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Lauren Whitenack In May of 2025, a crew of 9 adventurers joined the Lahontan Audubon Society and Crescentia Expeditions for the birding trip of a lifetime to Panama! We saw a total of 247 bird species over 9 days and covered some of the most famous birding sites in Panama, including Pipeline Road, Old Gamboa and the Panama Canal, the Canopy Tower, and Darien National Park. Join us as we recall an amazing trip with photos and memories!  At the Canopy Tower in Gamboa, Panama. Panama City We spent our first night in Panama City at a hotel near the airport. Despite being in the city, we were still surrounded by sights and sounds of tropical bird life. In the trees around our hotel, we came upon a beautiful Squirrel Cuckoo on our evening walk. The large cuckoo was calling right above our heads, its long tail draped far below the branch on which it sat. Far above in the distant sky we noticed thousands of Black Vultures (and some Turkey Vultures) on the move – appearing almost like a swarm of insects, riding the thermals. We saw many other species on our evening walk, including several types of tropical tanagers, flycatchers, and a family of Yellow-headed Caracaras. A little Ruddy Ground Dove peeked out from a small palm tree in the parking lot of the hotel. Everywhere we looked there were new species – in the treetops, on telephone wires, inside the palms. We went to sleep that night having just experienced a small taste of Panama birding.  Squirrel Cuckoo at the Hotel Riande, Panama City. Photo by Lauren Whitenack. Canopy Tower Our first stop on the tour was the famous Canopy Tower, located near a town called Gamboa, which is situated right along the Panama Canal. The Canopy Tower is an old US military radar tower built during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963 that was turned into an ecolodge in 1999. The tower is a magnificent sight – from the outside, it is a bright aquamarine 4-story octagonal building with a giant yellow spherical dome on the roof (the original structural protection for the radar antenna). When you walk inside, a large mural covers the walls of the bottom floor, featuring birds and mammals commonly seen or sought after at the Canopy Tower. Guest rooms are located on the second and third floors, and the fourth floor is a beautiful dining space and library with large windows covering the walls. Above the fourth floor is the rooftop. Situated 50 feet above ground, the rooftop provides an eye-level glance into the rainforest canopy.  Canopy Tower rooftop observation deck at sunrise. Photo by Lauren Whitenack. We stayed in the Canopy Tower for 3 nights. In the mornings and evenings, we sat on the rooftop observation deck, drinking coffee or wine, and watched as animals emerged from the treetops. We stood eye-to-eye with two-toed and three-toed sloths, along with a suite of bird species considered canopy specialists: Blue Cotinga, Black-headed Tody-Flycatcher, Brown-capped Tyrannulet, several species of parrots, and a Collared Aracari were some of the highlights.  Collared Aracari at eye level from the rooftop of the Canopy Tower, Gamboa. Photo by Lauren Whitenack. The Canopy Tower also featured a hummingbird feeding station with several feeders on a large wooden deck. We observed an incredible 9 different species of hummingbirds at these feeders, and we were sitting mere feet away from them! The giant White-necked Jacobins were common feeder visitors and stood out from the much smaller Violet-bellied and Blue-chested Hummingbirds. The White-vented Plumeleteer, a gorgeous brilliant green hummingbird with a white undertail, seemed to be the aggressor of the group, and would regularly chase off any of the other species if they were taking up space at their preferred feeder. The distinctly weird Long-billed Hermits were regular visitors as well, and their long decurved bills, long tails, and unusually (for a hummingbird) brown bodies contrasted with the other species.
While in the Gamboa area, we made short day trips out to other famous birding spots including Pipeline Road and locations around the Panama Canal. Pipeline Road is famous for its ant-birding – that is, for the many species of antbirds, antpittas, antvireos, antwrens, antthrushes, (etc.) that can be observed there. These birds specialize (some of them more religiously than others) in following swarms of army ants and feeding on the insects that the ants flush out of their hiding places. Indeed – by the time we left Pipeline Road, we had seen 11 species of ant-things, including a beautiful and sneaky Streak-chested Antpitta.  Streak-chested Antpitta on Pipeline Road. Photo by Lauren Whitenack. Around the Panama Canal, we stopped at some ponds that hosted many waterbird species. A crowd favorite at this spot was the American Pygmy-Kingfisher, the smallest kingfisher in the Western Hemisphere. We also found the extremely elusive White-throated Crake – easy to hear, but nearly impossible to see. The whole group cheered when we finally laid eyes on one! We were impressed by the gorgeous red color of a Rufescent Tiger-Heron and intrigued when we observed a heron nest that seemed to be occupied by a nesting pair consisting of two different species – the Striated Heron and Green Heron, which hybridize in this region.  When we finally laid eyes on a White-throated Crake! Photo by Mario Córdoba. Canopy Camp Our next stop was the Canopy Camp located in the Darién Province of Panama, sometimes referred to as Panama’s (or Central America’s) last frontier due to the limited road access and the vastness of its remaining natural forests. Darién is located in the very eastern corner of Panama, on the border with Colombia. It is considered the lowlands – barely above sea level – and hosts a variety of unique bird species, some of which can only be found in this region. We had two main quests on this leg of our journey: to find the Harpy Eagle, the heaviest eagle in the world, and to find the endemic Dusky-backed Jacamar which can only be found in eastern Panama or northern Colombia. To do this, our tour guides partnered with members of the Emberá tribe, an indigenous people who have intimate knowledge of the area and its birds. The Canopy Camp is a nature lover’s paradise. From your safari-style tent, you can watch families of tamarin monkeys playfully wrestling and howler monkeys crashing through the canopy. Many species of butterflies and moths glide by, sampling flowers from the camp’s garden. Iguanas sun themselves; banana trees attract oropendolas and toucans, and hummingbirds come to the feeders and flowering shrubs. Just a small walk through the garden around the tents granted us looks at unique species including Keel-billed and Yellow-throated Toucans, Bananaquits, and many hummingbirds including Black-throated Mangos and Scaly-breasted Hummingbirds. On a short nature trail leading from the camp, we found Golden-collared Manakins, a lekking species in which the sharp-dressed males congregate to display for females. Their display includes an absurd electrical cracking noise made with their wings and an energetic bouncing dance over a “stage” that is cleared of leaf litter. As we wandered up toward the end of the trail, gaining elevation, we encountered the higher elevation species, the Golden-headed Manakin.  Bananaquit at the Canopy Camp, Darién, Panama. Photo by Lauren Whitenack. After settling into our lowland rainforest home, we set our minds on the Harpy Eagle. The trek to see this incredible species in the wild included an early morning rise followed by a bus ride south and east to Yaviza, a boat ride up the Chucunaque River, a truck ride from a small riverside community to Darien National Park, a horseback ride into the park, and short hike to a known Harpy Eagle nest. Members of the Emberá community guided us once we reached Yaviza, including driving our boats, leading our horses and helping us cross the river in the park.
When we approached the Harpy Eagle nest, we were told to be very quiet so as not to disturb a member of this vulnerable species. Harpy Eagle pairs only nest once every two or three years because raising an eaglet takes ~2 years! The nest had been monitored by members of the tribe for over a year, and now the single chick the pair had raised was branching, or beginning to leave the nest and perching on the surrounding branches. The pair had nested near the top of a giant cuipo tree, the most commonly used nest tree of the Harpy Eagle and a dominant tree species of the lowland tropical rainforest. Mature cuipo trees can reach over 200 ft in height, so the Emberá guides positioned us on a hillside above the nest tree. From there, we had a marvelous view of a gigantic downy chick – basically the size of an adult, with massive muscular legs and a silly downy crown made of feathers of uneven lengths. The chick was calling out with a piercing, high pitched whistle, begging for food from the parents – which were nowhere to be seen. At this stage in development, the parents only come to feed the chick once every 2-3 days, dropping off a whole sloth or monkey to tide the chick over until the next feeding, so seeing the parents is highly unlikely. The privilege of seeing a Harpy Eagle in the wild, let alone a wild-born and raised chick, was unreal, and we were all ecstatic, including our Emberá guides, and we shared a moment of fascination with the natural world.  Harpy Eagle Chick. Photo by Mario Córdoba. The following day, we embarked on our second quest – the journey to see the Dusky-backed Jacamar, an endemic to the Darién and northern Colombia. And while we did not use quite as many forms of transportation to reach the jacamar spot, we were still guided by the Emberá down the river, this time by motorized canoe. We journeyed down the river, spotting some incredible river-dwellers including the Green Ibis (a forest-dwelling ibis), and the Anhinga. We even spotted one of our other target jacamar species for Panama – the Rufous-tailed Jacamar.  Traveling by canoe to see the Dusky-backed Jacamar. Photo by Bernd Schwalbe. After traveling down river, our guides steered our thin wooden canoes through a narrow, marshy gap where we eventually deboarded. We hiked through a small grove of plantain trees which opened into a clearing. Just as our guides had hoped, a Dusky-backed Jacamar sat perched in a tree on the edge of the clearing – its long, thin needle bill piercing the sky and its light-colored chin contrasting sharply with a dark blue vest. Jacamars use their needle-like bills to catch insects in flight. Very little is known about this species due to their limited range and preference for lowland forest which tends to be impenetrable in the region. By spotting one in the wild, our group of 9 adventurers joined the very limited list of people fortunate enough to become acquainted with this special bird.  Catching a glimpse through the spotting scope of the Dusky-backed Jacamar. Photo by Lauren Whitenack. Conclusion and Acknowledgements With our trip concluded, we made our way back to Panama City along the Pan-American Highway. Even though we only visited two main spots in our journey, we saw an extraordinary 247 species of birds, around 25% of the total number of species listed in Panama. We were so fortunate to have Mario Córdoba with Crescentia Expeditions (now Flyway Birding Tours) plan and guide us on this trip. We also thank Elieser and Igua, our Panamanian tour guides with the Canopy Family, and our Emberá guides. At LAS, our international trips are organized with the local communities in mind, and we strive to create an educational and rewarding experience for our travelers while also giving back to conservation at the local level. For more on our international trips and to check for upcoming international birding tours, please visit www.nevadaaudubon.org. |
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