Gavin reports from Canopy Tower, Panama
Our recently completed spring week at Panama's famous Canopy Tower was followed by a 5-day extension to the Canopy Lodge. It is always a pleasure to return to these fantastic and unique lodges, surrounded by an excellent mix of habitats and a great diversity of birds. Some of the avian highlights this year around the tower included an amazing passage of Mississippi Kites climbing in morning thermals around the tower, an antswarm with almost tame Ocellated Antbirds, an array of hummingbirds including the handsome White-necked Jacobin, and striking Purple-crowned Fairy, singing Streak-chested Antpitta, perched Pheasant Cuckoo, handsome Rufous Motmot, eye-level Brown-capped Tyrannulet and gaudy tanagers like Bay-headed and Red-legged Honeycreepers.
The wealth of diversity here is certainly not limited to birds though, and this year we enjoyed a range of other creatures, including near-daily Brown-throated Three-toed Sloths, an inquisitive pair of Western Night Monkeys peeking out of their roosting hole, a foraging Northern Tamandua, Common Basilisks along the creek at Achiote Road and an array of insects such as this stunning male Blue-eyed Setwing or this incredible Northern Chorinea.
Although only two hours away from the Canal zone the foothill forests and dry savannahs around the lodge support a remarkably different avifauna. Here we added nearly 100 more species, but much more importantly encountered a heady number of truly rare and beautiful species, like Black-eared Wood-Quail and Barred Hawk. The lodge grounds proved incredibly productive, with daily visits from a White-tipped Sicklebill, and morning visits from Sunbittern and Fasciated Tiger-Heron along the creek as well as several perky Chestnut-capped Warblers.
Around town we teased up a Spectacled Owl snoozing in a dense riverine grove, a very cooperative Tody Motmot, with some Lesson’s Motmots nearby, and a Tropical Screech-Owl on a very odd day roost site along the road.
The La Mesa Area held our hoped-for Collared Trogons (here of the endemic orange-bellied subspecies) and higher up around Altos de Maria we enjoyed cute Tufted Flycatchers, a confiding Rufous Mourner.
In all we tallied a few over 350 species of birds, including an amazing 46 species of flycatchers and 32 tanagers, as well as a nice array of mammals, reptiles and amphibians (and even a few fish) in 10 days in the field! This tour continues to impress me, as the diversity and richness of the region, paired with ease of access and the comforts of the lodge make for a truly wonderful experience.
