Exploring the Wildlife of Panama

We recently took a trip to Panama City, Panama with friends. We had plans to see the usual touristy areas like the Golden Alter, Flat arch, Fish market, and the Canal. However, we also made plans to escape the city to explore the wildlife of Panama. The plan was to do two tours using different touring companies, one for a land-based tour and another tour for exploring Gatun lake wildlife. Gatun Lake is a large artificial lake that forms an integral part of the famous Panama Canal. For the land based tour, we chose White Hawk Birding to explore Pipeline road and the Rainforest Discovery center . To explore the wildlife of Gatun Lake we chose 9NorthPanama .

Pipeline Road Wildlife

The first wildlife tour we took was with White Hawk Birding. Our guides for the tour were Angel and Edwin. They both were exceptional and very knowledgeable of the local wildlife and seem to have magical powers when finding wildlife. Even though it was the rainy season we were still able to see a good number of birds, at the Rainforest Discovery center and Pipeline road.  At the Discovery Center you must journey to the top of the tower where you will be treated with some wonderful views above the rainforest canopy. Also make sure you check out the hummingbird feeders to see the many varieties of hummingbirds feeding. During our tour some of the birds we saw were Violet-bellied Hummingbird, Snail Kite, Gartered Trogon, Rufous Motmot, American Pygmy Kingfisher, Yellow-headed Caracara, Purple Gallinule, Southern Lapwing, and Jacana to name a few of the 50 plus species we identified. Other wildlife spotted during the tour was Howler Monkeys resting in trees over the road, a Three-toed Sloth sleeping in a tree, and a South American Coatimundi crossing the road.

Cruising Gatun Lake for Wildlife

For the lake tour we arrived just after sunrise at the Gamboa marina to the awaiting crew. The boat is configured with seats outfitted with custom gimbals aligned down the middle of the boat. This configuration is perfect for photographers and allowed us to get some excellent photographs. The captain of the boat Johnny made it a breeze to photograph by setting up shots, while pointing out the wildlife on Gatun Lake and its islands. Andrew the owner operator is very knowledgeable and has a passion for wildlife and an eye for photography. During the tour we got a chance to photograph three of the four monkeys of Panama: The Mantled Howler Monkey which communicates with other members of its group by creating a very loud sound that can be heard for miles; White-Faced Capuchin Monkey who are very intelligent and highly adaptable to different types of forest; and the Tamarin Monkey which is black and white with a red-brown nape and a white triangle shaped patch on its mask at the front of its head. Other animals seen were Crocodiles of various sizes, Lizards, Caiman, and several bird species. Some of the birds seen were Toucans, Anhinga, Snail Kites, Grey-necked wood rail, Limpkin, little Blue Heron, and other water birds. The highlight of the birds seen for me was the Snail Kites.  Andrew and Johnny made sure we got exception views of the Snail Kite hunting for Apple Snails on the lake. The Snail Kite is a bird of tropical marshlands and feeds primarily on snails. It hunts by gliding low and slow and dropping down to pick up a snail with one foot from the surface of water or plants. Once they have a snail, they hold it with one foot and use their specialized long curved upper mandible to extract the snail from the shell.

Both outings were very successful, and we learned a lot from both tours and their guides. We would definitely use both companies again and recommend them should you ever visit Panama. To view the photographs we took on both tours you can view these two galleries Gatun Lake Monkeys and Birds of Panama.