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WINGS Birding Tours – Photo Gallery

Panama: Spring at the Canopy Tower

The Canopy tower is perched atop a hill in Soberania National Park… …and offers great views of the expansive forests… Formerly a U.S. military radar site, the Tower has been refurnished, with an expansive and excellent dining room… …and the view from the tower’s upper deck is superlative. Wildlife can come quite close to the tower, from lethargic Three-toed Sloths… …to stunning Green Honeycreeper… …vivid Collared Aracaris… …the very tropical and often vocal Purple-throated Fruitcrow… …the stolid Black-breasted Puffbird… …and perhaps a Blue Cotinga - here a female - which often perch near the tower. Birding from our comfortable open-topped trucks… …we’ll explore nearby sights such as the famous pipeline road… …where walking along the road can produce… …the vocal but shy Streaky-chested Antpitta… …or perhaps an active ant swarm, with its attendant Ocellated Antbirds. March is a great month to look for some normally difficult birds, such as Pheasant Cuckoo. Over 400 species occur around our lodge, from Rusty-margined Flycatcher… …to Broad-billed Motmot… …and from Spectacled Owl to… …White-tailed Trogon there will be birds at every turn. On one day we’ll venture to the Caribbean Coast to Fort San Lorenzo, perched atop a bluff at the mouth of the Chagres River… …where we’ll have a picnic lunch after birding the rich Caribbean lowland forest… …and view the lock system of the canal… …as well as more local species such as Black-tailed Trogon… …or Green-and-Rufous Kingfisher… …before boarding a train along the canal back to the lodge. On another day we’ll venture upslope to the forests of Cerro Azul, where at several houses… …we’ll view a dazzling array of hummingbirds (here a Violet-bellied Hummingbird)… …possibly including Rufous-crested Coquette… …or other gems such as Emerald Tanager… …or the endemic Stripe-cheeked Woodpecker. After our week around the tower we’ll head east to Burbayar Lodge… …where the beautiful grounds are perched along a small ridge. The rustic but comfortable lodgings here blend into the forest… …and the open-air dining room is a very comfortable place to rest. Here we have access to some scarce foothill species like Plumbeous Hawk… …and others scarce in the canal zone like this Cocoi Heron. Northern Tamanduas can be found along the forest trails… …and impressive lizards like this Common Basilisk sun along the creeks. We’ll finish the tour off with a setting sun over the Panama Canal.

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