Update from Darien Camp, Panama

Panama’s vast and sparsely populated Darien Province contains some of the most remote and wild lowland and montane wilderness remaining in Central America.  From the end of the highway in the port town of Yaviza to the mountains along the Columbian border there are virtually no roads, and the local Embera and Wounaan people use small dugout canoes to travel around and transport their goods.  In early 2014 the Canopy Tower company completed work on a comfortable permanent tented camp near the end of the highway that backs onto an excellent forest reserve protecting the watershed for the nearby town of Sanson.  These large tents, positioned on hardwood platforms with decks that give excellent views of the surrounding forest offer individual bathrooms and showers, electricity and full-sized comfortable beds.  The camp grounds have been heavily planted with flowering and fruiting plants, and we awoke each morning to the sounds of calling Yellow-throated and Keel-billed Toucans, Cinnamon Becards, Whooping Motmots and a bubbling flock of Chestnut-headed Oropendolas that were happily denuding the camp of bananas.   The feeders attract a nice array of mammals as well, with daily visits from White-throated Capuchin, Geoffrey’s Tamarin, White-nosed Coati and Red-tailed Squirrel, and evening visits by a varied set of characters including Crab-eating Racoon, Common Opossum and Kinkajou. 

Although much of the primary forest that remains is far off the road system we spent a very enjoyable week birding around the end of the road and out into the beginnings of Embera territory.  The bird highlights were many, from the active Harpy Eagle nest site with both the male and female in attendance, an incredible sweep of all four species of possible Macaws (including the critically endangered Great Green) a dazzling Blue Cotinga gleaming from the treetops, Black Antshrikes lurking in the undergrowth, Spot-breasted and Golden-green Woodpeckers working trees just overhead, a Dusky-backed Jacamar sitting out for us in excellent light, point blank views of Great Curassow and excellent studies of an array of range-restricted species such as White-headed Wren, Spot-crowned Barbet, Double-banded Greytail, Black Antshrike, Grey-cheeked Nunlet and the endemic Yellow-green Tyrannulet. 

These areas in the Darien are little explored and I am sure that the creation of a comfortable lodge here will continue to produce a lot of new discoveries.  I very much look forward to returning next fall!