March 9-16, 2025 with John Coons & Sam Wilson & Alex Sanchez & Danilo Rodriguez
The Canopy Tower celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and its unique construction and birding focus have made it an essential and well-known lodge well beyond Panama. Situated on property directly connected to the bird rich Soberanía National Park, it is a nature immersion experience in the tropical forest canopy. Many research projects on tropical birds have been stationed in and around the park. In fact, a recent publication reached the mainstream press from studies on plantation road (just below Semaphore Hill where the canopy lodge is located). The observation was of newly hatched chicks of the White-necked Jacobin. The early down on these chicks closely resemble the toxic spines of hairy caterpillar species, hypothesized to be a deterrent to would-be predators. This was only the second recorded example of a bird imitating a noxious insect!
We spent our first afternoon atop the Canopy Tower getting acquainted with some of the locals. Keel-billed Toucans, Masked Tityra, Fulvous-vented Euphonia, and Green Honeycreepers hopped in the tree tops while we watched some of the first large barges traverse the famous Panama Canal. There was a notable migratory movement of some diurnal migrants including some massive kettles of Turkey Vultures, one containing over 1000. We had two Wood Storks Flyover, a Short-tailed Hawk, and a constant stream of Cliff Swallows with a few Barn Swallows mixed in. It was also a chance to study the Band-rumped Swift up close and find a few hummingbirds like Snowy-bellied Hummingbird and White-vented Plumeleteer. We caught a very close Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth feeding on some flower buds and a few of us had really nice looks at a troop of Geoffroy’s Tamarin. We wrapped up the day with a delightful dinner on the top floor of the tower and a Kinkajou coming to a fruit feeder just outside the restaurant window!
The next morning, we were joined by our local guide Alex Sanchez at the tower and spent a beautiful sunrise on the lookout for a few target canopy-dwelling species. We were rewarded with great looks at some tree-top dwellers including Black-headed Tody-Flycatcher, Blue Dacnis, Brown-capped Tyrannulet, and two Green Shrike-Vireos that moved along the entire circumference of the tower as they foraged. We also had great looks at a few parrots including Mealy and Red-lored Amazons. After breakfast one floor below we walked down the second growth forest on Semaphore Hill seeing three Motmot species, White-whiskered Puffbird, a small flock of antbirds including Checker-throated Stipplethroats, White-flanked and Dot-winged Antwrens, and Black-crowned Antshrike. Finally, a soaring Black Hawk-Eagle notified us of its presence with its whistled call. Our afternoon stop was at Ammo Ponds, a former military sight adjacent to the canal with some nice freshwater wetlands. Some highlights there were Black-throated Mango, Barred Antshrike, and Rufescent Tiger-Heron.
The next day we enjoyed special access to the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center tower. It’s worth getting your steps in up the never-ending staircase (we counted - it's actually 147 steps) to enjoy the morning sun and some really great canopy dwellers. Our big hitter target was Blue Cotinga which posed for scope views. We had a good look at a Crane Hawk commuting just over the tree line, enjoyed a procession of migrating swallows, had some perched up and flyover parrots and toucans, and an exciting sighting of a male Choco Elaenia which can be quite scarce and hard to find. We took a peek down the beginning of Pipeline road to look for a Pheasant Cuckoo and were thrilled to re-find this calling bird from earlier in the morning, as well as Great Jacamar, and Streak-chested Antpitta! It was quite the round-up for a quick stop at the entrance area.
The next morning was a return to Pipeline to spend the day at this world-famous birding site. It was once an access road along a pipeline parallel to the canal but is now defunct and left to the wild as part of the national park. It's great for birders as it provides great access to protected lowland forest and a frequent site of ant swarms. We did encounter several swarms giving us ample time to enjoy ant specialists. Many birds that follow swarms are typically not encountered away from army ant activity, so it is crucial to listen for the calls of these specialist in order to find swarm activity. One frequent misconception is that these antbirds are eating ants, however, it is actually quite uncommon for most birds to eat ants. The birds are taking advantage of insects fleeing aggressive army ants as they swarm along the forest floor and up trees and vegetation. We saw all of the typical ant swarm birds, Spotted, Bicolored, and Ocellated Antbirds, to the delight of the group. We also watched several ant-associated Woodcreepers including Plain-brown, Northern Barred, and the rare Ruddy Woodcreeper. It’s a delight for first timers and veterans alike to investigate a swarm, especially when the birds are so focused on feeding that they allow for close observation and photos. Another species highlight was a Speckled Mourner that Alex heard and we were able to track down for good views. There was singing Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant, Black-breasted Puffbird, and nesting Yellow-throated Toucans in a tree cavity. Another excellent find was a hanging nest of Fasciated Antshrike where a fluffy nestling was found snoozing as the afternoon heated up. We enjoyed a nice field lunch and headed back up to the Canopy Tower.
Our mammal list for the trip was very solid; going out one evening we saw a number of Nine-banded Armadillos, Coatis, Agoutis, and a Wooly Opossum using its prehensile tail to hang way out from a branch over the parking lot. We had nightly visits from a large bat species called Pallas’s Mastiff Bat, a cool sighting of the common anteater species in the country, the Northern Tamandua, monkeys, sloths, squirrels, and close views of the unique tropical mammal, the Kinkajou at the fruit feeders.
Canopy lodge was the next stop and on the way, we stopped at a park that is known to have Rosy-Thrush Tanager. Though we only got frustrating glimpses of this bird, we heard its whistled song repeatedly and some participants did manage to get short views of both the male and female bird. Another highlight was the bamboo specialist Slate-colored Seedeater, and an unexpected daytime sighting of a roosting Chuck-will’s-widow. Our arrival at Canopy Lodge was timely for the Fasciated Tiger-Heron fishing in the creek and our afternoon walk highlighted by dueling Rufous-crested Coquettes. Three males battled it out not far down the road from the lodge. The next morning the weather was a bit overcast and looked wet but the rain mostly held off for our day trips just above the rim of the old volcanic caldera. We stopped first at Canopy Adventure in a creek where our new lodge guide Danilo had Sunbittern recently. It was quickly located and we were able to check this slightly strange and beautiful bird off our list. Above the crater we dealt with a bit of rain and missed one of the toughies, Black-crowned Antpitta, but were able to find some higher elevation birds at their lower limit like Northern Emerald Toucanet, Silver-throated Tanager, Scarlet-thighed Dacnis, Bay-headed Tanager, and others. We also had great views of the Collared Trogon, the subspecies here showing off an orange belly. Later on that day, the group caught up with a White-tipped Sicklebill that had been feeding on the heliconia flowers at the lodge. Quite the treat! Later on that day, we stopped in an area near town that had Tody Motmot, Lance-tailed Manakin, Black-chested Jay and a surprise Rufous-vented Ground-cuckoo. Though we never saw the cuckoo we heard its mournful call, bill snapping, and it running through the underbrush (one participant may have gotten some glimpses). Exciting, nonetheless!
Our last day always seems to come too quickly but this travel day offered lots of new birds in the slightly upland rocky savannah and dry forest down on the coast. First thing in the morning we spotted several Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch and had some Crested Bobwhite cross the road near the rim of the crater. We worked our way down the side of the dormant volcano stopping for good looks at Striped Cuckoo, Gray-headed Chachalaca, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Lesser and Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Masked Tityra, and a colony of Crested Oropendolas. We also spotted a singing Rufous-browed Peppershrike and Brown-throated Parakeets near a school. The dry forest down below was hot by 10:00am, however, Plain-breasted Ground Dove, Veraguan Mango, Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, Straight-billed Woodcreeper, Mouse-colored Tyrannulet, and Fork-tailed Flycatcher made for a nice suite of dry-forest species. We finished the early afternoon at a beach-side cottage enjoying the ocean breeze and some accompanying birds like Willet, Sandwich and Royal Terns, Magnificent Frigatebirds, and Cocos Boobies flying around some of the offshore buoys.
Much thanks to our local guides and contacts Alexis Sanchez, Danilo Rodriguez, Raul Arias, Tatiana Perez, Angélica Coronado and all the rest of the staff that makes the magic happen. It was an honor to be able to enjoy these special places and the forward-thinking ecotourism they have built and promoted in Panama these past 25 years.
Mammal List:
Derby's Wooly Opossum (Caluromys derbianus)
Lesser Sac-winged Bat (Saccopteryx leptura)
Pallas's Mastiff Bat (Molossus molossus)
Geoffroy's Tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi)
Mantled Howler Monkey (Alouatta palliata)
White-faced Capuchin (Cebus capucinus)
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus variegatus)
Northern Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana)
Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus)
Variegated Squirrel (Sciurus variegatoides)
Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata)
Kinkajou (Potos flavus)
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/344077
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/ptl25bTRIPLIST.pdf
-- Sam