Birding at Panama’s Canopy Tower

By Vicky Hamilton (Reprinted from December 2007 Limpkin)

I first heard about Panama’s Canopy Tower by attending a seminar at our Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival.  The Canopy Tower is a former U.S. military radar tracking station which was turned into an eco-lodge in 1999.  It sits inside the Soberania National Forest near the Panama Canal.  I visited the Canopy Tower the last week of April, the beginning of the “green” (interpret wet) season when prices drop considerably. Tropical birds are easy to see from the Tower itself and from the nearby locations where they offer side trips.  The Canopy Tower provides top-notch bird guides assigned to groups of six people or less.

The first full day we awoke to…rain. Despite the rain, we headed out to Pipeline Road famous for its bird diversity. It did not disappoint.  Our first bird was a black breasted puff bird.  Soon other birds began popping out.  Making appearances were the cinnamon woodpecker, black cheeked woodpecker, white flanked ant wren, squirrel cuckoo, broad billed motmot, striped sparrow, plain xenops, slaty throated ant wren, chestnut headed oropendolas and scarlet rumped caciques.

Tanagers are not difficult to see in Panama.  In just the first morning we saw the crimson backed, white shouldered, grey headed, blue grey and palm tanagers.  But the day was still young.

We walked on taking in all the new birds when our guide stopped abruptly.  He pointed up to a large bird sitting on a branch hanging across the road.  We blinked in disbelief taking in this soggy raptor with its wings partially open.  It was a  Harpy Eagle! We probably watched each other for a good 10 minutes before we turned around so as not to disturb it further.  When we started our walk we had heard the eerie roar of the howler monkeys. The harpy’s presence explained why the monkeys were now silent.

After our morning hike we returned to the Canopy Tower for lunch and siesta time before heading out for our second portion of Pipeline Road.  We had literally just pulled out of the Tower’s driveway  when the guide pulled the vehicle over to locate a bird he heard calling. It was a pheasant cuckoo making his way up the tree but offering us an excellent view of his enormous tail.

Other birds we saw on Pipeline Road included the following: spectacled ant pitta, barred ant shrike, double toothed kite, grey headed kite, white necked puff bird, buff breasted wren, blue black grassquit, short billed pigeon, white flanked antwren, yellow bellied seedeater and even a great jacamar.  We were fortunate to see a greater potoo next to a juvenile and common potoos at two different locations.  The potoos are truly masters of camouflage that become one with a tree.

Between the different sites we saw five species of trogans, some of them numerous times.  They included the violaceous, black tailed, slaty tailed, white tailed and black throated trogans.  Hummingbirds seen included the black throated mango, white necked jacobin, long tailed hermit, violet bellied, rufous tailed and purple crowned fairy.

One evening we were treated to a night tour.  This consists of riding in the back of the modified pickup while the guide shines a spotlight searching for eyes reflecting back.  We caught sight of a few animals moving around in the night – monkeys, kinkajous and even a couple of sloths (two and three toed.)
The light caught a bird’s red eyes staring back from a tree branch over Semaphore Hill Road.  Our guide Alexis could hardly contain his excitement when he shone the light on this large bird and yelled out “Oilbird.”  The oilbird was nestled on a branch overhead and simply blinked at us.  We viewed this beautiful brown nightjar like bird with a hawkish bill.  The light was bright enough to clearly make out his coloring and spots on his wings.  This was only the second time an oilbird was seen in the area and I felt very fortunate to be one of the seven people to witness it that night.

The roof top viewings from the tower brought us the noisy but extremely colorful green shrike vireo each morning.  From the roof we also viewed blue cotingas, blue dancis, plain tanager, keel billed toucan, chestnut mandibiled toucan, collared aracari, short tailed hawk, pale vented pigeon, scaled pigeon and numerous parrots and parakeets.

Each day at the Canopy Tower and its nearby side trips brought at least one special species if not more. In the Summit Pond and Gamboa area we saw: spectacled owl, crane hawk, grey hawk, grey necked wood rail, a pair of white capped herons, boat billed heron, pygmy kingfisher, amazon kingfisher, ringed kingfisher, green kingfisher, jet antbird, scrub greenlet, common nighthawks, greater kiskadee, lesser kiskadee, black chested jay, yellow green vireo, ruddy ground dove, lesser goldfinch, yellow backed oriole, variable seedeaters, orange billed sparrow and clay colored robins.

At the Ammo Dump area we saw a rufescent tiger heron, white throated crake, red legged honeycreeper, yellow tailed orioles, striated heron, yellow headed caracara, grey headed chachalaca, greater ani, smooth billed ani, wattled jacana, southern lapwings, white tipped doves, ruddy breasted seedeaters and tropical mockingbirds.

On Semaphore Hill Road and Plantation Road Trail our special birds were a tiny hawk and a sunbittern.  Also seen were: white whiskered puffbird, masked tityra, red capped manakin, blue crowned manakin, rufous breasted wren, white breasted wood wren, checker throated ant wren, plain brown woodcreeper, dot winged ant wren, dusky antbird, lesser greenlet, purple throated fruit crow, yellow warbler, cananda warbler, swainson’s thrush and red crowned woodpeckers.

There were so many new birds that it was difficult to keep track of them all, so some of my notes are incomplete.  Here are some of the flycatchers seen: brown capped tyrannulet, yellow tyrannulet, yellow bellied elania, southern bentfill,olivaceous flatfill, social, ruddy tailed, black tailed, acadian, streaked, fork tailed and Panama flycatchers.

The “green season” ended up having the extra benefit of seeing quite a few birds on nests with eggs or with young chicks.  Even one of the common potoos had its single egg precariously balanced in front of it on the treetop.  Other than a wet first day, the rains only came during siesta time and didn’t interfere with any of the outings.

The Soberania National Forest is touted as being the most accessible rain forests in the world. I found this to be true.  It was only a three hour direct flight from Orlando to Panama City, Panama and then less than an hour’s drive to all these incredible birds and wildlife.  The Canopy Tower is definitely worth a visit!  If you would like to learn more about the Canopy Tower or see photos of some of these birds check out their web site at www.CanopyTower.com.