark, Turkey Vulture and Killdeer along
with some gator nuggets and oysters.
We landed in Panama at Tocumen International Airport just
after dark (about 7pm). From the air, we got a good look the
Panama Canal and could see lots of container ships. We quickly met up with our final group member,
Phil (works at Presqui’ile Provincial Park) who flew in from Nicaragua where
he had been for the previous couple of weeks.After a frustrating hour and a half at the car rental counter, we
finally got cars (though not the SUVs we had reserved) and were on our
way, but not before picking up our first Panamanian bird with flashlights – a
Rock Pigeon roosting on the building (hey, they all count!).
One of our two matching Elantras
With the help of car GPS and the free maps we had uploaded to it, we got to our first hotel without making any wrong turns. Note about driving:
The maps worked great, though I had to out-smart the routing later on in the
trip. With the lack signage for roads and
exits in Panama, something like this is practically essential if you plan on
driving yourself.Driving itself was no
problem. Roads were fine, and Panamanian drivers were not much worse than
Canadians, although we purposely avoided going into Panama City.
Checking it at the Radisson
At 10pm, about 40 minutes after leaving the airport and
stopping for gas (gas was just under $1.00/litre) we arrived at Radisson Summit and Golf hotel.This was
a perfect place for our first night – very comfortable, not too far from the airport,
but still outside of the city. It also had the benefit of being relatively
inexpensive ($100 for a room with two beds and breakfast buffet) and turned out
to be pretty good for birds. The location was just a few kilometres south of
the Canopy Tower, a famous ecolodge for birders in Soberania National Park:
View from our hotel room - the little speck on the horizon is the Canopy Tower
Most of us went out for a quick night walk around what
turned out to be the driving range. Several lines of hard-working Leafcutter Ants were out and about and we scored a bunch of Forest Rabbits and a small
herd (?) of Lesser Capybara! There were also several Common Pauraques hunting here, and
we even flushed up a couple of Southern Lapwings that we identified in our
flashlight beams as they flew over!
By midnight we were more than ready for bed.
Day 2 - December 30 – Paraiso to El Cope
Most of us were up and at the front doors of the hotel at
6 am ready to go, only problem was that it was still dark! Birds had started singing though and
we picked up our first few species by the light of the street lights on the
edge of the parking lot – Blue-gray Tanagers, Tropical Kingbirds, Yellow
Warblers, Baltimore Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeak. In about 2 hours, we racked
up 58 species, of which 8 species we never saw again on the rest of the trip
(Gray-headed Kite, Whimbrel, Wilson’s Snipe, Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet,
Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Saffron Finch, Yellow-bellied Seedeater, and
Thick-billed Seed-Finch. Here’s the full eBird checklist.
Saffron Finch - a South American species introduced in Panama in the Canal Zone
Crimson-backed Tanagers were common in disturbed areas
Southern Lapwing
Our only Gray-headed Kite of the trip
We enjoyed a great breakfast buffet and then headed for a
detour to the town of Paraiso (just down the road) to a medical clinic. Alison
was coming down with shingles and needed to visit a medico. The medical
system in Panama was great, and Alison was able to get a
prescription for the medication she needed (stopped at a Pharmacy later on and got
it no problems).
Hiding in the shade at the medical clinic
While waiting in Paraiso,
we had mostly common species (including our first Brown Pelicans and
Magnificent Frigatebirds flying over the canal which we could see), but a
definite highlight was watching a Squirrel Cuckoo snag a Katydid that was close
to the size of my palm!
Centennial Bridge over Panama Canal
We crossed the canal on the Centennial Bridge just west of Paraiso and hit the
Carretera Interamericana, heading for our next destination. A little west of
Penonome, we got off the highway and headed north towards El Cope. We arrived
about 3pm (later than we had planned) but quickly located our host, Julie Ray,
the director of La Mica Biological Station.
After introductions, her two students, Leslie and Valeria from Missouri State
University, hopped in our cars and led us to the start of a 30 minute, narrow trail through the forest and along a stream to the La Mica
cabin. We set up beds (had a troop of 5 Geoffroy's Tamarins interrupt us) and
then came back out for dinner at Macedonio's house (local partner). After
dinner, we walked further (30 min) up the road to assist with Leslie's salamander (Bolitoglossa schizodactyla) surveys. We
didn't find any salamanders but had tons of frogs and insects, a Watson's
Climbing Rat and best of all two Chestnut-collared Swifts roosting on a rock
face beside a waterfall! Once the route was finished, we walked about 20 minutes
further up the road to try a spot where Leslie had seen a Water Opossum the
night before. No luck, but the walk back down produced a few Common Opossums,
a Kinkajou (throwing figs at Phil) and a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl beside the road. On the walk back
in to the cabin, we had a burrowing snake and a Mottled Owl just about 20 feet
off the trail. We got back to camp about 11 pm and all of us were very ready
for bed.
The hike in along a small stream
La Mica cabin
Dinner at Macedonio's
Birding in front of Macedonio's house
Salamander surveys
A very confused Glass Frog
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
Day 3 – December 31 – El Cope to Guadalupe
We were up bright and early again, hiked our gear out to the road and then had a delicious breakfast (my
favourite meal of the trip) at Macedonio’s house. After breakfast, Macedonio
took us further up the mountain to Omar Torrijos Herrera National Park for a
short walk. The clouds were very thick, so the view wasn’t great,
but the birds were. This middle elevation location was perfect for tanagers, and we
cleaned up with Black-and-yellow, Speckled, Emerald, Bay-headed, Tawny-crested,
Silver-throated, and Hepatic! We also nabbed our only Yellow-eared Toucanet and
Tawny-faced Gnatwrens of the trip. Here’s the full list.
The whole team at the La Mica cabin
Best breakfast ever!
Entrance to the park
The fog outside of the gate house
A fallen branch reveals the orchids and other air plants that grow in the canopy
A huge leafcutter ant colony
Erica pulled this huge snake skin out of the Visitor Centre's eavestrough
An orchid growing from the trunik of a tree
Poisin Dart frog spp
We almost had this whole page in one flock!
Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend more time here as we had
reservations about half the country away for that night, so we had to hit the
road. Omar Torrijos National Park looked like it had a ton of potential though,
and the amphibians alone would make coming back well worth it.
After stopping at a roadside fruit stand and a bakery and
driving about 400 km, we arrived in the mountain town of Guadalupe, near the
Costa Rican border. The cooler temperatures (about 18 C) were a welcome relief
when we got out of the cars. We checked in at Los Quetzales and made
arrangements to get driven in to our cabin. Before going up via 4x4, we made a quick run
for groceries in town. The cabin was only about 2 km
away but took a solid 30 minutes to drive to because the road was quite rough.
After the drive, we had a short 5 minute walk to our little spot in paradise!
Our bakery break just west of David
Nine-banded Armadillo on roadside
Yellow-headed Caracara along roadside (most common raptor in Panama)
The spoils of our fruit-stand stop!
The cabin was absolutely amazing, with a kitchen, 3 beds and
2 futons, 3 washrooms, solar-powered lights and charging station, wifi (!),
wood stove, radio to communicate with the lodge, fruit and hummingbird feeders
and of course the fact that it was nestled in the middle of cloud forest of
Volcan Baru National Park. Check out the 3D spins of the cabins (we stayed in cabin 8) on the Los Quetzales website.
John and Sarah in front of our cabin
Our cabin in the cloud forest
We got unpacked, set up fruit on the feeders (hence the
roadside fruit stand stop earlier) and within a few minutes Phil was feeding a
Cacomistle some banana by hand!!
Cacomistle on our deck
We celebrated New Years in style, with
Cacomistles for company!
Day 4 – January 1 – Los Quetzales Cabanas
I got up shortly after six as I
was antsy to see some cloud forest birds, so
walked down the trail we had walked in on the night before seeing it for
the first time in daylight. It was still too dark to make out details on birds,
but I managed to see a Black-and-yellow Silky-Flycatcher: my first bird
seen in 2014 (lifer to boot, don’t think I’ve done that before!). Back at the cabin, it was getting lighter, and the Magnificent Hummingbirds were now
patronizing the hummingbird feeders. We soon discovered that the “deck” of our
cabin was one of the best places nearby for viewing birds as it offered a clear
view into the canopy of trees down the slope from us.
Had to rescue a Magnificent Hummingbird that got in the cabin
Blurry shot but shows the iridescent part of plumage on males
Magnificent Hummingbird
White-throated Mountain-Gem was the second most common hummingbird at our feeders
Yellow-thighed Finch at our feeders
We had a couple flocks of birds come through from here which
included some nice mountain species like Buffy Tuftedcheeks, Smokey-brown
Woodpecker, Spangle-cheeked Tanager, and crowd-favourite Golden-browed
Chlorophonias. We took a guided walked up a short trail at about 9am and on the
walk back down (we told the group to go ahead without us) we had one of our
target species – a female Resplendant Quetzal (right near Tapir tracks)! While not as spectacular as the
male, she’s still a good looking bird, and was very cooperative as she sat for
long periods of time before plucking ripe Avocados from a fruiting tree. Here’s
our full day list
female Resplendant Quetzal
Deck Watch!
That night, in addition to the Cacomistles we were briefly
visited by a Kinkajou at the fruit feeder.
Day 5 – January 2 – Los Quetzales Cabanas and Guadalupe
A few of us were under the weather and everyone was tired from the day before, so it was a good thing we
hadn’t planned on doing the all-day hike up to the top of Volcan Baru. We
had a nice breakfast and lounged around the cabin for a few hours before visitors arrived. Alvaro Jaramillo arrived leading a group from the
Sierra Club. They staked out on our balcony for an hour or so picking up some
nice species we had seen earlier – Prong-billed Barbet, Barred Becard and the
singing Silvery-fronted Tapaculos. It was nice to chat with the group and share the bird sightings with them. By late morning, our energy had returned so we decided to
hike down to the main lodge in the town of Guadalupe.Here’s our full list from the cabins.
Fresh-squeezed orange juice
Heading downhill was an easy walk and as we got
towards town and out of the forest, we picked up several new species like
Scintillant Hummingbird and Rufous-collared Sparrow and our only Red-tailed
Hawk, Band-tailed Pigeon, Mountain Elaenia, Brown-capped Vireo, Slaty
Flowerpiercer, Flame-colored Tanager, Bronzed Cowbird and best of all
Long-tailed Silky-Flycatchers. That last species was one I had really wanted to
see when we were in the cloud forest of Costa Rica a few years ago but had
missed…so it was nice to see them (lots around the main lodge). We enjoyed
lunch at the lodge then walked back up (some of us got a ride from the lodge).
Here’s our full list.
Watching Long-tailed Silky-flycatchers at the main lodge
Day 6 – January 3 – Guadalupe to Gamboa
We were up and packing by 6:30 – we were scheduled to get
picked up at 8:00 to head down the mountain.John and Sarah made a quick detour to look for the quetzal from two days
before (no luck) but they did have a dove, which was likely a quail-dove, but
couldn’t nail it down for sure. We had an awesome breakfast (Banana Bread Pudding- yum) and were transported down to checkout. Before that a
Montane Rice Rat was found in this plastic bag outside the cabin.
Surprise!
Montane Rice Rat
Montane Rice Rat
Phil and his crazy pants!
After checking out, we enjoyed some of the birds of the open
country again (had a chance for some photos of some species). Here’s our full list.
Blue-gray Tanager
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Silver-throated Tanager
male Slaty Flowerpiercer
Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher
By 9:30 we were on the road, but had to make a quick pit
stop before leaving Guadalupe:
Street meat!
We scored our only Mourning Dove just after Guadalupe and
tried a couple spots where the road crossed rivers and streams, hoping for a
Torrent Tyrannulet or an American Dipper, but no luck.
We had one last stop before getting back to the highway –
Bajo Frio. We walked about 500m down this road with visions of White-crested
Coquette in our head, but it wasn’t to be. We did get our only Pearl Kite and
Long-billed Startthroats of the trip though – here’s our full list.
From there it was about 500km back to the canal and the
small town of Gamboa north of Panama City that would be our home for the
remainder of our trip.
We got in to Soberania Lodge about 7:30pm. While waiting for our room to be made up we had looks at our
first Pacas and Phil expertly located an Opossum that obliged for
some photos:
Soberania Lodge
Common Opossum
scorpion on a tree trunk
After settling in, we did a night drive looking for critters
that was mostly unsuccessful, but Sarah somehow located a sitting Lesser
Nighthawk in a tree from the car to go with a few Common Pauraques.
Day 7 – January 4 – Gamboa
Chris and I were up for first light and took a walk around
the neighbourhood before joining the rest of the crew back at the lodge for
breakfast and some time watching the very active feeders. Highlights of the
walk were our only Blue Cotinga and Magnolia Warbler of the trip (plus lots of
firsts!).Here’s our full list from the
morning.
The lounge area was great for watching the feeders
Feeder full of Blue-gray Tanagers
Female Green Honeycreeper
male Green Honeycreeper
Violet-bellied Hummingbird
Buff-throated Saltator
male Red-legged Honeycreeper
male Crimson-backed Tanager
Blue-chested Hummingbird
Blue-chested Hummingbird showing the blue
male Red-legged Honeycreepers
The lodge was great – we had a dorm room with 7 beds and
A/C. The real bonus of the lodge is the location (walking distance to Pipeline
Road, backs onto Gamboa Rainforest Resort). You can sit and watch the feeders
all day and be more than satisfied with the great diversity.
Geoffroy's Tamarin behind lodge
Collared Geoffroy's Tamarin
Iguana in tree by our lodge
White-nosed Coati at lodge
Agoutis were abundant at the lodge
Gray-headed Chachalacas love bananas!
White-necked Jacobin was the most abundant feeder hummingbird
This Whiptail spp. lived under the steps
Fasciated Antshrike at lodge
We headed over to the Gamboa Rainforest Resort for lunch at
their riverside restaurant and picked up a bunch of new species in the process
including Pied-billed Grebe, both gallinules, Royal Tern, Flame-rumped Tanager,
Buff-breasted Wren, and our only American Pygmy-Kingfisher of the trip. Here’s
our full list.
lunch at Gamboa Rainforest Resort
This caiman enjoyed ground beef and guacamole!
Reminded me of a Rainbow Bluet
Basilisk lizard
Common Tody-Flycatcher
bloated croc?
Yellow-headed Caracara riding a Capybara
Before dusk, a few of us walked the first few
hundred metres of the famous Pipeline Road. Birds were quiet but we heard
Howler Monkeys and saw a pack of Collared Peccaries and a crazy small frog. We also had our first Great Tinamou and Collared
Forest-Falcons (both heard only) and Black-breasted Puffbird and
Crimson-crested Woodpecker.
A quick stop at Ammo Dump Ponds was underwhelming, but we had
our first Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks there just before it got dark.
Our American friends at the Lodge
While we were there, Soberania Lodge was quite busy with
University field courses from two American schools staying there as well (one
from Virginia and one from New York state). It was nice to get to hear about
their outings, and on this night we got to sit in on a talk by Ricardo Moreno, a Panamanian Jaguar researcher.
Day 8 – January 5 – Gamboa
We decided the night before we’d try to get to Pipeline Road
for first light. We were successful in starting out the hike just before 6:30
from the fork to the Rainforest Discovery Centre (as far as you can drive without a key). We made it as far as the Rio
Frijolito bridge (about 2 km) before turning around to be back to the lodge for
lunch. We saw lots of new species with some of the memorable species being
Black Hawk-Eagle overhead, a pair of Fasciated Antshrikes feeding nestlings,
Streak-chested Antpitta (my first antpitta ever), Brownish Twistwings
demonstrating their namesake behaviour, and a Kentucky Warbler skulking on the
forest floor. Our full checklist from the morning is here.
Pipeline Road!
A Helicopter Damselfly (Pseudostigmatidae)
John baiting for insects
After lunch we lounged at the lodge for a bit before some of
us tried going fishing and others went for a walk through the resort – picking
up the only Striated Heron and Prothonotary Warblers of the trip. Here’s our checklist from the resort.
Panama Flycatcher
Keel-billed Toucans
At dusk, we all headed out to Ammo Dump ponds to try for
rails. By the time we got the speaker out to try calling for White-throated
Crake, we had already heard one calling closely (before playing the call).
Day 9 – January 6 – Gamboa
After the previous morning’s success on Pipeline Road we
wanted to give it another run, so we got up early to hike out as far as we were permitted to travel. The walk was mostly
quiet but we managed to spotlight a Common Pauraque sitting on the trail and
catch it:
Me with a Common Pauraque!
We kept walking in the dark and John found a Bicolored
Antbird sitting near the trail. We tried to catch it using a spotlight but just
missed it, but it landed briefly on John’s shoulder!!
The group on Pipeline Road
After breakfast at the
Rio Limbo bridge, we started heading back at a slow
enough rate to see birds. We had lots of the same things from the previous day
but still lots of new species – Black-throated Trogon, Broad-billed Motmot,
Brown-hooded Parrot, White-flanked Antwren, Ocellated Antbird, Scaly-throated
Leaftosser, Southern Bentbill, White-shouldered Tanager, and Slate-colored
Grosbeak to name some.I think everyone
agreed on the two bird highlights. The first was just after we watched a troop
of White-faced Capuchins cross the road, a Double-toothed Kite came flying
through following them – just as we had read the night before (they are famous
for following capuchins and picking off small birds and lizards that the
monkeys flush).
White-faced Capuchin in flight
The other highlight was a Royal Flycatcher that showed well for
the whole group, unfortunately it didn’t erect its fabulous crest. We saw two
other troops of capuchins (first of the trip) and had some good looks at a
Coati as well.Here’s our full list from
the morning on Pipeline.
After lunch I took Alison in to the clinic in Paraiso, and
while waiting I had the first male Lesser Goldfinch of the trip. On the way
back, her and I stopped at Summit Ponds to scout it for the following day. Just
after arriving, we ran into Alvaro Jaramillo again – he was there with a couple
and two guides from the Canopy Tower. After a short chat with them, we walked
down the road as far as the ponds – no herons or other water birds were visible
but the road netted us several new species being a habitat we hadn’t really
visited before (dry forest); included in these were our only Plain-brown
Woodcreeper (a banded individual!) and Tropical Gnatcatchers. Here’s our list
from Summit Ponds.
Back at the lodge Chris, John, Sarah and I decided to walk
Sendero La Laguna in the Rainforest Resort. It was getting late in the day, but
we had our only really good looks at Southern Bentbill of the trip and got our
first Acadian Flycatcher. We also had a pair of colour-banded Buff-breasted
Wrens. Here’s our list from that short walk.
Day 10 – January 7 – Gamboa
For our last full day in Panama, we made plans to travel a
bit further afield than we had the last couple of days. Our first stop was back
to Summit Ponds with the whole group. It was well worth it getting several new
species including a Capped Heron flying by, a couple Boat-billed Herons at the
ponds, and Ovenbird, Dusky Antbird, Black-tailed Flycatcher, Lance-tailed
Manakin, and Rufous-and-white Wren in the woods. Here’s our checklist from the
walk.
Looking for a Lance-tailed Manakin on Old Gamboa Rd
Gartered Trogon
White-necked Puffbird
Blue-headed Parrot
Boat-billed Heron
Perhaps
most exciting for the group was finally getting a sloth – a pair of Brown-throated Three-toed
Sloths displaying well for us!
Sloth!
Sloth "action" shot
After lunch we checked out Summit Nature Park. This is an
outdoor zoo and botanical gardens just 10 minutes from Gamboa. Unfortunately,
we were there at the heat of the day so didn’t see a lot of wild birds (besides
a nice Zone-tailed Hawk). Apparently the area can be good for open-country
species. The park had a nice Harpy Eagle interpretive centre.
From there, a few of us risked Panama City traffic to check
out the Metropolitan Nature Park. This is a huge tropical forest reserve right
in the city. I would have loved to have spent more time here but was satisfied
with just over an hour on the trail behind the visitor centre. Even though our time was limited, we
still managed a bunch of new species including Garden Emerald, White-bellied
Antbird, Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Yellow-green Tyrannulet (our only Panamanian endemic of the trip), and Golden-winged
Warbler. Here’s our full checklist.
Again our highlight was sloths, but this time a mother and young Hoffman's Two-toed
Sloth! We also were very entertained by scaring baby Basilisk lizards so they’d
run across the surface of the small ponds!
That night we were joined for dinner by Jenn Sinasac from
Ontario. She’s been in Panama for the last year or so and is working for the
Canopy Family of ecolodges. After dinner, she took us out owling (no luck) and
looking for other night birds. We lucked out at Summit Ponds where we could see
eyeshine from two Common Potoos. The Boat-billed Herons were also visible with
spotlights.
Day 11 – January 8 – Gamboa to Tocumen Airport
Final group shot at Soberania Lodge
We were up bright and early for a quick check of Ammo Dump
Ponds at dawn. That netted us a young Snail Kite but unfortunately neither of
the species we were still waiting for (Rufescent Tiger-heron and Greater Ani).
We took our group photo outside of the lodge and then were on our way with
plenty of time to get to the airport (or so we thought).Shortly after getting on to the highway, traffic
stopped and what was about a 5 minute drive to get to the toll highway
previously turned into about 2 hours. We pulled into the airport, dropped off
the rental cars and with 55 minutes before our flight, the
United Airlines staff would NOT let us check-in!…John and Sarah who were on a different United flight
leaving ten minutes later were let on and Phil was able to make his flight to
Nicaragua leaving 30 minutes before us. Needless to say, we were unimpressed with United. We picked up Bat Falcon at the airport while trying to figure out what to do next.
Anyways, long story short Erica and I spent two extra nights
in Panama after paying for a new flight despite the horrible customer service with United and the flight being a United partner airline. We stayed at the Riande Aeropeurto which was very convenient. I managed to pick up Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture,
Peregrine Falcon, and Anhinga right from the hotel and a short walk down the
road picked up a White-tailed Kite with a nest. I tried to go to Tocumen Marsh,
but was told security wasn't permitting visitors. On the way to the airport, we picked
up a couple more species (Neotropic Cormorant and Wood Stork) before finally
leaving Panama.
Bird species list
The following lists the bird species found on the trip, along with the frequency of checklists (from eBird) that we reported them:
There are a ton of resources for naturalising in Panama, which is a big part of why we chose that as our destination. Here are a few helpful resources if you choose to do your own.
Web resources:
Trip map - a map I made of places of interest, yellow markers are places we stayed or visited
