January 26-February 2, 2025 with John Coons, Alex Sanchez, and Danilo Rodriguez
We spent our first morning watching the sunrise from the top of the Canopy Tower as the forest awoke around us. We enjoyed perched scope views of Keel-billed Toucans, Gray-headed Kite, a Semiplumbeous Hawk and rather close eye level looks at Black-headed Tody-Flycatcher and Brown-capped Tyrannulet two canopy species usually observed with neck strain from the ground. After breakfast we walked down Semaphore Hill where each turn in the road produced new birds. We saw a good number of species with exceptionally nice experiences with a perched White-whisked Puffbird, Spotted Antbird, Plain Xenops, and Broad-billed Motmot. That afternoon we headed to Gamboa where we visited the feeders at the Canopy B&B and then to Ammo Pond for some more open county birds. A Rufescent Tiger-Heron in a roadside pool, Muscovy Duck (yes, a real one), Red-legged Honeycreeper, and a male Barred Antshrike were the stars of the show that afternoon.
We were out early the next morning to head to the Discovery Center Tower to view the canopy species at first light. It was well-worth the early departure and the climb up the stairs to be there by ourselves and enjoy both male and female Blue Cotinga, Yellow-backed Oriole, and a great view of a tiny Moustached Antwren just below us among many other birds. An unexpected highlight was a calling Collared Forest-Falcon that perched for over 20 minutes in a tree top. After descending the tower and getting a snack while enjoying more hummingbird feeders we took a walk on one of the trails. This proved to be a great plan as we came upon an army antswarm right at the edge of the trail where we had fantastic views of Bicolored and more Spotted Antbirds, Northern Barred, Cocoa, and Plain-brown woodcreepers, Gray-headed Tanager and at least five Ocellated Antbirds. On our drive back, Alex spotted a perched adult White Hawk, one of the prettiest raptors anywhere, in the forest at one of the turns in the road gong up Semaphore hill. An afternoon trip to Summit Pond yielded three species of trogons, making it five for the day, as well as Green and Amazon kingfisher, but a perched and singing Slate-colored Seedeater, a quite uncommon species, was the highlight. During dinner that evening two Olingos, a Kinkajou, and two Lemurine Night Monkeys showed up to eat bananas in the tree just outside the dining room.
The following day we returned to the Pipeline Road area for a full day. A Tiny Hawk flew in and landed right over the road as we walked. We leap-frogged with our vehicles out the road several kilometers finding a quite uncommon Choco Elaenia, a perched Mottled Owl, Black-breasted Puffbird, a calling male Red-capped Manakin, and we had great views of a tiny Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant. Another uncommon species, Speckled Mourner was also seen well. Along the way, Alex spotted an even more uncommon species climbing in the vines of the forest, a Rothschild’s Porcupine (now lumped with Quichua Porcupine) a little known species of the Andes that only reaches Central America in Panama. Driving out of Pipeline Road a usually secretive Great Tinamou was spotted just off the road and put on a nice show for us. After our outdoor barbeque we did a night drive where we had a quite close calling Choco Screech-Owl but couldn’t get it into view.
The following morning we packed up and took the Canopy van to the nearby Camino de Cruces for some dry forest birding. We saw a good number of new species with the “best” birds being Black-tailed Flycatcher and a nice view of the very local Yellow-green Tyrannulet. From here we said adieu to Alex and Adrian and drove with Lorenzo to the Canopy Lodge passing over the Panama Canal. We wound our way up to the town of El Valle de Anton and arrived at the Canopy Lodge for lunch at the open air dining room next to the picturesque flowing stream. After lunch and a break we walked with our guide Danilo Rodriguez up the road from the Lodge. A beautiful and tiny male Rufous-crested Coquette was perched on the end of a twig. On the trails at the Canopy Adventure, Danilo spotted a Fasciated Tiger-Heron along the stream as well as a brilliant Sunbittern hopping from rock-to-rock along the flowing water. We enjoyed another wonderful dinner in the dining area.
A Buff-rumped Warbler was ringing out its loud song over the noise of the stream the next morning as we watched the tanagers, Rufous Motmot, Gray-headed Chachalacas, and even a Gray-cowled Wood-Rail at the fruit and rice feeder. We then drove up the road to La Mesa and walked in on the Candalario Trail. A Mourning Warbler and Black-striped Sparrow put on a good show near the garden before we walked into the forest. Here a Scaly-breasted Wren made repeated appearances under a log. Nearby we had great views of Bay-headed, Silver-throated and Emerald tanagers as well as a pair of the local Collared Trogons that used to be called Orange-bellied Trogon. Along the Las Minas Trail we found a pair of Russet Antshrikes working at an apparent nest amongst the vines. A wonderful pair of Tropical Screech-Owls were hiding amongst the limbs of some trees just off the road on our way back to the Lodge. That afternoon we went to Las Mozas in hopes of finding a Spectacled Owl but it was a no show as were Rosy Thrush-Tanager and White-bellied Antbird that we could not lure into view.
Our final day of birding found us driving off after breakfast for the Pacific lowlands. A stop in the higher elevation grasslands found a perched Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch and a roadside stop in a small village yielded a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl perched in the open. We found three Lesson’s Motmots in the trees near a colony of Crested Oropendolas and we scoped a pair of Brown-throated Parakeets. Closer to the coast we birded some agricultural fields where we encountered a few Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures, a rather closely perched Savanna Hawk, and a wet rice field with many Cattle Egrets being eyed by two Peregrine Falcons. Fork-tailed Flycatchers, Northern Scrub-Flycatcher, and a cooperative Straight-billed Woodcreeper were seen before we headed to Santa Clara where a fantastic Common Potoo with a small chick was on a day perch. We then headed to Santa Clara where we relaxed on the porch of Canopy Lodge owner Raul Arias’s beach house where we watched Magnificent Frigatebirds soaring as well as Laughing Gulls and Sandwich Terns on the beach during lunch. We switched to a new vehicle and headed with Luis to Panama City. We crossed the Panama Canal on the famous Bridge of the Americas and ended up at the Riande Airport Hotel. After our final dinner and bird list there we bid each other good-bye to catch flights or ferries the next morning. It was wonderful birding with all of you for a week that seemed to fly by too quickly. I hope we can get together again soon.
Mammals encountered on our trip included:
Pallas's Mastiff Bat (Molossus molossus)
Geoffroy's Tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi)
Lemurine Night Monkey (Aotus lemurinus) also called Owl Monkey; it was a treat to see two of them
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/326922
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/ptl25aTRIPLIST.pdf
-- John Coons