Panama

For most of the people Panama is known only for the engineering Wonder of the World that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans: the Panama Canal. But birders and other nature enthusiasts during the last decades have started to discover the vast natural and cultural wonders that Panama has to offer.

Within its small area it contains a great variety of tropical habitats, including Pacific mangrove wetlands, Caribbean coral reefs, dry tropical forests, wet rainforests, all the way up to mountain cloudforests with their moss-laden, orchid-covered trees. Add a maze of waterways among smaller and larger tropical islands with their unique flora and fauna. These various tropical ecosystems harbor an incredible diversity of colorful flowers, a wide array of wild mammals, incredible insect diversity, colourful amphibians and reptiles and many more.

Regarding the avifauna imagine that there are close to 1000 species of birds; that is more than the total number of species found in the whole Europe or USA and Canada combined! All that is at a relatively small area, thus it means a very high biodiversity. Fortunately more than one-third of the country’s territory is protected, ensuring for future generations and various local indigenous tribes as well to enjoy wildlife at tropical environments for long time.

Panama is one of the safest countries in Latin America with modern infrastructure which helps to have a hassle-free visit of this hidden tropical paradise.

It is quite incredible that even the modern capital city is fantastic for birding, especially during Raptor Migration, when you can enjoy various thousand of birds passing daily, well, actually it can be hundreds of thousands or even a million! Once we were lucky enough to witness 1.2 million raptors passing in front of us and above within a couple of hours! The most famous tropical birding areas are also just outside of Panama City.

We made our first tour decades ago and since then we have returned several times. The below itinerary just a sample, we can provide several different itineraries depending on your interest and focus of habitats and species.