Panama, "The Incredible Joy of Bird Watching" 2014

Gamboa

Canopy Tower

Gamboa was our first stop in Panama. A small town by the Panama canal, it is surrounded by forests and wetlands.

Above the tropical forest of Soberania National Park, the canoy Tower, built by the US Air Force to house a radar in the defense of the Panama Canal offers a quiet atmosphere to watch the rain forest birds.

Coiba
Once a penal colony, Coiba is now part of Coiba National Park. Even though it rained heavily the first afternoon we still were able to see its diverse marine life and white-faced monkeys.

It was a rather nerve breaking adventure to rush to get the boat out of the inlet before the tide pulled back.

Boquete
In Boquete we stayed in a coffee plantation and learned about the processes of making coffee. Next day, with clouds low in the morning sky, we walked through the trails tasting the tree tomatoes and calling for the quetzal bird following our guide's directions.

The indigenous Ngobe-Bugle people near Boquete

Panama has an amazingly rich bird life! We spotted and drew picture of over 120 birds in addition to monkeys and agouti.

white necked jacobin

yellow rumped cacique

summer tanager

tamarin monkey

tropical kingbird

violaceous trogon

white faced monkey

immature lance-tailed manakin

keel billed toucan

northern jacana

red capped manakin

southern lapwing

Agouti

black breasted puffbird

blue  crowned motmot

blue gray tanager

golden browed chlorophonia