Panama's Canopy Tower & El Valle's Canopy Lodge
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PANAMA’S CANOPY TOWER & EL VALLE’S CANOPY LODGE JANUARY 4–16, 2018 LEADERS: JERI LANGHAM & CARLOS BETHANCOURT LIST COMPILED BY: JERI LANGHAM VICTOR EMANUEL NATURE TOURS, INC. 2525 WALLINGWOOD DRIVE, SUITE 1003 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78746 WWW.VENTBIRD.COM PANAMA’S CANOPY TOWER & EL VALLE’S CANOPY LODGE January 4–16, 2018 By Jeri M. Langham Myriads of magazine articles have touted Panama’s incredible Canopy Tower, a former U.S. military radar tower transformed by Raúl Arias de Para when the U.S. relinquished control of the Panama Canal Zone. It sits atop 900-foot Semaphore Hill overlooking Soberania National Park. While its rooms are rather spartan, the food is excellent, and the opportunity to view birds at dawn from the 360º rooftop Observation Deck above the treetops is outstanding. Twenty minutes away is the start of the famous Pipeline Road, possibly one of the best birding roads in Central and South America. From our base, daily birding outings are made to various locations in Central Panama, which vary from the primary forest around the tower to huge mudflats near Panama City and, finally, to cool Cerro Azul forest. An enticing example of what awaits visitors to this marvelous birding paradise can be found in excerpts taken from the journal I write during every tour and later email to participants. These are taken from my 20-page, January 2018 journal. My fabulous co-leader, Carlos Bethancourt, and everyone made it to the Canopy Tower's Observation Deck for a pre-breakfast morning of birding while sipping coffee or tea. Several Howler Monkey troops had already begun letting the other troops know they survived the night and were still defending their territories. Keel-billed Toucan ! Laurie Dann Mantled Howler ! Tom Horner Green Shrike-Vireo ! Laurie Dann As dawn approached we began to hear Barred, Slaty-backed, and Collared forest- falcons, plus both Rufous and Broad-billed motmots. As it got lighter, we started seeing birds on all sides of the tower. Highlights at the tower were Keel-billed Toucans, Blue Dacnis, Red-lored and Blue-headed parrots, Bay-headed Tanager, Brown-capped Tyrannulet, and White-necked Jacobin, but the best of all was everyone getting stellar views of Green Shrike-Vireo. In Cerro Azul, we drove to the home of Jerry and Linda Harrison. This wonderful home and its setting are fantastic, especially the nectar, rice, and banana feeders by the back porch where the hummingbird show defies description. Diversity was excellent as we saw 11 hummingbird species. Among them were Green and Long-billed hermits, Crowned Woodnymph, Bronze-tailed and White-vented plumeleteers, White-necked Jacobin, and Rufous-tailed, Blue-chested, and Snowy-bellied hummingbirds. The rare Violet-capped Hummingbird was one I had not expected, since I have never seen it nor the Violet-headed here. At the end of the new gravel path we could see two Collared Araçaris feeding on bananas. The dazzling colors of one Red-legged, about 35–40 Shining, and a dozen Green honeycreepers were stunning. Thick-billed Euphonias, Bananaquits, and both Hepatic and Summer tanagers added to the spectacle. A splendid Rufous Motmot even came in for the bananas, along with two Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, several Yellow-faced Grassquits, as well as Blue-gray, Palm, and two superb pairs of Crimson-backed tanagers. It was tough to leave this little paradise. Snowy-bellied Hummingbird ! Marjie Pierce Collared Araçari ! Ethan Simler Crimson-backed Tanager !Tom Horner At 3:00 p.m. we met and rode down Semaphore Hill on our way to Gamboa and the Ammo Dump Ponds site where we would hear and see over 50 species from this 100- yard stretch in two hours. Among those seen were Black-throated Mango, Rusty- margined and Social flycatchers, Variable and Yellow-bellied seedeaters, Clay-colored Thrush, Barred Antshrike, Crimson-backed Tanagers, a Rufescent Tiger-Heron eating a large fish, Yellow-tailed Orioles, White-necked Puffbird, Wattled Jaçanas, Greater and Lesser kiskadees, and Pale-vented Pigeon. I never fail to be amazed at how many species we find here. As Carlos and I stepped out of the van, a Stripe-cheeked Woodpecker (an endemic) called and was eventually seen. We also picked up Golden-hooded Tanagers here along with Isthmian Wren. At the entrance to Cerro Jefe we got out and walked up the steep hill. One fruiting tree gave us Black-and-yellow, Emerald, Speckled, and Rufous-winged tanagers. Emerald Tanager © Laurie Dann Slaty-tailed Trogon & Whooping Motmot © Carlos Bethancourt We arrived at the entrance to Metropolitan National Park about 7 a.m. Upon arrival, the action was good with Orange-chinned Parakeets allowing us great scope views showing their tiny orange chins. A little further up the trail, Whooping Motmot, Slaty-tailed Trogon, and a young male Lance-tailed Manakin showed off. We lucked out with two massive flocks that kept us reeling, trying to get on the abundant activity that included Rosy Thrush-Tanagers, Long-billed Gnatwren, Blue-winged Warbler (rare in Panama), Southern Bentbill, and Orange-billed Sparrow. Carlos, Lorenzo, and George set up the table for our picnic lunch and brought out the chicken sandwiches with lettuce and tomatoes to add as we pleased, fresh pineapple and watermelon, sliced carrots and celery with a great dip, and carrot cake for dessert. As we were finishing, a female Masked Tityra showed up high in one of the trees. This was our day to see four new trogons: Black-tailed, Gartered, White-tailed, and Black- throated. We picked up a second Northern Tamandua and also a Brown-throated Three-Toed Sloth moving through the trees, but the highlight of the entire day was getting to see a juvenile Rothchild’s Porcupine. It was a first for all of us, including Carlos! We only got to hear a soaring Black Hawk-Eagle but did have great views of a juvenile Double-toothed Kite. It was another wonderful day on Pipeline Road. Ocellated Antbird © Bill Fraser Juvenile Rothchild’s Porcupine © Carlos Bethancourt Spotted Antbird © Tom Horner Today as we drove along the famous Pipeline Road, Carlos and I heard Spotted and Bicolored antbirds and knew it was time to pile out of the vehicles. The army ants were just starting to wake up and head out from the bivouac, and that made the birds called army ant followers begin to get very active. Army ant followers do not eat the army ants. Instead, they catch and eat the arthropods and small vertebrates that are trying to escape. The ants find, kill, and tear apart arthropods and small vertebrates that can be caught, and parts are then carried back to the bivouac. We spent nearly two hours watching the swarms begin to hunt and saw Bicolored, Spotted, Chestnut-backed, and Ocellated antbirds, Northern Barred-Woodcreeper, Plain-brown and Ruddy woodcreepers, Gray-headed Tanagers , and several Song Wrens join the mob catching fleeing arthropods. We were extremely lucky that the mass paralleled the road for a while so you could really experience the streaming mass a foot away from us. On our way back, we stopped again to watch them bringing back arthropod parts to the bivouac. While at Canopy Lodge , we spent two full days birding in Altos del María. By luck, the flowering tree by the road next to my vehicle was being visited by a male Snowcap that kept chasing away the Green Thorntail that also wanted to feed there. However, our best bird here was probably the poorly seen Brown Scythebill that just did not respond to taped calls. Common Chlorospingus lived up to the first word in its name. We had our midmorning snack and then headed for a dead end where we were going to try for other special birds at this higher elevation. We ended up with the rarest bird by far for our entire tour, a soaring Ornate Hawk-Eagle, a bird never seen on my previous 21 tours. Brown-billed Scythebill and Snowcap © Bill Fraser Black-crowned Antpitta © Carlos Bethancourt On our second day we visited Valle Bonito and began the magical walk up the wonderful streamside trail that is paved for over 1.5 kilometers. We enjoyed seeing the huge old growth trees covered with all kinds of epiphytes. A beautiful female Black- throated Trogon gave us great looks. Later a tiny White-throated Spadebill was seen by most on the slope across the stream. The Black-crowned Antpitta, whose song Carlos and Danilo had been whistling during our entire two days in Altos del María, finally called back. How Carlos and Danilo get scopes on this super tough target species on the dark slope never ceases to amaze me. Rain caused us to head for the kiosk in time for our picnic lunch, but we stopped long enough to see the Rufous Mourner. Here in lowland grassland/dry scrub habitat with the trees and shrubs on both sides of the unpaved road, we had a great hour in a stretch about 600 yards long. In no particular order, we saw Yellow-crowned Euphonia, Savanna Hawk, Crested Caracara, Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, Crested Bobwhite, Sapphire-throated Hummingbird (a female feeding a youngster), White-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant, Sapphire-throated Hummingbird, Fork-tailed Flycatchers and many more. The unfenced fields of rice next to the main road were visible, and a rice harvester was working the field so we enjoyed a 30-minute spectacle involving 2 Peregrine Falcons, 2 Savanna Hawks, 2 Yellow-headed Caracaras, 3 Crested Caracaras, 2 Great Black Hawks, 1 White-tailed Kite, many vultures, and dozens of Barn Swallows. We continued past the rice fields to the end of the road at the beach to see hundreds of birds that included Whimbrels, Willets, Sanderlings, Laughing Gulls, Neotropic Cormorants, about 10 Elegant Terns, and about 200 Sandwich Terns.