We spent seven nights (6 1/2 birding days) at the well-known Canopy Tower, taking advantage of their Green Season package with some added trips. We then spent three nights at lovely El Valle de Antón, staying in the guest cottages adjacent to the home of Raúl Arias de Parra (owner of Canopy Tower), about a two hour drive west of Panama City. Lastly, we spent three nights (2 1/2 birding days) at Burbayar lodge, about a two hour drive east of Panama City and finally the last night at convenient and nice Hotel Riande, near the Panama City airport, prior to our flight home the next morning. All arrangements were booked through and after considerable consultation with the Canopy Tower and Raúl.

Green Season
Birding Package

CANOPY TOWER

Much has been written about this superb birding facility on the Gamboa road, about a half hour north of Panama City, so I will not repeat things here. The facilities, food, and staff are excellent. Birding at the top of Tower itself was a pleasant experience and interesting but fairly slow in mid-August. The hummingbird feeders at ground level were active and yielded a half dozen interesting species. We did the standard Canal Zone excursions while staying at the Tower: Gamboa area, Summit Ponds, Plantation Road, Pipeline Road, Metropolitan Park, Cerro Azul, Madden Road, Ammo Dump and Tocumen Marsh. The highlight and best birding was an all-day excursion to Achiote Road, near Gatun Lock and the Caribbean coast. Were we to do it again, we would stay overnight in Colon and spend two days on and near Achiote Road.

Our trip to the famous Pipeline Road never really happened. The best birding is reportedly after about seven kilometers along the road. However, it was the rainy season and our 4-wheel drive truck got stuck at about the three kilometer mark. We walked and birded to about six kilometers, seeing a few good birds but not many. We were then rained out at about 1 PM, returning after a small crew unstuck the truck. Another group a few days later was similarly unable to reach the best birding area. Raúl advises that the road is about to be improved, hopefully sufficiently to avoid this problem in the future.

Another group was using the only Canopy Tower staff bird guide available; the other on-staff guide was attending a bird conference in the UK. Therefore, the Tower arranged for us to use Jacobo Ortega, a local independent guide. Jacobo was terrific. He was an absolute wonder at finding and helping us see birds in the dense jungle growth. His English is passable and we enjoyed our week with him very much. I can supply Jacobo's e-mail address for anyone interested. Highly recommended.

EL VALLE

See article on panamainfo.com. Most groups going to El Valle either do so for just a day or stay at a hotel in the village of El Valle. However, Raúl Arias has two detached guest rooms at his home in the outskirts of the spread-out village and we were fortunate to be able to stay there. His home has extensive grounds, landscaped and gorgeous, with feeders and tons of birds. It truly is a great place to stay. Construction has just commenced on a small additional group of rooms on the property which should be available for groups in a year or so.

While in El Valle, we used a local bird guide, Danilo. He speaks very little English but knows the bird names in English and is very good at finding the birds. Even though our Spanish is rudimentary, to say the least, we thoroughly enjoyed our 2 1/2 days with Danilo, and had no difficulty finding the birds. The valley is a forested, eroded volcanic crater, with steep mountains and spectacular scenery. Two days is about right to see the birds. Danilo can be reached via the Canopy Tower.

BURBAYAR is a special place. Ed has written about Burbayar as follows:

Our last three nights, August 24 - 26, 2004, were spent at the Burbayar Lodge in the hills 50 km northeast of the Panama City Airport (Tocumen). See burbayar.com. Click where indicated for an English translation.

This eco-lodge was built by Inaki (pronounced "Een-YAH-kee" and whose last name we never absorbed) in 1996-1998 from fallen logs on the property, milled largely by hand on the spot. It is rustic but more than adequate. If you can do with no phones, radio, TV or hot water plus kerosene lamps instead of electric, it's got everything else - especially ambiance. It is truly remote and back in the jungle, about 10 miles north of the Inter-American Highway along the "road" to San Blas. This road is open, more-or-less, to 4W drive vehicles only to Burbayar and impassable to vehicular traffic (except perhaps Sherman tanks) thereafter. Transportation to and from the airport is provided by the Lodge and is included in the price.

The bird species to be seen there are not as numerous as in the Canal Zone. As Inaki points out, this is a place to round out your Panama sightings list with some wonderful, additional species. There is an outstanding bird and trail guide on staff named Sixto. Unfortunately, Sixto speaks no English at all. However, he precedes you on the trail, eliminating impediments and spider webs with his razor sharp machete which is also used to point out birds you had no idea were present. Sighting birds along his machete blade is an interesting experience and remarkably effective. Nevertheless, without some reasonable degree of Spanish proficiency, going out with just Sixto might be difficult.

Don and I do know some rudimentary Spanish but still opted before we arrived to hire an English-speaking guide to accompany us, along with Sixto. We specified that we required an expert bird guide but the one supplied by a Panama City guide service was not. Our advice would be that others doing the same be certain that any guide so hired be one that comes recommended by trusted, other birders or that the Canopy Tower would use for its own guests - or something like that. In the end, it worked out OK for us because of Sixto's skills.

We were there in high rainy season yet experienced little rain - none that materially impacted our birding. I doubt that the temperature ever exceeded the low 80's. It was humid, of course, and it was easy to work up a sweat because... There is no flat terrain. Trails are narrow and involve a lot of steep up and down under wet, muddy, extremely slippery conditions. You must be in very good physical condition to take full advantage of this area. (There are no feeders and little to see sitting around on the veranda at the lodge.) Waterproof boots - Wellies, Gore-Tex, etc. - are essential. There were virtually no insects. I noted one mosquito for the three days. The cold shower at day's end was welcome.

The lodge consists of a main house/kitchen/bedroom/veranda plus rustic casitas. There is one large, upstairs room with three beds in the lodge which shares a downstairs bathroom with a casita which has bunk beds. A second casita has a double bed with bathroom. A third has four bunks and a bathroom. The beds are comfortable. Three additional rooms with private baths are under construction.

All meals were on the veranda. A full breakfast was available everyday. We returned to the lodge for both lunch and supper every day. Especially considering where we were, all meals were not just good, but outstanding - and plentiful. Inaki, a transplanted Spaniard, is an outstanding cook. In addition to being a great cook, Inaki has to be the most enthusiastic, happy, attentive, interesting, likable host that I have ever met. His company added greatly to the experience. He is committed to the natural world and describes this lodge as his "passion". His wife, Jessica, who normally is there, was staying in Panama City getting ready to produce their first child.

As an extra added bonus, Inaki drove us to the Panama City Airport via a corner of Bayano Lake, along the Inter-American Highway 20 km east of the dirt road to Burbayar. Here we quickly picked up 7 or 8 lowland specialties not seen elsewhere - including the rare Black Antshrike (male) at nest. If your schedule permits, we would strongly recommend that you divert to this area on your way out (preferably) or in, although a guide to help with locations at Lake Bayano is probably necessary.

In booking Burbayar, we were looking for an adventure and we got it. We were looking for good birds and we got them. The added bonus was Inaki, his food and the better than expected, more than adequate facilities. We recommend Burbayar to serious birders in good condition. It's a trip!

For the entire trip, we lucked out with the rain. We never got really wet, something other groups in the same area were unable to say. It rained heavily a few days in the early afternoon but in each case we were under cover. Five of the thirteen days had no rain at all. Temperatures were consistently pleasant, ranging from about 24 to 29 degrees centigrade, day and night. There were essentially no biting insects. We saw perhaps four mosquitoes the whole two weeks. Burbayar doesn't even have nor need screens on the windows. Trails and roads were all very muddy and, of course, it was humid and our glasses maddeningly kept fogging up (see separate report).

We saw some 338 species, not counting birds identified by the guides but not by us. Had we counted all the guides heard while with us, another 20-30 species might be added. We added about 125 species that we had not seen in a similar, rainy season, two weeks in Costa Rica the previous August. A daily checklist is available on request by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Panama is terrific! You can drink the water, the food is good, the people are friendly, the scenery outstanding, and the birds are great.