Our birding tour to the Panama Canal Zone and Chiriqui Province in western Panama offers a unique mix of Central and South American bird species commingling in the area surrounding the Panama Canal plus high elevation specialties and endemic birds of western Panama.
PANAMA CANAL ZONE
We'll spend the first morning on tour birding around Cerro Ancon near the lodge before breakfast. Possibilities here include Keel-billed Toucan, Red-crowned Woodpecker, Panama Flycatcher, Lance-tailed Manakin, and Crimson-backed Tanager. We may also see some huumingbirds such as Black-throated Mango, Violet-bellied Hummingbird, and Snowy-bellied Hummingbird. After an excellent breakfast, we'll check out and depart for the Caribbean slope, birding en route.
The following day we'll arrive early at famed Achiote Road, where we'll concentrate on Caribbean slope birds not readily found if at all on the Pacific side of the Canal Zone. Among these are Spot-crowned Barbet, Bare-crowned Antbird, Blue Cotinga, Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher, Flame-rumped Tanager, Saffron Finch, Black-headed Saltator, and Red-breasted Blackbird.
We'll spend the next 2 nights back at the B & B La Estancia near Panama City. While there, we'll bird famed Pipeline Road, Plantation Trail, Old Gamboa Road, and other areas around Gamboa. Here we'll be discovering the great diversity of lowland birds found in the Canal Zone. Likely highlights include species such as Band-rumped Swift, Great Jacamar, White-whiskered Puffbird, Red-crowned Woodpecker, White-flanked Antwren, Ocellated Antbird, Streak-chested Antpitta, Gray Elaenia, Golden-collared Manakin, the endemic Yellow-green Tyrannulet, and numerous tanagers. We should see a variety of raptors including perhaps Tiny Hawk, White Hawk, up to 3 species of Forest-Falcons, Spectacled Owl, and possibly even a Harpy Eagle. We'll spend one afternoon visiting Tocumen Marsh near the international airport. Here we'll be looking for some specialties we may not see elsewhere on tour such as Capped Heron, Yellow-breasted Crake, Spotted Rail, Pale-bellied Hermit, Pale-breasted Spinetail, Mouse-colored Tyrannulet, and Pied Water-Tyrant.
CHIRIQUI HIGHLANDS
To complete our tour, we fly to David in Chiriqui Province of western Panama where we'll spend a day birding the bird-rich Fortuna Road and 3 days exploring the Chiriqui Highlands.
Fortuna Road is a famed birding destination offering wonderful roadside birding as well as a variety of trails through protected forest reserves. It traverses the country from Pacific to Caribbean slopes, crossing the Continental Divide at the relatively low elevation of around 3500 ft. We'll be looking for a variety of highland specialties, including Sulphur-winged Parakeet, Three-wattled Bellbird, White-ruffed Manakin, Black-headed Tody-Tyrant, and a variety of hummingbirds, flycatchers, tanagers, and euphonias. We also plan on birding in the lowlands around David to look for the endemic Veraguan Mango and Chiriqui Yellowthroat along with other lowland specialties of western Panama.
In the highlands around Volcan Baru, we'll be concentrating on finding highland specialties and near endemics such as Scintillant and Volcano Hummingbirds, the extraordinary Resplendent Quetzal, which will be in its full breeding finery during our visit, Collared Trogon, Black-throated Trogon, Red-headed Barbet, Fiery-billed Aracari, Buffy Tuftedcheek, Turquoise Cotinga, Black-and-yellow Silky-Flycatcher, Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher, Sooty Robin, Flame-throated Warbler, Collared Redstart, Sooty-capped Bush-Tanager, Silver-throated Tanager, Spangle-cheeked Tanager, Slaty Flowerpiercer, Yellow-thighed Finch, Large-footed Finch, Yellow-throated Brush-Finch, and Black-thighed Grosbeak.
