Report from Canopy Tower, Panama

For 2024 we again offered a slightly shortened Canopy Tower week to lead in to the Western and Eastern Panama Tours.  Over the course of five and a half days around the world-famous Canopy Tower we saw 268 species of birds and 14 species of mammals including daily visits from Geoffrey’s Tamarin and Panamanian Night Monkey.  Around the tower on the first day, we marveled at the busy hummingbird feeders that were hosting an assortment of eight species including lots of pugnacious Snowy-bellied Hummingbirds, White-necked Jacobins and Violet-bellied Hummingbirds as well as Stripe-throated and Long-billed Hermits.  Our first full morning provided a whirlwind of new birds, from White-whiskered Puffbirds and Broad-billed Motmot in the understory, tower-top views of Short-tailed Hawk, Keel-billed Toucans, Masked Tityra and Scaled and Pale-vented Pigeons up in the canopy and a rare Speckled Mourner about halfway down the Semaphore Hill Road.  The Ammo Dump Ponds that afternoon produced our hoped-for White-throated Crakes as well as a host of open-country and marsh birds, including a wonderful interaction between some frantic Wattled Jacanas and a hunting Rufescent Tiger-Heron.    

Pipeline Road was great this year, with a particularly good assortment of woodcreepers including our first ever Wedge-billed and second ever Piping, excellent views of Spotted and Bicolored Antbirds, a snoozing Mottled Owl and very confiding Great Jacamar.  The daytrip out to the Atlantic coast was excellent as usual with a family of striking Pacific Antwrens, an out-of-range pair of Barred Puffbirds, White-tailed and Black-tailed Trogons and well over a hundred species of birds.  And our last day out to the highlands of Cerro Azul revealed a host of tanagers including such gems as Bay-headed, Emerald, Speckled and Golden-hooded as we walked around the roads.  The feeders at our lunch stop held a bewildering number of honeycreepers and hummingbirds (10 species) all whirling around in an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colour.  And up on Cerro Jefe we lucked into a small antswarm that was being attended by a group of gaudy Ocellated Antbirds.  We finished the trip on the shores of Panama Bay, with thousands of shorebirds and herons plying the exposed mudflats, with a stately Cocoi Heron likely the standout species. Special mention must also go to the diversity of interesting butterflies and odonates that abound in the forest here, with a particular standout being this poorly named but spectacular Neglected Sarota. 

This tour continues to impress me, as the diversity and richness of the region, paired with ease of access and the comforts of the lodge make for a truly wonderful quick getaway.