Morning tour: Las Minas Trail (20 min from Canopy Lodge)
After breakfast you will head to Las Minas, an excellent trail for Panamanian bird watching. The road follows the ridge line, with sweeping vistas of forested mountains, speckled with grasslands and small farms. The views from here are fantastic, as on a clear day near the summit, both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans can be seen! Specialties of the region include Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch, Black-and-yellow, Bay-headed & Emerald Tanagers, Tawny-capped Euphonia, Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant, Spot-crowned Antvireo, Gray-headed Kite, Barred Hawk, Bat Falcon, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, Swallow-tailed Kite, Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer, White-tipped Sicklebill, Green Thorntail, Orange-bellied (Collared) & Black-throated Trogons, Tawny-faced Gnatwren, Plain Antvireo, the endemic Stripe-cheeked Woodpecker, Spotted Woodcreeper, Red-capped & White-ruffed Manakins, Band-rumped Swift, and Black Guan. A forested slope here is also the best chance to watch Black-crowned Antpitta and Black-headed Antthrush!
Lunch at the CANOPY LODGE.
Afternoon tour: Cara Iguana (15 min from Canopy Lodge)
After lunch and some rest, you will continue to Cara Iguana Trail where you will enjoy outstanding foothill birding in some of the last remaining stands of quality Pacific dry forest. Specialties we hope to find in this bird-rich habitat are Lesser Elaenia, Yellow-olive & Panama Flycatchers, Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Lance-tailed Manakin, Rufous-breasted &Rufous-and-white Wrens, Rosy Thrush-Tanager, Tody& Lesson’s Motmots, and Long-billed Gnatwren. We may also see such birds as the Striped Cuckoo, Little Tinamou, Common Potoo, Dusky & White-bellied Antbirds, Barred Antshrike, White-winged Becard, Tropical Screech-Owl, and Bat Falcon. Hummers to watch for are Garden Emerald, Long-billed Starthroat, and White-vented Plumeleteer. During migration we look for Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green & Worm-eating Warblers.
Dinner on property.
Accommodation at CANOPY LODGE.

Morning tour: La Mesa Road
After breakfast, you will continue your birding holidays with a trip to La Mesa Road. This area, which is a visually pleasing blend of secondary forest, scrubby pastures, overgrown farms and grassy borders, is home to many of the area’s specialties. Here is where we look for such great Panamanian birds as Spot-crowned Barbet, Cinnamon Becard, Scarlet-thighedDacnis, Silver-throated, Golden-hooded, Tawny-crested & Bay-headed Tanagers, Spot-crowned Antvireo, Spotted Woodcreeper, and hummers such as White-tipped Sicklebill, Rufous-crested Coquette, Crowned Woodnymph, and Black-throated Mango. Also resident are Northern Emerald-Toucanet, Bran-colored Flycatcher, Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant, and Orange-bellied (Collared) Trogon.

Lunch at CANOPY LODGE.


Afternoon tour: Mata Ahogado Road(15 min from Canopy Lodge)
After lunch you will continue to Mata Ahogado, to spend the afternoon birding along the scrubby roadsides, often full of birds! Good birds here are Rosy Thrush-Tanager, Black-headed Saltator, Great Antshrike, White-ruffed Manakin, White-thighed Swallow, White-bellied Antbird, TodyMotmot, and hummers such as Long-billed Starthroat, Rufous-crested Coquette and, when the Inga is in bloom, Snowcap! We will also listen for Purplish-backed Quail-Dove.

Dinner on property.
Accommodation at CANOPY LODGE.

Pacific Dry Forest & Santa Clara Beach full day tour(45 min from Canopy Lodge)

After breakfast you will get under way for a full-day birding trip in the Pacific dry forest with its unique cast of Panamanian birds! Among the birds we will be seeking out today are Yellow-headed Caracara, Roadside, Gray-lined, Zone-tailed, Savanna & Short-tailed hawks, Peregrine & Aplomado (rare) Falcons, White-tailed Kite, and Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. We will also search for Crested Bobwhite, Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant, Golden-fronted Greenlet, Grassland Yellow-Finch, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Brown-throated Parakeet, Blue Ground Dove, Red-breasted Meadowlark, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, and Crested Oropendola. You will stop at a spot where we sometimes find Common Potoo. Hummers to be on the watch for in this unique scrubby area are the near-endemic Veraguan Mango and Garden Emerald.

You will take a pause in the birding trip to enjoy a picnic lunch at a popular beach at Santa Clara where we hope to spot Sapphire-throated Hummingbird working the coastal shrubbery. You may want to bring your bathing suits to take a dip in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean (80F/27C).

On the beach or flying by may be Least, Western & Spotted Sandpipers, Sanderling, Blue-footed & Brown Boobies, Sandwich, Royal & Elegant Terns, Willet, Whimbrel, and Franklin’s & Laughing Gulls. At the Juan Hombron rice fields we hope to find Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, Crested Caracara, Gray-cowled Wood-Rail, Northern Scrub-Flycatcher, Southern Lapwing, Great Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Glossy Ibis, Straight-billed Woodcreeper, Pale-breasted Spinetail, Plain-breasted Ground Dove, Mouse-colored Tyrannulet, Common (or Mangrove) Black Hawk, and Pearl Kite.

Dinner on property.
Accommodation at CANOPY LODGE.

Morning tour: Cerro Gaital(20 min from Canopy Lodge)
Today after breakfast, you will be taken to Cerro Gaital (20 min from hotel), a steep, forested, mist-shrouded mountain that you can see from the Lodge! Cerro Gaital (3,500’) is the namesake of Cerro Gaital Natural Monument, which protects more than 335 hectares of mature cloud forest. This area offers sightings of Black Guan, Northern Emerald-Toucanet, Orange-bellied (Collared) Trogon, Spotted Barbtail, Common Chlorospingus, Silver-throated Tanager, Black-headed Antthrush, SlatyAntwren, Spot-crowned & Plain Antvireos, Black-faced Grosbeak, Blue Seedeater, Rufous-capped Warbler, Gray-headed Kite, White Hawk, Tawny-capped Euphonia, Pale-vented Thrush, Northern Schiffornis, White-tailed Emerald, Green-crowned Brilliant, Violet-headed Hummingbird, and Crowned Woodnymph. Scaled Antpitta and Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo have been recorded here!

Lunch at the CANOPY LODGE.

Afternoon tour: Valle Chiquito(20 min from Canopy Lodge)
After lunch you will continue to Valle Chiquito! (20 min. from Canopy Lodge) This valley is accessible by a newly paved road and passes through nicely forested woodlands crossed by two rivers. At Rio de Jesus we search for Green Kingfisher and listen for Sepia-capped Flycatcher. We also admire a colony of Chestnut-headed Oropendolas in a Cecropia tree. We try for TodyMotmot, Yellow-throated Vireo, Yellow-backed Oriole, White-bellied Antbird, Gray-chested Dove, Yellow-billed Cacique, Zone-tailed & Gray-lined Hawks, Black Hawk-Eagle, Lance-tailed Manakin, Panama Flycatcher, Black-headed Tody-Flycatcher, Little Tinamou, Long-billed Starthroat, and Garden Emerald. Wrens are abundant here, with Black-bellied, Rufous-and-white, Bay, and Rufous-breasted Wrens all lurking about in the thickets!

Dinner on property.
Accommodation at CANOPY LODGE.

Rio Indio & Jordanal full day tour(40 min from Canopy Lodge)

After breakfast you will depart for a fun-filled day of Caribbean slope birding! These fine, forested areas are not well-birded—by anybody—so who knows what might turn up! First stop is at Rio Indio, a great spot to try for the area’s specialties—Sulphur-rumped Tanager, Spot-crowned Barbet, and Barred Puffbird! We also strive to find Crested Oropendola, White-vented Euphonia, Buff-rumped Warbler, Long-tailed Tyrant, and raptors such as White & Gray-lined Hawks and Black Hawk-Eagle, as well as White-collared & Band-rumped Swifts. Hummers to look for are Green, Long-billed & Rufous-breasted Hermits, and White-necked Jacobin. We search for Lineated & Red-crowned Woodpeckers, Jet & Dusky Antbirds, Lesser & Yellow-bellied Elaenias, Tropical Pewee; Dusky, Piratic & Gray-capped Flycatchers, Cinnamon & White-winged Becards, Black-chested Jay, Bay Wren, Tawny-capped Euphonia, and Emerald, Bay-headed & Golden-hooded Tanagers!

If that is not enough, we hope to see Shining Honeycreeper, Yellow-bellied Seedeater, Thick-billed Seed-Finch, Black-striped Sparrow, and Streaked & Buff-throated Saltators. After a pleasant picnic lunch at a thatched-roof shelter on the Jordanal River, you will be driven back to the Canopy Lodge for a relaxing afternoon.

Dinner on property.
Accommodation at CANOPY LODGE.

Altos Del Maria full day tour(1hr from Canopy Lodge)

Departing early in the morning after breakfast, you will be driven from El Valle in air-conditioned 4×4 SUVs up into the mountains for today’s birding trip. As the sun rises over the highlands ahead of you, spectacular mountains, vast valleys and towering cliffs come into view! Set in the mountains on the continental divide east of El Valle, Altos del Maria provides a spectacular addition to the Birds of Central Panama tour.

Ascending an excellent paved road, you will climb a ridge to your destination, an expansive area of cloud forest at 3,600 ft. This area harbors an exciting variety of highland forest birds.

Some of the characteristic species of this cloud forest include Yellow-eared Toucanet, Black Guan, Black-crowned Antpitta, Black-headed Saltator, White Hawk, Barred Forest-Falcon, Orange-bellied (Collared) Trogon, Spotted Woodcreeper, Red-faced Spinetail, Spotted Barbtail, Russet & Great Antshrikes, Tufted & Sulphur-rumped Flycatchers, Rufous-browed Tyrannulet, White-ruffed Manakin, Ochraceous Wren, Gray-breasted Wood-Wren, Pale-vented Thrush, Green Shrike-Vireo, Yellow-billed Cacique, Slate-colored Grosbeak, and Black-and-yellow, Bay-headed, Dusky-faced & Tawny-crested Tanagers. Even the bizarre Brown-billed Scythebill is seen here regularly. Hummers we may spot include Band-tailed Barbthroat, the exquisite Snowcap, Garden & White-tailed Emeralds, Purple-throated Mountain-Gem, White-tipped Sicklebill, and Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer.

After a picnic lunch in the field, you will drop down into a valley and climb to the ridge on the opposite side. Reaching some large swaths of mature humid forest along this ridge, you will explore some trails and roadside spots in search of even more forest birds. Around mid-afternoon, you will head back into El Valle for some relaxation time.

Dinner on property.
Accommodation at CANOPY LODGE.

Departure to Airport
After breakfast you will be driven back to Panamá City on time for your return flights home. Tocumen International Airport is approx. 3hrs from Canopy Lodge.