Panama: Bocas del Toro and the Western Highlands

Day 1: The tour begins this evening in Panama City. Night in Panama City. 

Day 2: We’ll start with a bit of birding around the grounds of our hotel, where we should find species common to the area like Red-crowned Woodpecker, Short-tailed Swift, Tropical Kingbird, Crimson-backed, Palm, Blue-gray, and Plain-colored Tanagers, and Saffron Finch. In the mid-morning we’ll take a shuttle to the nearby domestic airport and board our one-hour flight to the tiny coastal town of Bocas del Toro. From there a boat will pick us up for the half-hour ride out to our lodge on Isla Bastimentos. Once settled into our cabins, and after lunch and perhaps a short siesta, we’ll explore the banks of flowers that are common in the cleared areas around the lodge. Blue-chested and Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds should be common, but we’ll concentrate on the patches of Heliconia for birds like Bronzy Hermit, Crowned Woodnymph, and, with luck, Green-breasted Mango or Band-tailed Barbthroat. The forest patches on the grounds are excellent for Chestnut-backed Antbird and Black-crowned Antshrike, several of which have become remarkably tame. The whole island is ideal for migrant and wintering warblers, and the fruiting trees should hold our first Northern Waterthrush and Tennessee, Prothonotary, Yellow, and Chestnut-sided Warblers feeding alongside more tropical species such as Golden-hooded Tanager, Bananaquit, Lesser Greenlet, and Tropical Gnatcatcher. As dusk begins to settle, Red-lored and Mealy Parrots should pass overhead, and we’ll make our way up to the canopy tower to watch the show, keeping an eye out for swifts, nighthawks, raptors, and even Green Ibis as the sun sets. Night at Tranquillo Bay Ecolodge. 

Day 3: For our first full day in Bocas del Toro, we’ll depart Isla Bastimentos early, traveling by boat to the small mainland town of Punta Robalo. We’ll spend the morning birding in a large protected area called the Palo Seco Protection Forest, part of the vast La Amistad Biosphere Reserve. In the coastal cleared areas between the coast and the main Chiriqui highway we should find birds typical of more open country, such as Groove-billed Ani, Red-breasted Meadowlark, Blue-black Grassquit, Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Olive-crowned Yellowthroat, and Pale-billed Woodpecker. Large hedgerows between fields often support big fruiting trees, and here we’ll look for an array of flycatchers and tanagers and several species of wrens, including Black-throated, Band-backed, and Bay. Leaving the lowlands behind we’ll ascend the sole highway that traverses the country here, going as far as the continental divide at roughly 4000ft. Here the avifauna is dominated by roving flocks of frugivores, with an array of gaudy tanagers including Black-and-Yellow, Spangle-cheeked, Emerald and Speckled. Here too we might find little flocks of warblers including residents like Costa Rican Warbler and Slate-throated and Collared Whitestart, along with migrants such as Blackburnian and Golden-winged Warblers. The possibilities in the Atlantic slope forests are vast, and each trip to the La Fortuna region brings a surprise or two. In the late afternoon we’ll make the return journey to our lodge at Tranquillo Bay, watching for terns and even jaegers in the open bay en route. Night at Tranquillo Bay Ecolodge. 

Day 4: We’ll have an early breakfast and then journey north for an hour by boat to the Soropta Canal in a wonderful two-story custom boat designed just for this journey. This seven-mile-long canal was started in 1898 and originally served to shelter and transport banana barges moving between Almirante and Bocas del Toro. Little trafficked now, the slow-moving waters provide an excellent access point to the habitat, with many large fruiting trees, small clearings, and open marshy patches lining the canal, and we’ll spend the morning slowly birding the area from our boat. We’ll look especially for the scarce Nicaraguan Seed-Finch and the Almirante form of White-collared Manakin. But the overall diversity here is impressive. Larger birds, such as Keel-billed and Yellow-throated Toucans, Laughing Falcon, and Olive-throated Parakeet, are often spotted in the early hours perched up on top of the canopy. All six species of New World kingfisher potentially occur along the canal, and other wetland birds like Northern Jacana, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Common Black-Hawk, and various waterbirds should be common. We’ll also keep a sharp eye out for the telltale ripples that might signify a surfacing Manatee or playful Neotropic River Otter although both are scarce.

After a picnic lunch we’ll bird the mouth of the Changuinola River, walking along the sandy beach and looking for masses of shorebirds (including Collared Plover), Brown Pelican, and various species of tern. On the way back through the canal we’ll likely take a brief walk around an old research station, where we might encounter lekking White-collared Manakins, Black-cowled Oriole, various species of flycatcher, and a host of wintering migrants. Assuming we’re not arriving on an extremely windy or choppy day, we’ll exit the canal and venture a bit offshore to Swans Cay. This tall beehive-shaped island supports a breeding colony of Red-billed Tropicbirds and Brown Boobies, and we should be able to get superb views of these two elegant species. The tropicbirds are often quite confiding, coming to within a few feet of the boat. Eventually we’ll pull ourselves away from the colony and return to our lodge in the late afternoon, with some time before dinner for a shower or perhaps a brief snorkel off the dock, where several large coral heads harbor an outstanding array of colorful marine life. Night at Tranquillo Bay Ecolodge.

Day 5: We’ll depart by boat for nearby Isla Popa, a bit more than a mile across the shallow waters of Dolphin Bay. Isla Popa is the second-largest island in the archipelago and quite close to a mainland peninsula, allowing a wide array of bird species to easily colonize it. We’ll explore a mangrove-lined channel looking for Snowy Cotinga, Crimson-fronted Parakeet, Pale-billed and Lineated Woodpeckers, and Mangrove Cuckoo perched in the early morning sun. In addition to the birds, the shallow waters here support large beds of turtle grass that attract interesting marine life like rays, sea turtles, sea stars, and large upside-down jellyfish. A short walk onto the island should allow us to look at some of the varied poison dart frog ecomorphs that call the archipelago home. Each island has its own color morphs, in a bewildering and amazingly bright array of colors. Later we’ll take the 20-minute boat ride to the west, arriving in Green Acres, a small privately owned cacao plantation with a beautiful piece of lowland forest and a natural creek. Under the canopy and amid the small organically grown cacao plants we’ll seek out an array of gaudy birds like Slaty-tailed and Gartered Trogons, Purple-throated Fruitcrow, Pied Puffbird, Olive-backed Euphonia and Black-chested Jay. Mammals can be found here too, and we may spot Mantled Howler Monkey or a Three- or Two-toed Sloth up in the canopy.

After lunch and a siesta back at Tranquillo Bay we’ll explore the trail system that winds into the park behind the lodge. A large elevated clearing, called Pineapple Hill, offers a great chance to see Red-capped and Golden-collared Manakins, Shining, Green, and Red-legged Honeycreepers, Scaled Pigeon, and one of the true specialty birds of the island, wintering Three-wattled Bellbirds. These truly odd cotingas, known for their dangling throat wattles, move downslope from their highland breeding areas during certain times of the year, and their quarking bell-like calls can be a common background noise around the lodge during November. Within the forest proper we should find roving flocks of understory birds, such as White-flanked and Dot-winged Antwrens and hopefully the tiny Stub-tailed Spadebill (whose Panamanian range is restricted to only these islands). For those who are interested, it should be possible to take a guided sea kayak or snorkeling trip in the nearby bay this afternoon. On a return visit to the canopy tower as dusk falls we’ll look for perched Masked and Black-crowned Tityras, Blue-headed, Mealy, and Red-lored Parrots, and the diminutive White-vented Euphonia. After dinner an optional walk around the grounds for nocturnal wildlife might reveal Mottled or even Black-and-white Owls, and we have chances for other animals like Crab-eating Raccoon or Wooly Opossum. Night at Tranquillo Bay Ecolodge. 

Day 6: On this final day around Bocas, which is an addition for the 2025 tour, we will again head to the mainland, this time to the larger town of Almirante.  From here we will spend the day birding on a newly constructed and little developed series of roads that lead up into the foothills and eventually a large hydroelectric project along the upper Changuinola River.  The local birders in Bocas have been exploring this area recently, and the list of potential interesting species here is great.  Access to these foothill forests on the Caribbean slope is extremely limited as the steep  topography of the region and lack of roads keep all but the most determined out of the area.  Among the species that we will be seeking on this day are Thicket Antpitta, Slaty-tailed, Lattice-tailed, Northern Black-throated and Gartered Trogons, the scarce Chestnut-colored Woodpecker, White-collared Manakin, Northern Bentbill, and Sulphur-rumped Tanager.  We’ll return to our base in Tranquilo Bay with a bit of time remaining in the day to soak up our final views of the wonderful grounds and the gear up for our move to the highlands the next day.

Day 7: We’ll travel away from Tranquillo Bay, again traversing the continental divide at about 4000 feet in elevation on an excellent road that winds through the Talamanca Range. Our eventual destination is the Los Quetzales Lodge near the mountain town of Cerro Punta on the Pacific side of the divide. It’s about a four-hour drive, but we’ll take all day to make the journey, stopping regularly along the road at different elevations. This lone road through the mountains connects the Bocas lowlands with the rest of the country and affords the visiting naturalist access to a remarkably varied avifauna. Our first stop will likely be in the Atlantic foothills, where a small creek crosses the highway. We’ll look for Torrent Tyrannulet, Buff-rumped Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, and perhaps even American Dipper on the rocky creekbed. Above the water some large spreading acacia trees should be in flower, attracting birds like Red-eyed and Yellow-green Vireos and tanager flocks that include such gems as Speckled, Crimson-collared, Emerald, Black-and-yellow, and Silver-throated Tanagers.

As we wind our way uphill from here, the birdlife steadily changes. Acorn Woodpeckers become common, and flocks of Sulphur-winged Parakeets might start shooting over the road. Flowering shrubs attract a wide array of hummingbirds, and we’ll look for Purple-throated Mountain-Gem, Magenta-throated Woodstar, White-tailed Emerald, and Green Hermit feeding on the flowers. A side road that leads to an array of microwave towers passes through a large patch of cloudforest. Here we might find our first Collared Redstart or a tanager flock containing Golden-browed Chlorophonia or Bay-headed, Rufous-winged, Flame-colored, or Spangle-cheeked Tanagers. Blue-and-white Swallows and hulking White-collared Swifts should course overhead, and in the understory we might encounter the pretty Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush or noisy flocks of Common Chlorospingus. In short, the birdlife here is extremely diverse and completely different from the birds that we will have come to know from our days in the Bocas Archipelago. We’ll have a picnic lunch somewhere near the large Lake Fortuna, perhaps accompanied by a passing group of Red-headed or Prong-billed Barbets or just a hungry Rufous-collared Sparrow or two.

Continuing over the continental divide, we’ll pass through the much drier and warmer Pacific lowlands near David, watching for Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures, Pearl Kites, and a host of new open-country birds before winding back up toward the towering Volcán Barú and Los Quetzales Lodge, nestled below the volcano at about 6500 feet. We should arrive with a bit of time to explore the grounds, perhaps seeing our first Band-tailed Pigeon, Lesser Violetear, White-throated Mountain-Gem, Mountain Thrush, or Slaty Flowerpiercer before dinner. Night at Los Quetzales Lodge.

Day 8: The Los Quetzales Lodge sits at the head of a largely settled agricultural valley in the shadow of the 11,400 ft. Volcán Barú. From the lodge grounds the forest stretches uphill toward the peak, offering spring-like temperatures (60–70-degree highs) year-round and access to the forest on the slopes. On our first morning we’ll spend a bit of time before breakfast birding around the lodge grounds. Hummingbird feeders here can be very busy, dominated by Lesser Violetear and Talamanca Hummingbird. With a bit of patience, we should encounter Stripe-tailed and the diminutive Scintillant Hummingbirds as well. Around the edge of the forest we might detect Northern Emerald Toucanet, Mountain Elaenia, Prong-billed Barbet, or stunning Long-tailed Silky Flycatchers perched up in the morning sun.

After breakfast we’ll drive to the crest of the Los Quetzales trail which winds over the northern shoulder of the volcano before dropping into the Boquete Valley on the east side. This 7KM trail passes through excellent highland forest, with large patches of primary forest on the slopes. Although the trail is quite steep, the first kilometer and a half are relatively flat, offering excellent access to some of the higher elevation birds. Furnarids in particular are well represented here, with birds like Lineated Foliage-Gleaner, Ruddy Treerunner and Spot-crowned Woodcreeper being relatively common. Collared Whitestarts and Black-cheeked Warblers should accompany virtually all of the mixed flocks here, and can be quite confiding. With luck we’ll encounter some of the less common birds in the area too, such as Buff-fronted Quail-Dove, Ochraceous Pewee, Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl, Silvery-throated Tapaculo or the elusive Wrenthrush. The lower stretches of the trail can be attractive as well, and if the trees are in fruit we have an excellent chance at Resplendent Quetzal coming in to feed in the morning here. We’ll then return to the lodge for lunch and a brief rest before birding locally around town, with the locations dependent upon current conditions and our remaining birding needs. Night at Los Quetzales Lodge.

Day 9: This morning we will return to the higher forests. We’ll likely spend the majority of the morning seeking out the chief prize of the region; the breathtaking Resplendent Quetzal. If any of the many aguacatillo trees nearby are in fruit, we may see one or more birds without even leaving the trail! The males, with their incredibly long trains, are surely one of the most spectacular birds on the planet. Other birds frequent the woods as well; Chestnut-capped Brushfinch, Yellow-thighed and Large-footed Finches, Black-and-yellow Silky Flycatcher, and Tufted Flycatcher. We’ll also seek out any flock activity along the forest trails, keeping an eye out for birds like Silvery-throated Tapaculo, Spot-crowned Woodcreeper, Buffy Tuftedcheek, Ruddy Treerunner, Barred Becard, Yellow-winged and Brown-capped Vireos, Ochraceous and Gray-breasted Wood Wrens, Black-billed and Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrushes, Flame-throated Warblers, Spangle-cheeked Tanager, and Sooty-capped Chlorospingus. The diversity here is indeed high, with many regional endemics to look for and a host of scarce species, like Buff-fronted Quail-Dove, Black-breasted and Spotted Woodquail, and Silvery-throated Jay, to keep us entertained for the morning.

In the afternoon we’ll likely stop at the Lagunas de Volcán, a series of two shallow lakes nestled into the Chiriquí foothills at about 4000 feet in elevation. Surrounded by a large patch of forest, the region offers several species that are not found at the higher elevations, including Fiery-billed Aracari, Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant, Plain Ant-Vireo, and Golden-crowned Warbler. Out in the grassland patches leading to the forest we may encounter Olive-crowned (Chiriqui) Yellowthroat, Pale-breasted and Sllaty Spinetails, Scarlet-rumped Tanager or Rufous-browed Peppershrike as well as a nice array of more open country birds such as Roadside Hawk or Crested Caracara. The caldera lake itself often supports numbers of waterfowl and marsh birds. We’ll head back to Los Quetzales in the early evening in time for dinner. Night at Los Quetzales Lodge. 

Day 10: Our penultimate day of the tour will be spent making our way down to the city of David near the Pacific Coast, where we will catch an early evening flight back to Panama City. We’ll spend the morning birding in the mid elevation forests where new birds might include Costa Rican Brushfinch,  Riverside Wren or Crested Oropendola. A lengthy stop at a new birding bed and breakfast in the aptly named town of Paraiso will reveal up to ten species of hummingbirds (including Charming and Scaly-breasted Hummingbirds and occasionally Brown Violetear) whirling around us in a bewildering show of speed and color. The adjacent forest supports some good birds as well, such as White-ruffed and Orange-collared Manakins, Black-hooded Antshrike and possibly Red-headed Barbet, Fiery-billed Aracari, Lesson’s Motmot, or Spot-crowned Euphonia.

We’ll spend the rest of afternoon birding around the lowlands near David where we might spot a few Pacific lowland birds such as Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, Pearl Kite, Eastern Meadowlark, Brown-throated Parakeet, Mouse-colored Tyrannulet, Sapphire-throated Hummingbird, the endemic Veraguan Mango and an array of waders and waterbirds in the rice fields. Night in Panama City.

Day 11: This is another added day for the 2025 itinerary, and one where we will venture westwards towards the Costa Rican border and the Pacific foothills.  This is a little explored area, but contains a wealth of species that we do not normally encounter during the tour.  Patches of forest, largely in ravines around creeks coming down from the highlands support birds such as Olivaceous Piculet, the local Golden-naped Woodpecker, Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Chiriqui and Ruddy Foliage-Gleaners, Tawny-winged Woodcreeper, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Elegant Euphonia and Rufous-breasted, Isthmian and Riverside Wrens.  We’ll spend the morning and early afternoon exploring several locations known to our local contact here, and in the mid-afternoon head back to David, where we will take a late day flight back to Panama City.  Night in Panama City.

Day 12: In the morning we’ll either catch flights home or continue on to the adjoining tour, a week in the Darién lowlands of far eastern Panama.

2024 Narrative

IN BRIEF: Our 2024 trip to Western Panama began with a short walk around our Panama city hotel before catching our flight to Bocas del Toro. This produced a surprising number of species, including several of which that we did not see again such as American Oystercatcher, Northern Scrub-Flycatcher and Rusty-margined Flycatcher. Our base for the first half of the tour was the very comfortable and aptly named Tranquillo Bay Ecolodge; a small facility tucked onto the southern tip of Isla Bastimentos and bordering the national park. This location afforded us ready access to the many islands of the archipelago and to the nearby mainland. The lodge ground and trails revealed an array of hummingbirds in the flower gardens including several cooperative Bronzy Hermits. In the forest surrounding the lodge we found busy flocks of Tawny-crested Tanagers, bathing Crowned Woodnymphs in a forest creek, both Red-capped and Golden-collared Manakins and cooperative pairs of Bay Wren and Chestnut-backed Antbird. The lodge was also fantastic for a wonderful mix of wintering warblers including seemingly inexhaustible numbers of Prothonotary and Tennessee. The canopy tower allowed us to view the daily parrot and pigeon commute at eye-level, with excellent views of Red-lored, Mealy and Blue-headed Parrots, Montezuma Oropendola and a little canopy flock which contained our first White-browed Gnatcatchers, Shining and Green Honeycreepers and a wintering Philadelphia Vireo. 

Off of the island of Bastimentos we spent a few days exploring the coastal forests and foothills on the mainland where species like Pale-billed Woodpecker, a male Snowy Cotinga, Nicaraguan Seed-Finch, Northern Jacana, Slaty-tailed Trogon and Pied Puffbird call home. A few miles offshore we stopped in at an idyllic island with breeding Red-billed Tropicbirds, Magnificent Frigatebirds and both Red-footed and Brown Boobies. On another day we visited the lone trans-continental highway that winds up and over the mountains through a low pass at roughly 4000 ft in elevation. In these cooler and smaller statured forests we had an amazing run of luck, with point-blank views of the scarce Rufous-winged Woodpecker and generally hard to see Green-fronted Lancebill, female Snowcap and Ashy-throated Chlorospingus. A massive mixed flock kept us entertained for well over an hour, with nearly the full array of possible tanagers including the dazzling Emerald, Speckled, Golden-hooded, Bay-headed and Black-and-Yellow. That same flock also produced a nice study of Slaty-capped Flycatcher and Wedge-billed and Spotted Woodcreepers as well as a pair of circling Barred Hawks. 

For the second half of the tour, we were based out of the town of Cerro Punta, a small agricultural town tucked in on the slopes of the impressive 11,400 foot high Baru Volcano. Surrounded by well-forested slopes and two large national parks this highland haven offers excellent access to the full suite of Talamanca endemics shared by Panama and Costa Rica. Declared by international organizations as an avian diversity hotspot these mountain ranges harbour over 40 endemic species of birds, and a wealth of specialized plants and other taxa. Here we explored via truck and foot, finding birds like Ruddy Treerunner, Prong-billed Barbet, the enigmatic Wrenthrush (which we saw extremely well this year), quirky pairs of Yellow-thighed Finches, the dazzling Violet Sabrewing, Flame-throated and Black-cheeked Warblers and, of course, the exquisite Resplendent Quetzal. Perhaps the rarest species that we enjoyed this year was Maroon-chested Ground-Dove; an enigmatic bird that we were able to watch for at a newly established bird hide! The area had significant amounts of seeding bamboo, which drew in numbers of Barred Parakeets and a few Slaty Finches, a write-in for the triplist.  

On our final day of the trip, we dropped down to the pacific slope lowlands, where encountered a new suite of birds. At a small waterfall on the southern slope of the volcano we were thrilled to find a host of new birds, including the range restricted Costa Rican Brushfinch, a nationally rare pair of Yellow-bellied Tyrannulets, a brief encounter with a Fasciated Tiger-Heron and great views of a foraging Purple-crowned Fairy. A trip to a nearby private reserve resulted in excellent views of Orange-collared and White-ruffed Manakins grabbing berries from fruiting trees, a ridiculously tame pair of Lesson’s Motmot sitting in the sun at very close range, Spot-crowned Euphonias eating papaya, the electrically coloured Fiery-billed Aracari and a wealth of hummingbirds swirling around on feeders just feet in front of us. We finished the trip up in the rice fields and pastures around the town of David, where we located a flock of Cinnamon Teal (a very rare vagrant to Panama) a few perched male Veraguan Mangoes, and marveled at a huge flock of Wood Storks and herons that were feeding in a recently harvested rice field. Here too we found a few birds more common in the open dry savannahs, such as the tiny Pearl Kite, Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, Orange-chinned and Brown-throated Parakeets and Fork-tailed Flycatcher.  

The trip offers an amazing array of habitats and landscapes all conveniently close to one another and basing out of only two quite excellent lodges. On our 2024 trip we found 340 species of birds and 12 species of mammals (including Panamanian Night Monkey and Tayra) in a short 8 birding days. It was a fantastic trip, and I can’t wait to return next year. 

IN FULL: Our flight out to the Bocas Archipelago from Panama City was in the mid-morning, which gave us some time for a brief birding trip around the grounds of our Panama Canal-side hotel on the Amador Causeway. This hour-long walk (basically just around the perimeter of the property fenceline) proved very productive. Several large fig trees were in full fruit, attracting hordes of resident and migrant birds and providing an excellent introduction to some of Panamas more familiar species. Migrants were represented with a few Eastern Wood-Pewees, Summer Tanagers and Warblers, including lots of Bay-breasted and a few Yellow Warblers and Northern Waterthrush. Resident Red-crowned Woodpeckers, Orange-chinned Parakeets, Pale-vented Pigeons, Clay-colored Thrushes, Thick-billed and Yellow-crowned Euphonias and even a stunning Keel-billed Toucan were all enjoying the bounty as well. As we walked around the back side of the hotel we found a few more fruiting trees; picking up Palm and Blue-gray Tanagers, responsive Scrub Greenlets and Isthmian Wrens, a yelling pair of Yellow-headed Caracaras and our first write-in species for the trips cumulative list in the form of a Northern Scrub Flycatcher. When we reached the shores of the canal it was apparent that we had hit it on a fairly low tide, and by scoping the far shore and its large mudflats we picked out an array of herons and a pair of American Oystercatchers, and overhead we noted a wheeling group of Magnificent Frigatebirds as well as a few Gray-breasted Martins and passing Brown Pelican and Neotropic Cormorants. Even though it was obvious that there was more to see out on the causeway we headed back to pack up for our taxi ride to the nearby domestic airport, where we checked in and were soon away on a short 50-minute flight. Those with window seats were treated to views of a lot of closed canopy forest with little to no visible development before we briefly crossed part of the open Caribbean Sea and began our descent over the Bocas del Toro Archipelago. These near coastal islands are fringed with thick stands of red and white mangroves. The larger islands are heavily forested, some with small clearings and seaside settlements, but most covered in intact forest. Around the islands from the air it is easy to see the many coral reefs, white sandy flats and brilliantly coloured water that makes this area so attractive to residents and tourists alike.  

We landed, collected our luggage (looked at some Blue-winged Teal and Southern Lapwings out on the runway) and were met by the staff of Tranquilo Bay who ushered us into a waiting bus for the short ride over to the dock. Birding, and indeed any travel in the region is primarily accomplished by boat. Bocas town serves as the capitol of the province of Bocas del Toro, and is home to somewhere between 5000 and 10000 people (censuses here are highly imprecise as they have no mail service and the counting is done door to door). The town fringes the Southeast corner of the island, and the main road parallels the coast with every building having docks and multiple boats behind. The Tranquillo Bay Lodge has a small fleet of craft of various sizes and capabilities, and we experienced our first taste of island life by taking one of these craft on the nearly half-hour journey south. Along the way we passed countless small mangrove islands, small shacks and large houses on stilts or tucked into the mangroves, fishermen paddling in small dugout canoes, and tourists manning sailboats in the bay. The people of Bocas seem to lead a semiaquatic life, with the sea being the primary source of entertainment, nourishment and travel. Our base for the first half of the tour is the modern and very comfortable Tranquillo Bay Eco-lodge that is nestled in the southern tip of Isla Bastimentos and adjacent to a National Park. We pulled in to the dock and walked up to the main lodge house, where we were met with refreshingly cold drinks, a short introductory meeting and lunch. From the top deck of the main lodge building, we spotted a steady stream of Prothonotary, Tennessee and Bay-breasted Warblers, Scarlet Tangers and Bananaquits coming in to some provided bananas, and spent a bit of time watching the antics of a group of White-faced Capuchin Monkeys who seemed determined to take every last banana in the building with them. 

 After lunch we took a bit of time off, planning to meet up for some local birding at 3:30. We started off with a few excellent finds from our local guide here, Roger, who showed us a cryptic Helmeted Iguana sitting on a bare branch a bit off the trail and a small Common Boa Constrictor curled up in the trees around the main building. Somewhat remarkably this was only the second species of snake ever for the tour! Within just a few feet of the start of our walk progress slowed to a standstill, with a tree holding a few Short-billed Pigeons, a small flock of Tawny-crested Tanagers and a displaying male Red-capped Manakin captivating us for quite some time. The manakin was especially showy, perching at length in the understory like some bright children’s toy; a cartoonish ball of inky black, scarlet and electric yellow. Around the small freshwater pond, we picked up some migrant Swainson’s Thrushes as well as a host of Tennessee and Bay-breasted Warblers and a young Spectacled Caiman that had somehow found the pond a few weeks prior to our visit. Some flowering thickets near the staff quarters produced excellent views of a quietly sitting Bronzy Hermit that was panting a bit in the mid-afternoon heat. Once we were finally back in the wooded trail system, we tracked down a pair of eventually cooperative Chestnut-backed Antbirds that were lurking in the understory, and admired a gaudy male Golden-collared Manakin that was playing hide-and-seek with us just above the trail. As it was still fairly early in the afternoon we stopped in at the benches along a tiny spring in the woods, where we spent about 40 minutes watching a couple of male and a single female Crowned Woodnymph (a dazzling forest hummingbird clad in royal purple and emerald green) as they came in to bathe in the water, splashing down like tiny high divers and then preening from nearby perches. Here too we managed views of a pair of incredibly loud Bay Wrens; an attractive species clad in tones of copper, black, and white. With the building cloud cover it was starting to get dark in the woods so we opted to head back to the gardens, where a few Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds were patrolling the flowering patches of porterweed. We capped our first day off with some time in the observation tower, which offers sweeping views of the south end of the island and its fringing mangroves. From our perch atop the tower we amused ourselves for some time watching pairs of loud Red-lored and Mealy Parrots and a few Pale-vented Pigeons flying by right past at eye level. Lesser Swallow-tailed Swifts also showed well, zipping by just a bit overhead and clearly showing their white throats and flanks. A bare tree below the tower held a very acrobatic male Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth that seemed quite content as it hung out in mid-air from one back leg, contemplatively scratching its various itchy spots. In another bare tree we spotted our first Plain-colored Tanagers, a sprightly pair of White-browed Gnatcatchers, a male Shining Honeycreeper and a migrant Philadelphia Vireo. Over dinner that night we conducted our introductory meeting and enjoyed views of an undeniably cute Central American Woolly Opossum that was feeding on the remains of the days bananas just off the railing of the top deck. For what was basically a travel day the bird list still took quite some time to go over!

 For our first full day in Bocas, we departed Tranquillo Bay early bound for the mainland. This roughly 45-minute boat ride is quite scenic, passing through countless mangrove islands and tiny settlements before reaching the mainland. As we rounded the south end of Isla Bastimentos heading south, we were pleased that the 11,000-foot high ridgeline of the sierra was not shrouded in clouds. Apart from a passing sprinkle at the continental divide, and some rain just as we were wrapping up our time in the mountains we had an entirely rain-free day. We arrived at the small dock in Punta Robalo in good time, and started birding even before disembarking the boats. Old dock pilings along the shore were acting as perfect perches for a nice array of birds including our first Sandwich Terns mixed in with Royals, and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons perched in the coastal mangroves. We spent the first two hours of the day birding along the road from Punta Robalo to the main Bocas highway. This road passes through a mixture of pastureland, forest, banana plantations and a few very small villages, offering excellent access to a wealth of birdlife that prefers more open habitats. We started around the rather ramshackle town of Punta Robalo, scoping a perched Common Black-Hawk and admiring close pairs of Olive-crowned Yellowthroats and Black-striped Sparrow and our first gorgeous Scarlet-rumped Tanagers (the firey red and black male in particular is a bird worthy of prime placement in a Parisian fashion runway) in the grassy margins of the first field. Some flowering shrubs in one of the yards held bubbling Southern House Wrens as well as a little group of foraging Variable Seedeater and Blue-black Grassquit and a rather surprising female plumaged Painted Bunting. This is a scarce wintering bird in Panama, and was a new plumage for Roger! In the pastures, which were all partially flooded due to the season we located a single Wood Stork among the throngs of Egrets and Herons, a single (of course) Solitary Sandpiper, some foraging Green Ibis and our first Northern Jacanas. The grassy fields and scattered bushes were hosting an impressive number of species, with Groove-billed Anis, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Buff-throated and Cinnamon-bellied Saltators, bright Red-breasted Meadowlarks and an excellent mix of rather similar flycatchers that included Social and Gray-capped Flycatchers and Great Kiskadee. About midway through our walk down the road we found a large mixed flock of tanagers bouncing around in some fruiting trees. Most were Red-legged Honeycreepers or Scarlet-rumped Tanagers, but we teased out Shining Honeycreeper, Scarlet-thighed Dacnis, Golden-hooded, White-lined, Blue-gray and Palm Tanagers and a few hangers-on, like Blue Ground-Dove, Common Tody-Flycatcher, Olive-backed Euphonia, Chestnut-sided, Bay-breasted and Tennessee Warblers and a striking male Baltimore Oriole that were all enjoying the fruiting shrubs as well. As is often the case in open tropical lowlands we found a few raptors during the walk down the road, with perched Roadside Hawks and both Yellow-headed and Crested Caracaras. 

 Since the skies were still cloud-free the temperature started climbing by mid-morning, so we elected to leave the Punta Robalo Road behind and to drive inland to a petrol station at the junction with the trans-continental road for a comfort stop. We then began ascending the Atlantic slope side of the mountains, eventually reaching the continental divide at a bit over 4000 ft in elevation. Before reaching the crest, we stopped at a curve in the road that has, over the years, proved to be an excellent location for mixed flocks. Initially the area seemed quiet, with just a few pretty butterflies foraging on the banks of flowers along the creek. With a bit of patience though birds started to appear. First a pair of Tropical Parulas and a single Black-cheeked Woodpecker showed up, but soon afterwards we were busy obtaining binocular views of Emerald, Golden-hooded, Plain-colored, Bay-headed and Speckled Tanagers, as well as a male Blackburnian Warbler, another Philadelphia Vireo and some passing Gray-rumped Swifts. The swifts made us remember to scan the skies, which proved fortuitous as soon after we picked up a pair of rather high-flying Barred Hawksl; a scarce species in the foothills and a write in for the triplist! 

 We then pressed a bit further uphill, reaching the beginnings of the large Palo Seco Park. Just as we reached the park boundary a sharp-eyed participant picked out a circling King Vulture right over the road. We ground to a stop and were soon watching the bird as it slowly climbed in the company of a dozen or so Black Vultures. It was a full adult, with an amazingly ornate head coloration, snow-white body and Black flight feathers, and since it was initially very low over the road those of us with a bit of camera savvy managed some excellent photos.

 A bit farther up we stopped at an often-productive location where we were a bit saddened to note some recent clearing below the road. Our dismay soon dissipated though when we realized that we were surrounded by a large mixed flock of birds along the forest edge above the road, so many in fact, that at times it was difficult to know where to look. The bulk of the birds were tanagers and warblers, but the diversity of both groups was frankly astonishing. The tanagers were particularly well received, with a parade of colour crossing in front of us. In addition to some of the species that we had seen a bit back down the road we were thrilled to spot a little group of Black-and-Yellow Tanagers as well as our first Silver-throated and White-shouldered. The flock also held Wedge-billed and Spotted Woodcreepers, a single Northern Plain Xenops, Pale-vented and Mountain Thrushes, and White-ruffed Manakin. Of particular interest was a single Ash-throated Chlorospingus (yet another write-in and this time also lifer for Gavin) and a cooperative Rufous-winged Woodpecker that was hammering away on a small trunk. The woodpecker has a very limited global range, extending from about where we were to just into Nicaragua. Nearby we tracked down a calling Slaty-capped Flycatcher that was perched below eye-level in a position that we could readily see its namesake gray cap. 

 From here the road climbed steeply up to the continental divide, where a short side road along the ridge leads to a tall telecommunications station and offers access to some patches of higher forest. A huge pacific storm hit this area particularly hard a few years ago leaving large sections of the ridgeline forest heavily damaged with torn and twisted trees down and most of the leaves stripped from the trees that stayed upright. In the intervening years many of the trees had recovered fairly well, though the understory was still very tangled and there seemed to be a general lack of flowering shrubs and fruiting trees along the ridgeline. We started off with a picnic lunch along the quiet road, and afterwards spent some time walking along the road to check the flowering bushes for hummingbirds and to listen for any sign of roving mixed flocks. The small pink-flowering shrubs along the more open slope proved attractive for a nice mix of hummingbirds including Green and Stripe-throated Hermits, a female White-bellied Mountaingem, and a very cooperative Green-fronted Lancebill; a scarce mid-elevation species with a remarkably long and straight bill. 

 Just as we were preparing to head further down the road a small flock appeared, headed by a group of chatty Common Chlorospingus. We lingered for a bit, and were soon treated to views of a group of Black-faced Grosbeaks as they crossed the road and began feeding on some small fruits in the canopy. A smaller bird popped into the same tree, and we were happy to see that it was a male Tawny-capped Euphonia, a large Euphonia with a particularly striking coloration. The skies here were active too, with a steady trickle of huge White-collared Swifts coursing by (sometimes just overhead and close enough that we could hear their long stiff wings cutting through the air). A large raptor appeared too, circling lazily over the ridgeline. Its wide fingers, broad wings and banded tail identified it as an Ornate Hawk-Eagle! Elated with our run of successes we headed a bit further down the continental divide road, stopping in a rather open area with a lot of scattered flowering shrubs. About a week prior to our visit Roger had found a female Snowcap feeding here, and, as luck would have it, she was still present. Admittedly the female isn’t quite as striking as an adult male, but her tiny size and short straight bill were unmistakable, and the species (which undergoes poorly understood local movements in Panama and Costa Rica) was yet another write-in for the tour list. The flowers were also attracting a male White-bellied Mountain-Gem who showed well as it perched on some low bare branches. Our final species for the divide road revealed itself vocally first, as a Band-backed Wren sounded off on the slope above us. We hurried over and were soon looking at a trio of these very handsome birds as they foraged in the midstory. Related to the more familiar (to North American birders at any rate) Cactus Wren, this species is decked out in tropical garb, with a polka-dotted chest, bright white and black banded back and rich buffy orange flanks and undertail and prefers the upper strata of Caribbean slope forests.

 As the afternoon was beginning to wane and the fog beginning to thicken along the ridge, we decided to head a bit back downhill, stopping at a small side road that had recently been cleared below the highway. Apparently, the road dead ends in just a few hundred meters, but we were mainly interested in just getting out from the road edge and under the canopy. Some fruiting trees here were attracting a heady mix of birds, from the rather staid Mountain Thrush and Mountain Elaenia, to the simply stunning Golden-browed Chlorophonia. A little flock in the understory here had a slightly out of range Wilson’s Warbler (which winter in the highlands), a briefly cooperative Stripe-breasted Wren and a calling but reluctant to appear Dull-mantled Antbird. As we started back to the bus it actually started to rain on us, but by the time we had dropped out of the mountains we were back in the sunshine. Our drive back to the dock was punctuated by a few impromptu stops back along the Punta Robalo Road. At one stop we were simply surrounded by Montezuma Oropendolas, with a few Chestnut-headeds mixed in. Here too was a small group of Brown Jays, our first visible Boat-billed Flycatchers and a couple of Melodius Blackbirds (a recent colonizer from adjacent Costa Rica). 

 The boat trip back to the lodge was blissfully dry, although the heavy billowing clouds behind us had swallowed up the mountains in an impressive display. We arrived back at the Tranquilo Bay dock just a bit before dusk, tired but very happy with a great day in the field. Dinner was a relaxed affair, punctuated with some particularly fine banana cream pie, and a visit on the outer deck by a small group of Western Night-Monkeys that came in to pull the remaining bananas off the fruit feeders. 

 The next morning, we would normally visit a nearby chocolate farm and the small trail system behind their main buildings, but in 2023 we scouted a new area and this year discovered that the new site now had a fully functional road. This meant that we could travel by minibus and explore the full length of the roughly 10KM new road which winds along the base of the peninsula, crossing over some low coastal foothills before turning south and eventually intersecting with the main Changuinola highway. As the road had only just opened it was very little trafficked, and for stretches the forest on both sides is still quite untouched. We headed over just after breakfast, enjoying the 20 or so minute boat ride on the glassy smooth water with wheeling frigatebirds and diving Royal Terns for company. Once at the small community of Bueno Esperanza we loaded into our waiting bus and spent the morning slowly working stretches of road back as far as just past the road crest (at about 930 feet above sea level). Our first stop was near the beginning of the forest, at the edge of where some small fields have been cut out for grazing cattle. Here we found a nice mix of parrots flying overhead and occasionally perching on some of the remaining treetops. Most were Red-lored Amazons, but two pairs of Mealy Amazons, nearly a half-dozen Blue-headed Parrots and several groups of Olive-throated Parakeets popped into view as well. A pair of Cinnamon Becards showed extremely well here, perching with raised crests and quivering wings to our brief playback. The area was good for flycatchers too, providing instructive opportunities to tease apart the finer details of Gray-capped and Boat-billed Flycatcher and Great Kiskadee identification. For much of the morning we were walking through the sections of road which still had good quality forest on both sides. Fruiting trees and large, colourful birds abounded. We found Keel-billed and Yellow-throated Toucans to be especially numerous, regularly finding perched birds to scope or seeing them fly across the road. We also opened our trogon accounts with three Slaty-tailed and two White-tailed Trogon all seen well. Some of the fruiting trees were attracting Tityras, and among the several small groups of Masked we picked out our first Black-crowned, with the female and her chestnut ear coverts being particularly well received. Nearby we heard the telltale querulous calls of a group of Purple-throated Fruitcrows. As is customary with this social species the birds soon came in to a bit of playback. We watched them for a while, obtaining excellent views of the male’s brilliant claret colored throat patch glowing in the morning sun. On the other side of the road Brenda spotted a quietly sitting Pied Puffbird up in the canopy which lingered for long enough that almost everyone could repeat her spotting prowess with their own binoculars after enjoying the views in the scope. Perhaps the biggest highlight species though was the very cooperative pair of Pale-billed Woodpeckers that sat together on a small trunk keeping a wary eye on us as we jockeyed for the best positions but lingering for extended views in the scope. It’s an impressively large woodpecker, with a crimson head, heavily banded underparts, and pale pinkish bill, and in Panama, is restricted to the lowlands around Bocas and a small area on the Pacific slope near the Costa Rican border. Not all the new species were big and up in the canopy though, with some of the understory highlights including a pair of Black-crowned Antshrikes, a few Dot-winged Antwrens, scope views of a Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant (which carries the label as the smallest species of passerine bird in the world), and a couple of wintering Acadian Flycatchers that were gobbling down some small purple fruits.

 The whole area was excellent for raptors, as the newly constructed road left a clear skyline. Along with pulses of migrating Turkey Vultures we spotted a couple of migrant Broad-winged Hawks and a single high-flying Peregrine. Resident raptors included very close views of dark morph Short-tailed Hawk, Zone-tailed Hawk and a circling Double-toothed Kite. At one point we could clearly hear the hollow calls of a distant Collared Forest-Falcon coming from the woods, but as is often the case with this species the bird refused to budge from under the shelter of the canopy. Near the top of the road we were happy to spot a small and decidedly purple frog hopping across the road. It proved to be our first ecomorph of Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, and a new colour variety for both myself and Roger. In a somewhat similar fashion to the famous Darwin’s Finches in the Galapagos the dart frogs in the Bocas del Toro archipelago have developed into an amazing array of colours, with various morphs dominating on each island. The prevailing theory is that the female frogs choose males by colour, and thus the preferences of the founding females on each island shaped the dominant colours of the frogs in subsequent generations. On some islands (like Bastimentos) the frogs are bright orange-red, but others they are dull orange backed with green legs, all bronzy-green with bluish legs, dark olive all over or olive with bright yellow legs. It’s a fascinating biological complex and the subject for many researchers with the Smithsonian Institute, which runs several field stations throughout Panama. Our final new bird for the morning was a handsome male Long-tailed Tyrant that was perched up on a high bare snag with its ridiculously long uppertail covert feathers dangling down below the perch. We arrived back at the dock and bade farewell to Jose, a local from the community who had tagged along in the hopes of learning a bit about the bird guiding business from Roger and Brenda and then headed back to Tranquilo Bay for lunch and an afternoon siesta.

 We met up in the late afternoon to head out to nearby Isla Popa. This is the island adjacent to Isla Bastimentos, separated by just a mile or so from Tranquilo Bay. Popa’s southern end is quite close to a spur of the mainland and this proximity has meant that several species of plants and animals have colonized Popa from the mainland but been unable to cross the larger water gap to reach Bastimentos. Our main target bird in the area is Snowy Cotinga, and this time we spotted a gleaming white male Snowy Cotinga perched up in the afternoon sun, showing extremely well if distantly within just a minute of our arrival. We tried to get a decent look from the boat but the angle and intervening vegetation was frustrating. Thankfully we had a ready solution; to head over to a local dock and walk a bit uphill to a vantage point over the mangroves. From this overlook we readily scoped the bird as it sat up in one of the taller trees. Like many male Cotingas, the Snowy Cotinga has swapped a song repertoire for a visual one. Perching in very obvious spots the male advertises to potential mates his fitness by being so intensely white and readily spotted. Restricted to the Caribbean slope of Central America, from Southeast Honduras to the Bocas region of Panama this species is often hard to track down without staked out males. Females, which are grey with dark spots across their breasts are very rarely seen, and the biology of the species is poorly understood. Since we were now on dry land we spent a bit of time birding around the clearing, where among a nice selection of birds we picked up our first Collared Aracari sitting in another bare tree and teased up a Black-cowled Oriole from some dense palms just below our position. Here too was a showy male Yellow Warbler of the distinctly plumaged mangrove subspecies. Although the birds are undoubtedly visually distinctive, they do not seem to recognize any vocal distinctions within the greater Yellow Warbler complex, as they respond vigorously to songs of birds from the arctic. Most authorities currently treat the population as a subspecies, but taxonomists are always looking for something to tinker with so who knows what may happen with the group in the future. We also spent a bit of time checking out some of the local Isla Popa Dart Frogs. Since the slope down to the forest proper was rather muddy Roger and Alvaro offered to go down and grab a couple of frogs, keeping them quite happily in some large folded-up heliconia leaves as they brought them back uphill for us to study. The first of the three frogs that they brought up was a dull olive tone all over. The second was a more traditional type for Popa, with an orange back liberally coated in black spots and pale green legs. The third was a rather scarce colouration; a minty blue-green. Seeing three such unique individuals (and the purple one from the morning) really highlighted the variability of this fascinating species. Once back in the boat we spent a bit of time exploring the mangrove-lined channel, marveling at the incredible cloud formations and lighting to our south as we headed back to the lodge for the night.

 On our last full day around Bocas, we spent the majority of the day birding directly from boats. The United Fruit Company developed the Bocas lowlands as a site for large-scale banana plantations and to that end also hand dug a 7-mile long canal a bit inshore so that they could transport bananas by barge between the Changuinola River and the town of Bocas without dealing with the stronger ocean waves. Though the canal is no longer used for fruit shipments it is kept open by locals as a throughfare. Over much of its length the forest has regrown, with large overhanging trees, and the roughly 25-foot wide canal offers excellent access to this roadless area. The owners of tranquilo bay pioneered the canal as a birding destination and for more than a decade had been working on designing a custom-made boat precisely for birding groups to use on the canal. Fortuitously for us the boat (which was constructed in Canada and shipped down in pieces earlier in the year) was now in place. This meant that instead of simply lashing our normal boats together and lowering the canopies we could transfer to a narrow two-story catamaran with plenty of space to walk around, benches to sit in downstairs in the shade and a wide upper deck which functions like a mini floating canopy tower, affording a significantly improved view into the open areas on either side of the canal. Once aboard the new vessel we very slowly motored or coasted along, stopping wherever bird activity dictated. The first few kilometers of the canal were quite rich in bird activity. Right at the canal entrance we were treated to very close views of perched and flying Mangrove Swallows, a pretty green and white swallow of the tropical lowlands. Around the entrance there are several large cleared areas with dense bushes and grassy patches and a few large trees. Here we were successful in locating a couple of perched male Nicaraguan Seed-Finches, a local specialty that in Panama is best found at the canal. With our heightened vantage point, the views were much better than usual, especially when one pair came right in to the canal edge and showed off their oversized bills to excellent effect. At this same spot we also disembarked for a comfort break, which (as is often the case) turned into a birding break when we teased up a cooperative Canebrake Wren that perched for some time in a dense low tree. This is another of the newly recognized species from the old Plain Wren, here at near the southern most point in its limited range which stretches from Bocas up into a corner of Nicaragua in the Caribbean lowlands. As we started moving further down the canal, we spotted a pair of White-crowned Pigeons atop a nearby tree. A bit further down the canal we found some fruiting trees that were attracting a nice mix of tanagers including several striking Scarlet-rumpeds. Here too was our first Squirrel Cuckoo and a male Blue Ground-Dove that lingered for a few minutes out in the open. Perhaps the most memorable bird occurred soon afterwards, when a participant spotted motion in a thick branch over the water. We could see bits and pieces of a large and obviously colourful bird but it took a minute or two before we could see that it was a Gray-cowled Wood-Rail. The bird walked further up the branch, revealing its bright rufous, grey and red plumage before climbing out of view. The canal is often excellent for Kingfishers, and over the course of the morning we noted multiple Amazon, Green, Ringed and Belted Kingfishers and two separate American Pygmy Kingfishers; giving us an impressive five of the six species of new world Kingfishers in one morning. Throughout the morning we were repeatedly amazed at the spotting abilities of our boat captain Alvaro, who somehow managed to find a roosting Great Potoo sitting high up in the canopy, followed in fairly quick succession by a pair of roosting Short-tailed Nighthawks!

 By mid-morning the temperatures had markedly climbed, and with the clear sky and bright sun we were thankful to have a roof overhead as we moved down to the lower deck. About halfway across the canal we reached a purpose-built dock with an outhouse on it, perhaps a unique structure? Many participants got a chuckle when we pulled out a white toilet seat to carry into the shack, though the resident Lesser White-lined Bats that roost under the dock seemed slightly less enthusiastic about our arrival. The second half of the canal was a bit quiet, perhaps due to the rising heat but we did manage to hear a Three-wattled Bellbird that was calling repeatedly from a large grove of trees well away from the canal. We lingered for some time, scanning the trees with all our might, but sadly couldn’t pick the bird out. Bellbirds tend to call from inside the trees, and often sit tight for long stretches of time, so given the distance our failure to pick it out can be readily understood. The back half of the canal also produced a memorable moment when our trusty new craft got hung up on a large submerged log. We tried a few boating tricks to try to get the boat free, but the only thing that worked was for Joell to hope into the water and somehow lift (a two-story boat with over a dozen people on it) us off the log. Inexplicably he was up to the task, and we were soon away. 

 The open grass and hyacinth patches near the Changuinola River held plenty of Northern Jacanas including several with white-breasted young. Here too we found an adult Bare-throated Tiger-Heron that showed well for us, repeatedly flushing but then landing and allowing us to get quite close before it took off again. A few Gray-breasted Martins were soaring around over the open marsh, and as we reached the junction with the river, we found our a small flock of Muscovy Ducks and hordes of Little Blue and Snowy Egrets and a few trees that were laden with dozing Neotropic Cormorants and Brown Pelicans. Arriving in the wider Changuinola River, we turned upstream and slowly motored about a mile or so up, scanning the heavily vegetated riverbanks that are choked with floating mats of hyacinth and lily, with patches of reeds and open sheltered bays. It’s a perfect habitat for marsh-loving birds, and we soon tallied an impressive number of new species including Common Gallinule, a few Willet, Black-necked Stilt, Lesser Scaup and Blue-winged Teal. The heron show here was quite diverse, with large groups of Great and Snowy Egrets feeding in the muddy fields adjacent to the river. As we moved upstream, we spent a bit of time slowly cruising along a small cleared paddock. Here we located several Red-breasted Meadowlarks and Groove-billed Anis, perched Common Black-Hawk and White-tailed Kites and a lovely juvenile Bare-throated Tiger Heron showing its namesake orange and black pattern. Further upstream we passed some thickly vegetated islands, where we picked out several Limpkin and Snail Kites. Both species seem to be increasing in the area, perhaps with the introduction of apple snails to the Changuinola river system. We ate lunch under the shade of some huge trees along the riverbank, and then after lunch motored downstream to the river mouth, where a good-sized flock of Royal Terns and Laughing Gulls were perched out on the point. Within the flock we picked out a few dozen Sanderling, a few Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plovers, some Western Sandpipers and Willets and a scarce for the area Franklin’s Gull. We then pulled up to the beach and headed out for a short walk out to the other point where we keen to seek out Collared Plovers. We found several of these long-legged and elegant plovers, happily in their full breeding plumage complete with chestnut patches on their crowns and with nearby Semipalmated Plovers for ready comparison. 

 We then headed back through the canal, and on the return voyage our avian highlight was likely a cooperative Long-billed Gnatwren that just appeared overhead as we were looking at a small group of deep red Strawberry Dart Frogs hopping around on the forest floor just a few feet away from the canal. Undoubtedly the overall highlight though was a Central American Eyelash Viper that was hanging out on a bare branch over the center of the canal (happily a bit higher than our boats second floor). This individual was pale pink rather than the normal bright yellow, and the snake seemed quite nonplussed by our stares and cameras. By the mid-afternoon we reached the beginning of the canal and transferred back onto our waiting smaller crafts (which were serving as a roosting flock of Mangrove Swallows). 

 As the sea conditions were also quite calm, and the small swell was running in the direction that we wanted to travel we opted to take the trip out to a large sea-stack island that sits roughly two miles off the shore of Isla Colon and serves as a breeding colony for elegant Red-billed Tropicbirds, Brown Boobies and Magnificent Frigatebirds. Although small, the island is stunning, rising directly up from the sea a few hundred feet, with sea arches on the surfward side, palm trees clinging to the lower slopes and dangling vines stretching down across the volcanic cliff faces from the forested top of the hill. We estimated at least 180 Red-billed Tropicbirds swirling around the island, landing on the water in front of us or on the cliff faces, or flying close enough that we could see the individual feathers in the tail. Several pairs were circling high above and performing tandem aerial courtship flights, a truly impressive sight against the azure sky and a few were even sitting on the cliff just a few feet above our boats. A mass of Magnificent Frigatebirds circled above us as well, with several males perched nearby with half-inflated red throat pouches. Brown Boobies were plentiful, and we spotted a few fuzzy white chicks perched along the shoreline rocks, looking like oversized bags of cotton balls with short bills and ungainly giant feet. In 2023 a pair of Red-footed Boobies nested here, and this year the pair returned again, as did one other individual (perhaps the young bird from 2023). During our visit only the young bird was around, quietly tucked in the shade behind a small palm tree. We could make out its bluish bill and all brownish underparts, but as it was a young bird its feet were a fleshy-pinkish grey. We stayed in the lee for quite some time, soaking in the view and photographing the boobies and tropicbirds, and because of the calm conditions went around the ocean side of the island as well before motoring back to Tranquilo Bay on the oceanic side of Isla Colon. We arrived back at the dock just after 5:00, which gave folks time to relax a bit and even do some packing for our transfer to the highlands. 

 The next day we had to bid farewell to our gracious hosts, departing Tranquillo Bay after breakfast and heading for the mainland at Punta Robalo through a light rain. Since the ride over takes about forty minutes though even a light rain can penetrate the outer layers, so we arrived at the dock a little bit wetter than we would have liked. It was warm though, and after meeting Ito Santamaria, our local leader for the highland portion of the tour we dried out a bit in the buses air conditioning and heading towards the mountains. Our first stop was at the petrol station in Chiriqui Grande, where in addition to the restrooms we were happy to spot our first Lineated Woodpecker sitting in a distant bare tree. Here too was a chirping House Sparrow, and a briefly perched male Morelet’s Seedeater. 

 We then stopped at a small dead-end road just before the highway starts to climb and took a short and easy walk along the creekside section of the road. At the end of the road, we picked out some perched Chestnut-headed Oropendolas, Blue-headed Parrots and Keel-billed Toucans sitting up behind the school buildings and a Roadside Hawk sitting in a bare tree near the road. Overall, we found conditions to be hot and sunny, but the walk still produced good views of a pair of Amazon Kingfishers, our first Streak-headed Woodcreeper and Black-headed Saltators and a diverse assemblage of butterflies that seemed to be enjoying the warm sun a bit more than the birds were. After a half-hour or so we decided to leave the lowlands behind, heading uphill to spend a bit of time around the Willie Mazu Bridge. The day was clear and sunny, not the best conditions for birding up in the mountains, where the birds seem to prefer overcast conditions. Nevertheless, we found a very impressive mixed flock that was bathing in the creek and feeding in some adjacent trees just downstream from the road. The bulk of the birds were tanagers, with Scarlet-rumped, Blue-gray, Palm, Golden-hooded, Plain-colored and Bay-headed all in attendance. Some Thick-billed Seed-finches were coming in to bathe in a shallow pool while a Black Phoebe watched on from a nearby boulder. Up in the canopy nearer the bridge we picked out close Mistletoe Tyrannulet, Olive-backed and Tawny-capped Euphonia and a few wintering warblers including our first Black-throated Green. A couple of species in the flock (Mountain Thrush and Mountain Elaenia) were lower in elevation than normal, perhaps driven down a bit by the persistent poor weather over the prior few weeks. A bit higher up the hill we stopped at the little side road that we had found on our first visit to the area, and again tucked ourselves under the forest canopy in a bid to locate some understory species. We found the area quieter than our first visit, but we were happy to have extended and close-range views of a handsome White-breasted Wood-Wren (here at nearly its elevational limit) which occasionally burst into its rollicking song as it perched just a few meters out from our vantage point. 

Higher up we stopped back at the road along the continental divide, where the sunny conditions persisted and we found the woods to be quiet. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, and then spent a bit of time walking back towards the main road, finding one flock with Common Chlorospingus and a little group of furtive but eventually cooperative Costa Rican Warblers. We also played hide and seek (mostly hide) with a pair of Zeledon’s Antbirds that stubbornly refused to show more than flashes as they moved through some particularly thick undergrowth. Leaving the Caribbean slope behind we headed further south, stopping near the Fortuna Reservoir dam. Here, in addition to the restrooms, we found a very picturesque waterfall and some pink flowering shrubs that were attracting a pair of small hummingbirds. It took a bit of patience to obtain good views, but eventually the pair of birds revealed themselves to be a female Garden Emerald and an adult White-tailed Emerald. 

From Fortuna we basically headed straight for our lodge near Cerro Punta. The drive from the top of the divide down towards David and then west and back up to the flanks of Volcan Baru takes about 2 hours. As we descended it became quite obvious that the pacific flank of the continental divide has a more gradual slope, with wide valleys between the ridges. This makes the land easier to clear and cultivate, and in contrast to the steep forest-clad slope of the Atlantic side here we passed lots of open fields, housing developments (some quite modern and gated) and villages. Extensive orchards with orange and lime trees appeared as we began to ascend towards the volcano. Our base in the highlands is in the tiny town of Guadalupe, an agricultural town tucked onto the slopes of the impressive 11,400- foot high Volcan Baru. The volcano dominates the landscape, and the rich soils around the base of the main caldera are well suited to the growth of a wide array of fruits, vegetables, chocolate, coffee and wine. 

Our hotel is positioned near the center of the town and sits on a large plot of land that backs on to a rushing rocky creek. After checking in and getting organized we met up and crossed the road to spent a very productive hour or so birding around Ito’s family property. Over the past several years he and his family have set up a quite remarkable garden, filled with pollinator friendly plants, and banks of fruit and hummingbird feeders. Bird activity at the feeders was constant, with lots of Lesser Violetears and a few White-throated Mountain-Gems , Talamanca Hummingbirds and a Stripe-tailed Hummingbird jockeying for position at the feeders and the best perches. Initially we spotted a couple of hulking Violet Sabrewings that were quietly sitting up in the shade behind the feeder arrays, glowing deep purple even in the shadows. As the skies became a bit less bright, they too became active, shooting around like giant violet missles and flashing their long white tail corners as they wheeled around the feeders. Along with this heady hummingbird show we enjoyed close views of a small flock of Silver-throated Tanagers as well as our first Flame-colored Tanager, Rufous-collared Sparrow and a male Slaty Flowerpiercer. Out in the front garden we were happy to spot a beautiful little male Scintillant Hummingbird perched up along the flowering hedge. While watching this tiny sprite we were surprised by a quick visit by a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which is a rather scarce species in Panama. We then walked a bit further up the road to visit Ito’s office, where some fruiting trees were bringing in several Long-tailed Silky-Flycatchers; an extremely elegant and long-tailed crested species clad in tones of greys and butter yellows. It was a great way to cap our travel-day off, and I suspect that many a camera card was full of new photos by the time we headed back over the road to our hotel for dinner.

The Talamanca Highlands spread across western central Panama and on into Costa Rica. This highland area has been long isolated from the mountainous areas of central America to the west and from the various ridges in far eastern Panama which carry on into the Andean range. The region experiences high annual rainfall, extensive cloud cover and cool temperatures, which has led to the development of dense forests laden with impressive amounts of epiphytic growth. The regions isolation, combined with the complicated topography, amazingly diverse plant life and large land area has resulted in a startlingly unique avifauna. Just over 45 species of birds are endemic to this highland massif, making this one of the avian biodiversity hotspots in the new world. About a year ago Ito and his partners secured ownership of a 106-hectare parcel of land along the ridge between Volcan Baru and La Amistad National Park. About thirty percent of the land is second growth, and roughly 60 years ago was open cattle pasture, the rest is primary forest. You’d never know it though, looking along the rough road leading up to the beautiful guest houses a little below the continental divide. The second-growth forest here is lush, with a dense understory full of plants that many are more used to seeing in greenhouses. 

We spent our first morning in the highlands enjoying the tranquility and amazingly well thought out features of Ito’s nascent lodge at the top of the road. On the drive up we stopped to admire a pair of Buff-fronted Quail-Doves that were foraging right on the gravelly road tracks in front of the lead vehicle. Amazingly the birds lingered, allowing all of the participants in the back cars to walk up and enjoy them at length. Over the past two years Ito and his family have been incredibly busy around the property, creating several blinds and photographic stations around the margins of the forest are attracting an ever-increasing list of local specialties down to eye-level. Our arrival time was early enough that the most novel of these bird hides was still in full swing. Rather ingeniously they have rigged a large moth sheet up near a full blind with bench seating. Insectivorous birds have discovered the bounty and come in to dine on the snoozing moths (which were interesting in and of themselves). We settled in and were soon treated to point blank views of Ochraceous Pewee, Large-footed and Yellow-thighed Finches, Black-billed and Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrushes, Gray-breasted Wood-Wren and even a single Streak-breasted Treehunter coming in to grab breakfast, seemingly oblivious to our assembled cameras and chatters of excitement. Many of these species can be hard to see as they often lurk in the understory or sit up high in the tall canopy, so having them so close and for an extended period of time was, quite frankly, an astonishing experience. 

Once the moth numbers began to dwindle, we turned our attentions to the main clearing, where we found numbers of birds moving around the forest edge. Perhaps the most exciting species was a pair of Golden-browed Chlorophonias that came right in overhead, devouring some grapes that had somehow been hooked up into the canopy. A couple of pairs of the striking and undeniably cute Collared Whitestarts were bouncing around the low shrubs in the garden, glowing like little yellow jewels against the green background. A somewhat familiar Winter Wren-like chatter from overhead revealed itself to be an Ochraceous Wren (a bright orangey Winter Wren relative that forages in the thick epiphytic growth up in the canopy). Mountain Thrushes were quite common around the clearing, and while watching a few of them moving in and out of a large tree we noted a pair of rusty colored Ruddy Treerunners scooting along the upper branches. 

We then moved down to another area set up for viewing and photographing hummingbirds. Here we found lots of White-throated Mountaingems and Talamanca Hummingbirds feeding just a few feet in front of our comfortable chairs. Here too were our first dazzlingly beautiful Fiery-throated Hummingbird, with several birds in view at once, and often perching on the provided lichen-covered limbs near the feeders. This Talamanca endemic is one of the most colorful of all the hummingbirds, with a multicolored orange, yellow and red throat, and a body made up of a multitude of shades of greens and blues. A few Violet Saberwings, Stripe-tailed Humminbirds and Green-crowned Brilliants rounded out the cast, but the show was transfixing, and the birds colours in the dappled morning sunlight repeatedly drew a gasp or two from one or more participant. A small fruit feeding station here was productive as well, with a group of Prong-billed Barbets and a single Black-and-Yellow Silky Flycatcher coming in to grab some grapes that were fashioned underneath the perch. 

We eventually pulled ourselves away from the show and walked back down the road and onto a somewhat muddy trail that follows the rushing creek that marks the edge of Ito’s property and the boundary of Volcan Baru National Park. It took a few tries but eventually we pinned down a responsive Wrenthrush just off the trail. Neither a wren or a thrush, this enigmatic little bird is endemic to the Talamanca highlands, and can be devilishly hard to see as it prefers to remain well hidden in dense tangles. Long regarded as an aberrant wood warbler or some odd offshoot of the thrush family the species is now placed in its own monotypic family, the Zeledonidae. Perhaps due to this area being so lightly birded the bird was incredibly responsive to our brief burst of playback, even coming right up to the trail and sitting up and out of the shadows with its orange crest flashing in the sun on some long lichen covered branches that arched towards us. It was without a doubt the best showing of this often-difficult species that I have had in my five trips. The trail also produced looks at a calling White-fronted Tyrannulet; a rather scarce canopy flycatcher with an odd disjunct range in montane cloud forest habitats. We made our way back up to the house and after a bit more time ogling the feeders enjoyed a decadent lunch, with a warm chicken and rice soup, veggies and coffee, and homemade desserts.

In the early afternoon we headed downhill and then up the other side of the Guadelupe Valley, where we slowly drove up an incredibly rocky road that leads to a small private farm. This farm used to be a prolific producer of tree tomatoes, and the old owners tended to not even harvest most of the fruit. A few years ago, Ito located a small group of Maroon-chested Ground-Doves that were feeding on the seeds of these fallen fruits. Over much of its rather limited Central American range the species appears wherever large blocks of bamboo is seeding in the foothills and mountains as if by magic. Around the Volcan Baru area the species seems to be a scarce resident, occurring in fluctuating numbers but never completely disappearing, perhaps subsisting on foods such as these tree tomatoes. Last year the owners returned from a long hiatus away, and promptly chopped down virtually all of the tomato plants. Ito realized that this would likely signal the end of his semi-dependable ground doves, but rather than throw up his hands he painstakingly set up a blind and over time developed a strategy which successfully brings in a few birds on a daily basis. We reaped the rewards of his hard work, and after settling into the blind were soon treated to incredibly close-range views of seven Maroon-chested Ground-Doves as they came in to feed on the specialized mix of grains and seeds that Ito developed. The females are a lovely rich rusty colour, with reflective panels on their wings. The males are truly snazzy, with a lovely pale head, bluish back and purple-hued breast. As the blind was small it took a few rotations to get all of us through the site, but happily the birds stayed put and showed well for all. After congratulating ourselves over our good fortune we spent some time birding around the property, enjoying views of our first Volcano Hummingbirds and Blue-and-White Swallows, and a remarkable number of Slaty Flowerpiercers that were bouncing around the flowering shrubs around the driveway.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon birding the brushy slopes along edge of the national park. The slopes were full of birds, and even better were full of huge swaths of Chusquea Bamboo. This native bamboo seeds only every 6-10+ years, and many species of birds specialize in foraging in areas where the bamboo (which tends to go to seed all at the same time in any given area) is seeding. This was the first such event locally since we began tours in the area 8 years ago. We started birding near a large stand of seeding plants, and within just a few minutes pinned down nearly a half-dozen Slaty Finches foraging in the thicket. These semi-nomadic tanagers were a write-in for the tour, and were present solely due to the bamboo. We tried to see if any Peg-billed Finches were around to no avail, but as we started to walk down the road quickly realized that the entire area here was full of birds. Among the new species we picked up in roughly an hours’ birding we found a little flock of Black-cheeked Warblers, a nesting pair of Red-faced Spinetail, a couple of Spot-crowned Woodcreepers, our first Yellowish Flycatcher, the lovely Flame-throated Warblers (happily down at eye level so we could really take in its remarkable colour pattern) and a pair of Northern Emerald Toucanets. The bamboo also proved popular with Barred Parakeets, which passed over at semi-regular intervals, always too high to really pick out any useful details beside their distinctive flight calls. Here too was a pair of Hairy Woodpecker, at the southern edge of its range where its dark coloration and preferred habitat bear little resemblance to the Hairy Woodpeckers that are so well known across northern North America. After an hour or so we wrapped up our short walk and headed back to the lodge, simply amazed at the whirlwind of colourful regionally endemic birds that we had been privy to over the course of our first full day around Volcan. 

We started our second full day in this highland wonderland exploring the top section of the Los Quetzales trail, a park service trail that is maintained between the ranger station above Guadalupe and the Boquette station about seven kilometers away on the other flank of the volcano. Although the trail in its entirety is quite steep and rigorous the first kilometer or so is comparatively flat, and offers excellent access to the higher elevation forest that is so crucial to many of the bird specialties of the region. Before we reached the trailhead though we stopped near the base of the hill up to the ranger station, where, in many years we manage to locate Resplendent Quetzal foraging in the large avocado trees around the houses. Ito had said that the trees were not in their usual cycle, and that Quetzals were generally quite scarce at the moment. Luckily for us though a quick scan revealed a stunning male perched up in a tree with a few fruits visible in the outer branches. This exquisite species is a signature bird of the highlands here, and the males, with their filamentous bright green upper-tail covert feathers are often mentioned on short lists of the world’s most spectacular birds. We lingered here for a half-hour or more, amazed to see that the tree as attracting not only an adult male but a second male that was largely lacking the elongated “tail” and a female. At one point the adult male chased the second male around the tree, with his green feathers trailing behind him like a Chinese dragon kite. The older male then perched near the female, flaring his white tail and chuckling softly while the female made a few brief forays up into the canopy to grab some breakfast. Although the birds weren’t terribly close the views in the scopes were stunning. The are here proved good for other species as well, with a beautiful male Flame-colored Tanager, our first Brown-capped Vireos and Band-tailed Pigeons, and repeated looks at Flame-throated Warbler and Sooty-capped Chlorospingus. Eventually activity here waned, and we pressed on a bit further uphill and into the park, stopping at a rather flat stretch with some small vegetable farms that were grandfathered in when the park was established. Here we were successful at locating a rufous-morph Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl that (eventually) cooperated amazingly well; sitting quietly just 10 or so meters away from us and lingering for over ten minutes as we took turns in the scopes (close enough to make out the birds rictal bristles and faint spotting in the crown). Most of the local owls are dark brown with a more or less “normal” Pygmy-Owl vibe, but these stunning rufous morph birds are a wonderful unpatterned fawn-rust all over. Leaving the owl perched in the shade and pleasantly free from the mob of small passerines that had helped us locate him we headed up to the ranger station at the saddle, which sits about 2000 feet above the town at an elevation of 8300ft on a slopes of Volcan Baru. Here we enjoyed a little coffee and snack break and then after using the facilities spent a bit of time birding the very top of the trail that descends to the east from the saddle, eventually reaching the town of Boquette on the opposite side of the volcano. With the heavy rains of much of this years’ wet season the trail was not in good shape, with a few washouts and downed trees that prevent passage. We made do with the first few hundred meters, finding a lovely Black-capped Flycatcher perched just above the trail even before we entered the forest proper. This species is a Talamanca Highland endemic Empidonax flycatcher that somewhat resembles a spruced-up Buff-breasted Flycatcher with a dark head and delicate tawny breast. Here too we admired a fully gorgeted male Volcano Hummingbird, a pair of confiding Gray-breasted Wood-Wrens and a few Sooty-capped Chlorospingus and Yellow-thighed Brushfinch. We decided to then head back downhill, to check out the other side of the valley where a rocky stream often supports resident American Dippers and Torrent Tyrannulets. As we slowly drove back down the bumpy park road we kept the windows open. This proved an excellent strategy as about a kilometer down from the saddle we heard the harsh calls of a small group of Silvery-throated Jays. We immediately stopped and were soon able to follow the birds as they crossed the road and occasionally popped into the open. This is a fairly rare and often very difficult to see upland jay that is endemic to highland forests in the Talamanca range. A deep navy blue in colour, they sport a bright silvery-white throat patch and eyebrow, making for quite a striking bird. Ito birds these forests 3-5 days a week and this marked only his second sighting for 2024!

Our fairly quick visit to the gates of La Amistad National Park produced picturesque views of a flashy silver and black Torrent Tyrannulet that was sitting out on exposed rocks in the stream. We checked a few other vantage points for Dippers to no avail, and after a short walk down the road to look from another bridge we headed in to Guadelupe for lunch over at Ito’s garden. To our surprise when we arrived the table was elegantly set, with fresh and cold strawberry juice and a truly exceptionally tender chicken ready to go. We dined in splendor, and in the company of Violet Sabrewings and Lesser Violetears, as well as a family group of Flame-coloured Tanagers and lots of gaudy Silver-throated Tanagers. 

After a siesta we met up and headed south, bound for the nearby town of Volcan, where we spent the rest of the day birding around the Lagunas de Volcan. These two small lakes are surrounded by an island of dense forest which is in turn surrounded by a vast swath of open agricultural land owned largely by the Jansen Coffee Company. The surrounding forest and twin caldera lakes are set aside as a natural reserve and are popular with local hikers, anglers and bird watchers. Rather unfortunately we arrived to a light but persistent rain; our first over the entirety of the tower and western tours. We stopped out in the grasslands and set up the roll-out awnings of two of our three SUVS to create a small rain structure and then stood around under the tarps waiting for the rain to subside. Happily, after about a half-hour the rain tapered off and as it did there was a marked increase in bird activity as birds sat up and tried to dry off before sunset. Here we located a White-throated Flycatcher, a dusky tropical species of Empidonax flycatcher that is very scarce in Panama (with only two known current locations, both found by Ito). We also found a male Olive-crowned Yellowthroat of the local Chiriqui subspecies (that was until recently regarded as a separate species), and a responsive Gray-crowned Yellowthroat which was a write-in for the tour list. Although the rains had abated the forest around the lake was too dark to effectively bird in due to the heavy overcast conditions, so we contented ourselves with birding the savannahs and hedgerows where the light was better. As we walked down the road we picked up several Eastern Meadowlarks sitting up on fenceposts and occasionally singing a song that was subtly different from their northern cousins. Perhaps the most interesting finds here were the spinetails. In fairly quick succession we located Red-faced, Plain-breasted and Slaty Spinetails along the road edge; a clean sweep of the countries expected species. The Slaty was a particular crowd pleaser, with its charcoal-coloured body and bright rusty crown, wings and tail. Among a nice mix of by now familiar tanagers and wintering migrants we spotted a swarthy looking Wood-Pewee that was perched on a roadside post. Closer inspection revealed a weak upper wingbar, extensively dark lower mandible and markedly dusky flanks making this bird a Western (which is much rarer in the country than Eastern) Wood-Pewee. In the late afternoon the rains picked up again, so we headed back to the lodge, with a bit of extra time for packing up and organizing for our transfer back to Panama City the following day. 

The next day was the final full day of the trip, and we packed up shortly after breakfast, departing the highlands with an eye for birding the pacific lowlands for much of the day before our early evening flight back to Panama City from the regional hub of David. Our first stop was at Macho de Monte; a forested curve in the road with an adjacent small hydroelectric project and a surprisingly deep but narrow canyon with rushing whitewater. We spent a remarkably productive hour in the area. We likely only walked about two hundred meters along the road, but managed to record nearly forty species of birds! At our first stop we were happy to spot a sitting Blue-headed Parrot that cooperated nicely for extended scope views. Here too was our only Streaked Flycatcher of the tour, and a nice mixed flock that contained a pair of Speckled Tanagers, some Red-crowned Ant-Tanagers, a rather furtive Rufous-breasted Wren, a dumpy-looking Eye-ringed Flatbill and a wintering Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Also in this group was a pair of tiny and short-tailed flycatchers with rounded crowns and a distinctive white eyeline. A bit further up the road we were happy to spot a displaying Crested Oropendola that was giving its bubbling song as it flipped upside down on a high perch. Here too was a foraging Purple-crowned Fairy that was working the edge of the forest, flaring its characteristic white undertail as it sought out insects near a flowering Cercropia tree. A pair of Buff-rumped Warblers were flouncing along on the lawn, flashing their apricot-colored rumps at us as before they vanished into the creekside tangles. The brush covered slope above the road hosted a furtive pair of Costa Rican Brushfinches which popped into view for most of the group as they moved slowly through the undergrowth. The little creek that flows under the road at the corner here had an adult Fasciated Tiger-Heron hunting in it, but the bird somehow evaporated before everyone could get onto it, possibly even disappearing through the culvert under the road! A pair of Boat-billed Flycatchers and a single Chestnut-capped Warbler showed well here though, as did a second pair of Buff-rumped Warblers that were bouncing around just off the road. As it was starting to get pretty warm and sunny we pressed on to our main birding area for the morning; the rather confusingly named Birding Paradise in Paraiso.

This small Bed and Breakfast sits in an isolated pocket of forest surrounded by small farm fields. From the top deck patio of the main building visiting birders can enjoy the array of hummingbird and fruit feeders from the comfort of shaded chairs and a small trail that leads down to the still-forested creekline. We started on the deck, thrilled to be in the company of White-necked Jacobins, Scaly-breasted, Rufous-tailed and Snowy-bellied Hummingbirds and the occasional Crowned Woodnymph. We put out some bananas and were soon inundated with a couple of dozen Scarlet-rumped Tanagers, here of the pacific slope subspecies that until recently was known as Cherrie’s Tanager. Here too were Palm, Blue-gray, and Golden-hooded Tanagers, female Green Honeycreepers, Blue Dacnis, a few Buff-rumped Saltators and an impressively large and hungry flock of Gray-headed Chachalacas that Ito declared war on, shooing them away with bananas tossed away from the building. A short tree just off the deck was in fruit, and the berries were bringing in a few nice birds like Golden-hooded and Bay-headed Tanagers. Among this hive of bird activity, we picked out a couple of Spot-crowned Euphonias (a generally scarce pacific lowland endemic restricted to Chiriqui and nearby Costa Rica), and, in some fruiting Melastoma bushes a pair of White-ruffed Manakins. The male, with his ultramarine blue and gleaming white throat was particularly well received. 

Undoubtedly the star species from the deck though was the trio of Fiery-billed Aracaris that spent about a half-hour happily munching away on fruit, and virtually oblivious to our activities even though we were sitting less than 15 feet away! Although no birder would likely look at a Collared Aracari and think it to be dull, the Fiery-billed’s bicolored bill with a sunburst colour palette on its upper mandible is clearly the more attractive of the pair. Unlike the widespread Collared Aracari the Fiery-billed is a range-restricted species; found only on the Pacific slope of eastern Costa Rica and the adjacent southwest corner of Panama. After a little while of soaking in the surroundings we noticed a pair of Lesson’s Motmot checking out the bananas. They soon flew in and started disemboweling the bananas at a prodigious pace. This attractive motmot (perhaps a redundant expression) is part of the old Blue-crowned Motmot complex, and as currently defined occurs from extreme southern Mexico into western Panama. The property owner threw some rice out onto the ground and soon afterwards we noticed a pair of Orange-billed Sparrows and a rather furtive Gray-cowled Wood-Rail enjoying the bounty. 

After some refreshing coffees and snacks we had a bit of a wander around the garden and down the newly repaired (graveled) trail that leads to a patch of forest along the creek. We didn’t get very far down the hill before grinding to a halt when a male Orange-collared Manakin (an excellent combination of yellow, black and orange) popped into view right over the trail. We found the rest of the walk around the woods fairly quiet, although the small flock of Black-chested Jays showed well and we did manage to track down a pair of Rufous-breasted Wrens that were clambering around in some thick vines. 

Once back at the house we enjoyed lunch on the lower deck, adding a very vocal (and partially visible) Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush and a single Charming Hummingbird coming into the feeders. After lunch we bid the spot a fond farewell, bound for the hot and sunny Pacific lowlands, and eventually, the airport in David. As we descended the mountains we were soon surrounded by a very different landscape of small towns, rice and sugar cane fields, patches of forest and a few small wetlands. As we neared our first planned birding stop, we kept an eye on the roadside wires and fenceposts. It was a good strategy, as we picked up a very cooperative Pearl Kite that posed well for photos. A little further along we stopped to admire a half-dozen Brown-throated Parakeets that were sitting in a tall bare tree. This large parakeet is restricted (in North America) to the dry Pacific lowlands of SE Costa Rica east to roughly the canal zone in central Panama. 

Our first planned stop was at a small, flooded area near some rice fields. These semi-permanent wetlands are often productive and worth a short stop. Our planned short stop became a bit extended though when we spotted a small group of Cinnamon Teal nestled into the marsh. This was a completely unexpected find, with fewer than 10 records on eBird for Panama! It was a lifer for Ito, so we made sure to obtain reasonable documentation before turning our attentions to the rest of the wetlands. Along with the star of the show we were happy to see a few shorebirds in the marsh, with a large flock of Black-necked Stilts joined by Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, a few Solitary Sandpipers and several dozen Least Sandpipers. A male Sapphire-throated Hummingbird appeared for a few folks in response to a whistled imitation of a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, and we enjoyed a little flock of Smooth-billed Anis, lots of Northern Jacanas and a glowing adult Purple Gallinule in the weedier sections of the wetland. A bit further south we stopped at an area with larger rice fields that were beginning to be harvested. The actions of the combine were attracting a wealth of wading birds that were foraging near the machines. Most were Great and Cattle Egrets, but among them we found dozens of Wood Storks and a few Snowy, Green and Little Blues. At least a hundred Barn Swallows were swarming over the field, and several Yellow-headed Caracaras were flying around also, doubtless looking for maimed mice or some other delectable treat. 

As we had a bit of extra time this year, we opted to continue southwards from the ricefields towards the Pacific Coast. We found the open fields and watery channels as we neared the shore to be excellent, with a few Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures quartering along the roadside, a couple of White-winged Dove (a recent colonizer from Costa Rica) perched along the wires, a flock of White Ibis and some Laughing Gulls foraging in a muddy field and perched Roadside and Common Black Hawks. We reached the Pacific coastline at the scenic Playa de Barqueta and noticed that a long row of flowering shrubs lined the road edge at the end on the road. We hopped out and it didn’t take long to find a few Veraguan Mangos foraging in the blooms. This rather snazzy species is a Panama endemic (not withstanding a handful of records just across the Costa Rican border), and one that was high on many participants target lists. Like most Mangos it sports a wonderful violet tail and fully iridescent body, and one of the birds repeatedly perched for us to study in the scopes. Along the beach we found a sitting Ringed Kingfisher and a few passing pelicans and frigatebirds, as well as views to the west of the Burica Peninsula (the dividing line between Panama and Costa Rica). The currents here are often fierce, with a sharp drop-off, making swimming a somewhat dangerous affair, but a few brave souls were out there splashing around even given the surf. The bathrooms were welcome though, and the place was certainly worthy of a few postcards. On the way back up towards David we found a very cooperative fully tailed Fork-tailed Flycatcher perched just a few feet out of the bus windows; black streamers blowing in the wind underneath its perch. 

Leaving the beach behind we drove the final few miles to the airport where we said our goodbyes to Ito, did some repacking and then checked in to our flight. Once back in Panama City we transferred to our hotel near the international airport and had a late dinner where we spent some time reminiscing over our tour through the west of Panama. There can’t be too many week-long birding trips where you can dip a toe into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on the same tour! For many of the participants the journey through Panama was now complete, with a wonderful array of birds (340 species recorded) and wildlife seen over the course of the eight-day trip. 

-Gavin Bieber

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