Panama Birding Tours
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Together with Costa Rica Panama offers probably the best birding experience in Central America, without doubt being one of the top destinations in Latin America. Panama’s history reaches from indigenous natives who occupied the isthmus to Spanish colonial occupation, later to integration into the State of Gran Colombia, and finally to the country’s independence from Colombia in 1903. Later the world marveled at the creation of the Panama Canal, connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific and considered one of the greatest works of engineering of the 20th century. Today Panama City is a modern metropolis where modern and bizarre giant skyscrapers stand next to the nostalgic old downtown at the banks of the canal. Friendly people, a dollarized economy, and daily flights to and from all over the world make Panama an easy country in which to travel.
Starting a birding trip in Panama City includes a quick visit to the famous Metropolitan Park; with its 265 hectares it is the largest protected park in Panama. The area hosts the endemic Panamanian (Yellow-green) Tyrannulet as well as many other easy-to-find birds, such as Orange-chinned Parakeet, Lance-tailed Manakin, White-bellied Antbird, Spotted Antbird, Trilling Gnatwren, Dot-winged Antwren, Red-lored Amazon, Southern Mealy Amazon, and the monotypic Rosy Thrush-tanager.
The famous birding areas in Central Panama include the Pipeline Road in the Gamboa region, and the Canopy Tower and Panama Rainforest Discovery Center which will provide you with outstanding species such as Golden-hooded Tanager, Ocellated Antbird, Brown-hooded Parrot, Blue Cotinga, the skulking Green Shrike-Vireo, Song Wren, Slaty-tailed, Gartered, and Black-throated Trogons, Broad-billed Motmot, Red-capped Manakin, Golden-collared Manakin, Yellow-throated Toucan, Keel-billed Toucan, Streak-chested Antpitta, and, with luck, the most-wanted Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo.
