Panama 12/05/11 1/06/11 Darien Lowlands, Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge By Bram Vogels vogelwerkgroep@antwerpennoord.be 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. (vogelwerkgroep@antwerpennoord.be) 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, Figuur 2 Going in the hills 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 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, Figuur 4 White-fronted nunbird 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 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 Figuur 5 White hawk 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. 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 Figuur 7 Black-capped donacobius 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. 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. Figuur 8 Caribbean slope 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. 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 Figuur 9 Long-tailed tyrant Tower. vast amount of small islands and still a lot of rainforest we went to the Canopy Figuur 10 Early morning on the canopy 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
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 Figuur 11 Keel-billed toucan on the observation deck shrike-vireo. 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), Figuur 12 Bicolored antbird in an antswarm fasciated antshrike, white-flanked antwren, cocoa 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. Figuur 13 American pygmy kingfisher 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
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 views of a jet antbird. But one of the best birds of the day was the spectacled owl. We ended the day with nice 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 birdwatchers. 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 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 Figuur 16 White-necked jacobin good for the trip list, but most waders are pretty 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 Figuur 17 Chestnut-mandibled toucan 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
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. Figuur 20 Early morning on the observation deck 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. 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 ant- Figuur 22 White-tipped sicklebill tanager. 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. 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 Figuur 23 Tropical screech-owl 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. 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. Figuur 24 Barred puffbird After a nice meal we walked around in the neighborhood of the village and found green honeycreeper, another barred puffbird, sulphurrumped 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 Figuur 25 Grassland yellow-finch 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 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 Figuur 26 Striped cuckoo 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. 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 Figuur 27 Viewpoint afternoon was definitely a black guan which was foraging in the canopy and gave us enormous good views. 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.