Retired and in good health we, John and Joy Pruett, pursue our hobbies of traveling to see and photograph species of birds we have never seen before. In May we went to Canopy Camp in the Darien region of Panama for 7 days and saw 70 new species of birds. Several people have encouraged us to share the pictures of our Panama trip. This was our third trip to Panama. In 2005 we had the pleasure of visiting Canopy Tower, in 2011 we visited Canopy Lodge, and this year, we visited Canopy Camp. These are all unique birding lodges in different Panamanian habitats, which lavish guests with great food, comfortable accommodations and expert birding guides to drive and identify the birds. They ordinarily include a siesta in the midday hours, making it the perfect vacation, as far as we are concerned. However, Canopy Camp runs a longer work day to do more driving to distant birding sites. If you are interested check out www.canopytower.com. This is the famous Pan American Highway, which runs from Alaska through Central America. It ends in Panama just short of the Columbian border, but resumes, after 100 miles of swampland, in Colombia and now continues to the southernmost tip of South America.
We saw great birds before we ever got to Canopy Camp. Here is an Orange-chinned parakeet, seen on the grounds of our hotel in Panama City. Parakeets have pointed tails; parrots have squared-off tails. On our drive to Canopy Camp, we had lunch in Torti and the restaurant feeds hummingbirds. This is a spectacular Long-billed Starthroat.
Black mango hummingbird, male (left); the female is right. Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
We were the only guests at Canopy Camp the week we were there. May is offseason because it is the start of rainy season; however, the rains were delayed and it rained only once while we were there. Most days temperatures were 100 degrees F with 95% humidity. No air conditioning, but we did have fans. The camp runs on solar power and we were the first guests to have hot water for showers. The accommodations are very fine tents anchored on a deck and an adjacent open-air bathroom with running water. The camp furnished filtered water.
This is not your ordinary camping set up and it has lots of birds. Black-mandibled Toucan
Blue-gray Tanager; Golden-hooded Tanager Much of the time birding is hard work, even when you have a great birding guide doing all the hardest work for you. The payoff for Joy is seeing a new bird, or seeing bird behavior that is especially interesting. The payoff for John is getting a photograph that shows a special moment or unusual beauty. We have chosen a few examples. Sometimes capturing a moment makes up for a photo that is somewhat out of focus and so on. See what you think. These Scaly-breasted hummingbirds are small, but they take war seriously!
Joy said, "Why is it named Scarlet-thighed Dacnis?" And the bird obliged by flashing its red thigh--and John caught it on camera!! Do birds have bad hair days? Judge for yourself. These are both Barred Antshrikes, male on the left, female on the right.
This is a Chestnut-headed Oropendola. They make hanging nests and they live in colonies, see below. We could see a very large oropendola colony in a tree in the forest from the deck of our tent.
But why does this Chestnut-headed Oropendola appear to have on bloomers? We still don't know. On the first day at Canopy Camp we arrived late in the day and couldn't get to our tent before we were distracted at the central pavilion by the hummingbirds. The Staff welcomed us mostly in Spanish, but there was always someone who could translate for us. They told us to bring flashlights to supper because it would be dark when we went back to our tent. So we decided to leave a lamp on in our tent to provide a light at the end of the pathway for comfort. That is how we came to encounter a tent FULL of insects. We never left a light on in our tent again! John, as family warrior, rose to the occasion and swatted a bunch of the bugs out of the air with his hat, inside the tent and outside the zipper door of the tent on the deck. Only thing... that left insect carcasses, which attracted huge swarms of tiny ants. We learned that if you just left the ants to their work, they could clear all carcasses in a day or night and then they would also leave.
Canopy Camp Pavilion with hammocks and comfortable chairs. On the left is a Pale-bellied hermit, right is a Rufous-tailed hummingbird. The feeder has ants and bees floating in the sugar syrup. In Panama, you learn to live with the insects.
This is where we had meals. We had three great meals everyday of our stay. Camp Darien has really great cooks. Nando was given special recognition when Raul Arias de Para, owner and developer of the Canopy Family named the birding trail at Canopy Camp in his honor. He has also made Nando manager of the Canopy Camp. The pictures below were taken at Canopy Camp. Parrots are always heard before they are seen. Nando could tell the squawks of Mealy parrots from Red-lored parrots, Blue-headed parrots, or any kind of parakeet.
Mealy Parrots Blue-headed Parrot