December 11: Gavin Bieber comments on his recent tour to Panama's Darien Lowlands
The vast and sparsely populated Darien Province in the far east of the country contains some of the most remote and wild lowland and montane wilderness remaining in Central America.
Our base for the week was the newly constructed and very comfortable Canopy Camp.
We spent several days exploring the camp trails and various spots along the end of the Pan-American highway, where patches of forest and more open fields revealed widespread birds...
...such as Great Potoo, here on a roadside day roost...
...and more localized ones such as the impressive Barred Puffbird...
...and the beautiful Spot-breasted Woodpecker.
Taking dugout canoes out to a small Embera village out past the end of the road system...
...allowed us to find a cooperative pair of Dusky-backed Jacamar, another globally range-restricted species...
...and a wonderfully cooperative nesting pair of Harpy Eagles with a fuzzy two-month old chick.
Over the course six days in the field we encountered 242 species of birds including 14 species of antbirds and 29 species of everyone’s favorite bird family; the new world flycatchers! These areas in the Darien are little explored and I am sure that the attraction of a comfortable lodge will produce a lot of new discoveries...
...not all of the avian kind.
I very much look forward to returning next fall!
Posted: December 11, 2019