Panama Birding Websites

This page contains links to the websites for numerous resources that might be of interest to individuals interested in birding Panamá, including tour companies, lodging, and personal sites of contributors to The Canopy Report. Please remember that, of course, the internet is an evolving entity, and web addresses occasionally change. I will do my best to keep the information on this page up to date.

Click on the image at right to return to The Canopy Report homepage.

We might as well start with the most essential sites, links to the two ecolodges that originally inspired and continue to sustain The Canopy Report:

Panama's Canopy Tower
Panama's Canopy Lodge



International and Local Tour Companies

A plethora of international and Panamanian-based companies offer birding tours to virtually every remote corner of Panamá, with programs ranging from those offering somewhat opulent accomodations and low-impact ecotourism to those that include rather rugged bushwhacking, rustic facilites, and frontier birding. Panamá offers something for every taste! The inclusion of a tour company on this page does not imply an endorsement; my sole criterion for providing of a link is that the company, or one of its employees, has in some way contributed to The Canopy Report. While the proprietor of The Canopy Report certainly has his personal preferences, I can say with some confidence tht each and every one of the vendors listed below operates a legitimate and valuable enterprise, and that one could do well engaging the services of each and every one of them.

Advantage Tours Panama: a locally-operated company that specializes in tours of Cerro Chucanti in Darién Province.
Aglac Ecotours: a new and somewhat untested organization, promising in that it engages local guides in tours of the remote and intriguing El Copé area.
Ancon Expeditions: the sole Panamanian company offering tours to the most remote parts of Darién Province.
Field Guides Inc.: a well-established and highly-regarded tour company in Panamá and elsewhere.
VENT, Victor Emanuel Nature Tours: essentially the first tour company to recognize the birding potential of Panamá. 		 


Favored Lodgings

Aside from the aforementioned Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge there are many excellent accomodations available throughout Panamá. In contrast to the above category, the inclusion of a website below does in fact represent an endorsement of the vendor involved. I have been a guest at virtually all of these facilities, and would recommend any of them to birders visiting Panamá. Please do note that these lodgings come in varying price ranges, and the quality varies by location, as in the more remote parts of Panamá "rustic" is about the best one can hope for. All of these accomodations offer, at the very least, a clean bed and a solid roof overhead.

Birder's View, Cerro Azul: the home of respected birders Rosabel Miró and Karl Kaufmann- not fully operational as a lodge, but open for day trips; this is centered in a great area for birding.
Burbayar Lodge, Nusagandi: a somewhat rustic but surprisingly comfortable birders lodge on the edge of San Blas Province, in eastern Panamá.
Country Inns and Suites, Panama City: there are two inns available in Panama City, one in El Dorado, walking distance from Parque Metropolitano, and one in Amador, a great spot for seabirds and lowland species. Among my favorite places in which to kill a day or two while in transit.
Executive Hotel, Panama City: this splendid hotel in the center of Panama City has become my lodging of choice for my sproadic visits to the nation's capital.
Hotel Gran Nacional, David: a surprisingly comfortable hotel in David, the gateway to Chiriquí Province, a good place from which to launch ventures into more remote regions.
Hostal Casa de Campo, Las Nubes: this charming b&b is the best place to stay in the Cerro Azul area.
Ivan's Bed-and-Breakfast, Gamboa: a delightful family-operated b&b, located at the edge of some major birding sites.
La Estancia B&B, Panama City: I haven't been here, but this well-located B&B comes with good recommendations.
Hotel Riande Aeropuerto, Tocumen: this airport hotel can be a bit noisy, but the rooms are clean and comfortable, and it's a good base for excursions to Tocumen Marsh and points east.
Los Quetzales Lodge and Spa, Guadalupe: they offer regular hotel rooms and remote cabins, wonderfully located in the heart of the Chriquí highlands.
Park Eden B&B, El Valle: this lovely bed-and-breakfast is a great choice in El Valle for non-birders and independant types, and the availability of small apartments with kitchens may be attractive to those travelling with family.
Sierra Llorona Lodge, Colón: I haven't been here, but I hear goo things about this rustic lodge well-located in eastern Colón Province. 		 


Friends of The Canopy Report

These are the websites of various individuals who have contributed reports and/or photos to The Canopy Report. These sites vary in quality, but each and every one offers some information of interest to the neotropical birder. I share these sites in the spirit of gratitude to those individuals who have taken the time to send their reports to The Canopy Report.

Ariel Aguirre's website: nice photography and useful info from Panamanian birder Ariel Aguirre.
Ken Allaire's website: my personal website, chock full of trip reports and photos from Panamá and elsewhere.
Tony Beck's Website: Tony is a naturalist, photographer, and tour leader, and this site contains some of the finest nature photography you will ever find.
Jeff Bouton's Wildlife Pics: good stuff from a leader for Leica Sports Optics, the official optical company of the Canopy Tower and Lodge.
Allen Chartier's Blog: great journals and photos from a dedicated neotropical birder, one who has visited Panamá several times.
Marcus Martin's photobirder.com: Marcus is a wonderful photographer based in New Mexico, and this site contains an excellent photo library of hundreds of species of birds. 		 


Miscellaneous Resources

Here's a few more odds and ends that might prove useful on a birding trip to Panamá:

Xenornis: Darién Montañez's excellent Panamanian rare bird alert, drawing its material from a more local crowd than the Canopy Report.
Audubon Panamá: homepage for a tight group of local birders who offer field trips to some of the best sites in Panamá.
Xeno-canto Neotropical Bird Songs: one of the most valuable resources on the web, a huge library of neotropical bird recordings, contributed by members and free to all. A few hundred of the recordings come from Panamá.
Finca Hartmann: the site for one of my favorite places in western Panamá, home to outstanding shade-grown coffee and great birding in Chiriquí Province. 		 



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