Why Bird Panama
Bird habitats in Panama
Panama packs many habitats into a small country: Pacific and Caribbean lowland forest, wetlands, coast, foothills and cloud forest. Each has its own birds, and many are within a short drive of Panama City.
Habitats
Where the birds live
Lowland rainforest
Tall, humid forest on both sides of the Canal, in Soberanía, San Lorenzo and Chagres national parks. Home to antbirds, manakins, trogons, motmots, toucans and the army-ant followers.
Tours: Pipeline Road, Achiote Road, Plantation Road
Pacific dry forest
Drier, semi-deciduous forest near Panama City, on the Pacific side. Good for Lance-tailed Manakin, Rosy Thrush-Tanager and many flycatchers.
Tours: Metropolitan Nature Park
Lakes, rivers and marshes
Gatún Lake, the Chagres River, ponds and marshes. Herons, rails, jacanas, kingfishers and the Boat-billed Heron, best seen from a boat.
Coast, mangroves and mudflats
The mudflats of Panama Bay hold huge numbers of migrant shorebirds, and the mangroves have their own specialties.
Tours: Urban Birding
Open country and pastures
Farmland, savanna and forest edge, with seedeaters, raptors, Southern Lapwing and Red-breasted Meadowlark.
Tours: on custom trips; ask us.
Foothill forest
Cooler, wet forest from about 500 to 1,000 m, with tanagers, hummingbirds and foothill specialties that do not live in the lowlands.
Tours: Cerro Azul, Altos de Campana, El Valle
Cloud forest
Misty forest on the highest ridges near the city, full of mosses and epiphytes, with highland hummingbirds, tanagers and other species found only up high.
Eastern Panama and Darién
The wild lowland forest of the east, with South American birds that reach their northern limit here, and the Harpy Eagle.
Tours: Darién & Harpy Eagle
Protected areas
National parks we bird in
The Pacific side of Panama is drier, with a long dry season, while the Caribbean side gets rain most of the year and stays green and humid. Protected forest runs along the Panama Canal, so you can bird large, healthy forest less than an hour from the city.
- Metropolitan Nature Park
- Soberanía National Park
- Camino de Cruces National Park
- San Lorenzo National Park
- Chagres National Park
- Altos de Campana National Park
- Darién National Park
- La Amistad International Park (western Panama)
Keep reading
More of the guide
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