A Blue-crowned Motmot in Gamboa
The first part of our trip was based mainly in the Canal Zone, split between the Panama City area on the Pacific side and Gamboa, about halfway to the Caribbean side. The isthmus of Panama is only about 50 miles across at the point of the canal, so it was relatively easy travel between these two areas. Our goal for the canal zone: 100 new life list birds, and a sunbittern if we could get it.
Thanks to the canal, there are several large national parks in the area. These are areas that were left undeveloped as a military buffer zone, which have now been converted into an ecological corridor. The parks are home to some amazing animals; we saw a tamandua and a coati, as well as hummingbirds, toucans, and many other impressive birds. The coolest bird of our first full day: the common potoo, which we saw holding perfectly still pretending to be a broken branch, with a fuzzy baby imitating the adult perfectly. In Gamboa we saw bright birds called motmots; if you want to see one in person, we have a few in the Tropical Bird House rainforest here at the zoo. Motmots nest underground, excavating burrows into dirt slopes. We saw a rufous motmot near a nest – in fact, a few of the people on our trip missed seeing the bird because it flew into its hole. (It came back out a little later, so everyone eventually saw it.)
A Coati in Gamboa
We got to spend a day in the foothills near Panama City, at a place called Cerro Azul. I learned two important lessons here, which are listed in the travel tip at the end. Let me set the scene. We were walking through the rainforest; it was warm and humid, although cooler than it had been in the lowlands. There was no breeze, and we were all sweating. All around we could hear the high pitched whine of the cicadas, a sound very similar to a circular saw being used in the distance. We were descending a hill, slipping a little in the damp leaves and dirt. Jose was playing a bird call through a tiny speaker attached to his mp3 player. When the bird called back, he held up his hand, gathered us all together, and told us to stay close, move quick, and be quiet. We got very close to where the bird was calling, and my husbband and I were rewarded with a quick glimpse of a dark, fast bird. That was all we saw of the Black-crowned Antpitta, although we heard it call again in the distance later.
The two lessons from our Antpitta Experience? That’s Tour Travel Tip #2: Trust your guide, and stick close.
When Jose told us “Don’t worry, we’ll see more” what I learned he meant was “this bird we are working on is way cooler than that very common bird, so don’t get distracted.” And the closer I was to our guide, the better my chance of seeing the cool bird that might drop back out of sight any moment.
If you were wondering about our goal, we most definitely got it: we saw the sunbittern (briefly, as it flew) and by the third day of the trip, I had added 108 new birds to my list. Finished with the Canal Zone, we flew west, toward Costa Rica and the Chiriqui Highlands.