Panama Part 1: Tranquilo Bay

While I've gotten to do quite a bit of travel this year–certainly much more than last year–not much of it has been for bird purposes. Obviously I've managed quite a bit of birding on the side, but even trips for pleasure like Oaxaca have been for a mix of things rather than proper birding trips.

That changed in September, quite dramatically. Earlier this year our friend Mollee invited Nikki and I to join her on a birding trip to Panama. We dragged our feet on giving an answer, in part because I was in a bit of a slump bird-wise at the time and in part because of some medical issues that made it difficult for Nikki to travel. Eventually Nikki encouraged me to go even though she wasn't able to join, so I accepted. That was a very good decision.

This was a birding trip, but a non-traditional one. Rather than buzzing around Panama trying to hit up as many places as possible and maximize our bird list, we were going to be based in one place almost the entire time. Mollee arranged an all-inclusive 7-day birding package with the Tranquilo Bay Eco Lodge, a nature lodge in the Bocas del Toro province of western Panama. We were to use the lodge as our home base and spend a week doing day trips to various spots around the area, concentrating almost as much on herps, moths, mammals, and general nature things as on birding. That's just about my platonic ideal of a vacation: a relaxed pace with no need to unpack and re-pack bags every day, but still being outdoors every day looking for cool wildlife. Even better, it was with just about the best birding crew I could have picked: Mollee, our good friend Josh, and Gabe, a birding from NYC who I met for the first time. The only thing that could have improved it was Nikki coming along, but hopefully that will happen on the next of these trips...

Panama is a country I've been fascinated by for quite some time now, and had long hoped to visit. While I've been to Costa Rica and Colombia on either side of it, it has an unusual history that sets it apart from its neighbors. A lot of that is, of course, related to the famous canal. Today the Panama Canal contributes to about 20% of the country's GDP, but in the 19th and 20th centuries it drove a huge and messy geopolitical scramble to control the isthmus, including Panama's independence from Colombia and some pretty blatant American imperialism that led to the US controlling the entirety of the canal until 1999. One would think that we live in more civilized times in the present day, and yet... These days Panama is one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America thanks to the canal, an active services sector including tourism, commerce, and finance (*cough* tax havens *cough*), mining, and agriculture, although it also features eye-watering income inequality and a 14% poverty rate.

Wildlife-wise, Panama is right smack in the middle of the transition zone between Central and South America, which makes sense considering it's, you know, an isthmus. In the west it's more or less an extension of Costa Rica, while the forests in the east around the Darien Gap have a much more South American feel. Unfortunately for my life list Bocas del Toro is in the western lowlands, meaning that most of the birds we were going to see were species I'd seen (or at least had a chance to see) in Costa Rica. Still, I had a good number of target birds that I was hoping to look for, and I was mostly there for the chance to hang out and see some cool critters.

I flew out of DC the afternoon of Friday, September 4, arriving in Panama City that evening. The great thing about a trip to Panama is that Copa Airlines is pretty much the default for any flights to Central America, so direct flights are frequent and cheap. This was actually technically my second time in Panama, as I'd taken the same flight on my way to Costa Rica in 2024. From the airport I took an Uber into the city where Mollee had gotten us a hostel for the night before we flew onward to Bocas del Toro. The next morning I met up with Mollee and Josh and we took a short Uber ride to Gelabert Airport, a very small subsidiary airport used for domestic flights. Mollee and Josh are never not birding, so I got my first few birds of the trip: Orange-chinned Parakeets outside our hostel, Great Egrets and Great-tailed Grackles near the runway, and a surprise Short-tailed Swift, which was actually a lifer for me.

We met up with Gabe at the airport and boarded our flight for a quick 45-minute plane ride to Bocas del Toro. The Bocas del Toro airport is in the capital of Bocas del Toro province, Bocas del Toro Town, which is on Isla Colón, an island in the Bocas del Toro archipelago (have I said "Bocas del Toro" enough yet?). The archipelago consists of six large islands and hundreds of smaller ones enclosing Almirante Bay and the Chiriquí Lagoon, extensions of the Caribbean Sea. 12 million years or so ago, when most of Panama was still underwater and South America was an island continent populated by giant armadillos and terror birds, the archipelago was a chain of volcanic islands similar to the Lesser Antilles. The volcanoes went extinct and the islands sunk underwater, only to rise back to the surface within the past few million years as the Isthmus of Panama was formed. These days they're low-lying islands surrounded by mangroves and coral reefs, with most towns accessible only by boat.

A map of our first destinations, brought to you by my pro-level drawing skills

In Bocas Town we met up with Álvaro, one of the boat drivers and guides at Tranquilo Bay, who took us to the dock where we would board the boat to the lodge. It was raining when we arrived, so we hung out in a little cafe on the docks for a while waiting for it to let up. Eventually the rain paused just long enough for us to load our things onto the boat and depart for Tranquilo Bay, only to resume not long after we got going. It ended up being a very wet ride, and we were thoroughly soaked by the time we arrived despite our raincoats.

Rain at the Bocas del Toro airport

Rain at the dock

Rain on the boat ride

The Tranquilo Bay Eco-Lodge is located on the southern end of Isla Bastimentos, an island just east of Isla Colón. It was founded by Jim and Renee, an American couple, but is otherwise operated by Panamanian staff. The lodge itself is a very cool set-up: almost entirely self-sufficient, with their own electricity generation and water purification systems, with a very strong emphasis on sustainability and recycling. Since the pandemic the owners have been increasingly targeting birders and other naturalists, and offers a variety of wildlife-focused trips around the area. That includes the deal Mollee worked out for us, which was a surprisingly affordable package that include all food, drinks, transportation, and laundry as well as our lodging and guides. I really can't recommend the lodge enough to anyone visiting Panama.

At Tranquilo Bay we met with Matías, who was our bird guide for the trip. He showed us around the lodge, though we were mostly interested in getting to our rooms and changing into dry clothes. I had my own cabin, which was nice and spacious with a comfortable bed and a hot shower I immediately made use of. Once we'd dried off a bit we had lunch at the restaurant and then hung out and waited for the rain to ease up. The four of us were the only guests at the lodge, so we had the whole thing to ourselves–luxury! We weren't in a huge hurry to begin birding, as we had the whole week there. Still, we had some nice incidental birds: Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds and Bananaquits were regular visitors to the feeders near the restaurant, and as I headed back to my cabin I had a Roadside Hawk calling from the top of a tree along with a flock of Montezuma Oropendolas and a female Crowned Woodnymph. The gardens were full of butterflies, dragonflies, and other pollinators although my camera lens was so fogged up from the moisture that I only managed mediocre pictures.

Roadside Hawk having a good scream

Montezuma Oropendola

Crowned Woodnymph

Banded Peacock (Anartia fatima)

Pompeius Skipper (Pompeius pompeius)

Swamp Dancer (Argia indicatrix), I think

Adeloneivaia jason, a cool emperor moth by the restaurant

Split-banded Owl Butterfly (Opsiphanes fabricii) helping itself to the restaurant feeders

Feigeria herilia, another cool moth hanging out by the restaurant

Border Anole (Anolis limifrons) by my cabin

The view from the restaurant balcony

The four of us reconvened with Matías later in the afternoon for a bird walk around the grounds of the lodge. There was a Black-cheeked Woodpecker in the cecropia trees near our cabins and a few Short-billed Pigeons a bit further up. I got my second lifer of the trip in the form of a Three-wattled Bellbird calling in the distance, but it wasn't a particularly satisfying one. We spent some time walking on the trails where we had a little group of Tawny-crested Tanagers, another lifer for me, a distantly calling Semiplumbeous Hawk, and a migrating Eastern Wood-Pewee. More interesting were the herps: one of the workers at Tranquilo Bay had found an Allen's Coralsnake in one of the buildings that morning and Matías had kept it in a bucket to release when we arrived, a snake lifer for all of us and a gorgeous one to boot. There were Green Climbing Toads all around on the forest floor, we also spotted a Talamanca Rocket Frog and a Savage's Thin-toed Frog hidden in the leaf litter. Slender Anoles were all over, and I found our only Ghost Anole of the trip lying motionless on a tree trunk.

Black-cheeked Woodpecker

Short-billed Pigeon

Allen's Coralsnake (Micururs alleni)–actually quite venomous although this little guy seems unlikely to do much damage

Green Climbing Toad (Incilius coniferus)

Talamanca Rocket Frog (Allobates talamancae)

Savage's Thin-toed Frog (Leptodactylus savagei)

Ghost Anole (Anolis lemurinus)

This gorgeous butterfly is actually moth–specifically a Urania Swallowtail Moth (Urania fulgens), which are brightly-colored and diurnal and were seen almost every day we were in Panama

Florestan Sphinx (Manduca florestan)

White Peacock (Anartia jatrophae)

Titan Sphinx (Aellopos titan), a mighty name for a delicate hummingbird moth

Green-celled Cattleheart (Parides childrenae)–your guess for the name is as good as mine

Hermes Satyr (Hermeuptychia hermes)

Biolleyana costalis, a weird planthopper

Ocoaxo panamensis, a fancy froghopper

These plants are usually called by the unfortunate name of "hot lips." According to iNaturalist this one is called a Sore-mouth Bush (Palicourea tomentosa), which isn't much better

Sargus fasciatus

Dark-saddled Darner (Gynacantha membranalis)

Golden Silk Spider (Trichonephila clavipes)

By the time we finished our walk through the woods it was 5PM, so we freshened up in our cabins for a bit and then headed to the canopy observation tower, one of the signature birding attractions of Tranquilo Bay. Canopy towers are an increasingly popular thing at nature lodges, especially in Panama (there's even a famous lodge named for that specifically), and honestly I don't know why every rainforest lodge doesn't have one–it gets you at eye level with lots of birds that otherwise would be seen only far overhead, and is a great way to see high-flying birds like raptors, swallows, and swifts as well. Tranquilo Bay's version isn't quite as over the top as some others–just a wooden tower about 20 meters tall–but it has the unique feature of having an absolutely gorgeous view over the bay itself, as well as the surrounding rainforest. Watching the sun set from the tower that first evening was one of the moments that made us realize we were in for a very, very good week.

Our backyard view for the week

The Roadside Hawk was perched lower down next to the tower, still screaming, and even better there was a Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth hanging out right next to the stairs! He spent the whole evening hanging the same tree branch scratching himself and generally looking ridiculous. We also saw a troupe of White-faced Capuchins hanging out on the roof of Gabe's cabin, which was much less cute. Bird-wise, the most noticeable tower visitors were the Red-lored Amazons, which flew by in the hundreds as the sun set heading to their communal roost. We had a brief flyby from a Bat Falcon, and there were many tanagers of various types hanging out in the treetops: Blue Dacnis, Shining Honeycreepers, Plain-colored Tanagers, and White-vented Euphonias, the latter of which was a lifer for me.

Roadside Hawk, still having a good scream

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth!

Red-lored Amazon

Male Blue Dacnis

Central American White-faced Capuchins should be cute, but they remind me a little too much of macaques, which I hate

Female White-vented Euphonia

Plain-colored Tanager

Female Blue Dacnis, at least as good-looking as the male

As the sun began to set a group of swallows and swifts came in, including Brown-throated Martins, a migrating Purple Martin, Lesser Swallow-tailed Swifts, and an all-dark swift that turned out to be a White-chinned Swift! That last one was a lifer for Josh (his only one of the trip), and of course for me–they're actually one of the more difficult of the New World swifts, being found from Guatemala down to northern Brazil but very sparsely distributed and poorly known. The Bocas del Toro area is apparently one of the most reliable places to see them, particularly in the fall as they're migrating from Central America to South America. After sunset a few Common Nighthawks flew above us on their way south, and a resident Short-tailed Nighthawk wheeled just above the treetops, another lifer for me.

Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift

I got many pictures of White-chinned Swifts, absolutely none of which were good

Common Nighthawk

Both Josh and I had brought moth lights, but that night we were too tired after a couple days of travel to put them up. Still, a number of interesting bugs came to the lights near the restaurant, enough that we resolved to do some proper moth lighting the rest of the week. A Mottled Owl was hooting in the woods between the restaurant and our cabins, which was a lifer for me, but I was too tired to look for it.

Oospila albicoma

Agelaia cajennensis

Maxantonia mylabroides

The giant leaf katydids are fun, but annoyingly difficult to ID. This one is in the genus Phylloptera, I think

Leptoglossus tetranotatus

Hypocharis clusia

Eusarca flexilis, I think

Adeloneivaia jason, I think

Six-spotted Bromeliad Fly (Copestylum sexmaculatum)

Synchlora pulchrifimbria

A very cool unidentified praying mantis (Angela sp.)

Two-spotted Bromeliad Spider (Cupiennius bimaculatus)

The next day, our first full day in Bocas del Toro, we headed to the mainland for our first and only trip up into the mountains, an interesting enough expedition that I'm going to cover it in its own blog post. We didn't return to Tranquilo Bay until almost sunset, but despite a jam-packed day we were still excited for some nighttime exploration. Josh pointed out the Greater Sac-winged Bats roosting on the wall of the bathroom, and as we walked back to the restaurant through the mangroves Gabe found a beautiful morpho butterfly resting with its wings open.

Greater Sac-winged Bat (Saccopteryx bilineata)

A cool epiphytic orchid (Epidendrum eburneum)

Common Morpho (Morpho helenor)

The walkway from the dock through the mangroves

After we ate our dinner and did our bird list for the day, we set out to look for nighttime wildlife. We didn't have to go very far: when we went outside, there was a Central American Woolly Opossum hanging out eating the fruit left out at the feeders! This particular individual, a male we nicknamed Ferdinand, became a nightly fixture at the restaurant, coming in to eat fruit and look goofy. He'd been there long enough that he was utterly unafraid of people, walking along the railing right next to us close enough that I could have petted him (I didn't, but I was very, very tempted).

Ferdinand the Central American Woolly Opossum (Caluromys derbianus)

Josh and I busted out our thermal scopes, and the four of us headed out to do a short night walk. Not far from the restaurant I spotted a couple of mammals in my scope that turned out to be Armored Rats, bizarre spiky rodents that are part of a family endemic to the tropical Americas. Josh the herper extraordinaire found an Almirante Robber Frog hanging out on a leaf, and a bit higher up I found a Jamaican Fruit-eating Bat. I was a bit confused at first because I'm used to the Southeast Asian heuristic that fruit-eating bats have cute puppy faces while insectivorous bats look ugly as sin with all sorts of strange ear and nose extensions. Apparently in the New World all bats, including the fruit-eating ones, cluster in the "ugly as sin" category.

Armored Rat (Hoplomys gymnurus)

Almirante Robber Frog (Craugastor talamancae)

Jamaican Fruit-eating Bat (Artibeus jamaicensis)

Josh had somehow managed to bring along an entire moth sheeting kit, which he set up next to his cabin. We had great fun cataloguing all of the strange moths and other animals that came in that night, including a Savage's Thin-toed Frog that hung out below the sheet presumably snacking on the insects it attracted. On my way back to the cabin I spotted a Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth hanging out next to the trail, a nice mammal lifer for me.

Left to right and top to bottom: Oxyptera laeta, Metalectra carneomaculata, Celtic Wave (Idaea celtica), the wonderfully named Sloth Moth (Cryptoses choloepi), Rhuda focula, Evius hippia, Hypocharis clusia, Hollow-spotted Blepharomastix Moth (Blepharomastix ranalis), Stained-glass Moth (Samea castellalis)

Left to right and top to bottom: Leuciris fimbriaria, Conibosa megalopercula, Epiperola monochroma (endemic to the Bocas del Toro archipelago!), Virbia medarda, Oxytenis modestia (I think), Epeiromulona lephina, Perigramma repetita, Antiblemma perornata, Idaea helleria

Savage's Thin-toed Frog (Leptodactylus savagei)

Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni)

Our third day involved only a half-day trip and a 20-minute boat ride, so we got to sleep in until 6:30 AM (luxury!) and have a leisurely breakfast before heading out. There was a stick insect the size of my forearm hanging out on the wall of the restaurant, and before we got on the boat we enjoyed looking at some of the tropical fish hanging out in the seagrass beds by the dock.

Annoyingly enough Neotropical stick insects are either too difficult to ID to species or just under-studied, because I can only ID this to genus (Alienobostra sp.), despite the fact it's 11 inches long and looks like the Cloverfield Monster

Dusky Damselfish (Stegastes adustus), I think

Schoolmaster Snapper (Lutjanus apodus)

Our destination for the morning was Isla Popa, the next island over in the Bocas del Toro archipelago. We hopped in the boat with Álvaro and Matías and made the short ride over to the Venado Canal on the western end of Isla Popa, a small channel through the mangroves that offers a chance to look for some of the local specialty birds. We saw the first as we were just drifting up to the mouth of the canal: a couple of Scaled Pigeons perched in the tops of the distant trees. As we got into the mangroves we found a Ringed Kingfisher that hung out for a while giving us some great views, as well as a singing Mangrove Warbler and a Muscovy Duck hidden deep in the aerial roots.

Scaled Pigeon (sadly we never got closer looks)

Ringed Kingfisher, probably my favorite New World kingfisher (even if it's not even in the top 10 kingfishers worldwide)

Muscovy Duck–actually native here!

Mangrove Yellow Warbler, somehow only recently split from American Yellow Warbler

The shore of Isla Popa

We drifted slowly through the Venado Canal looking for birds and other wildlife. Isla Popa is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel less than 100 meters wide, meaning it's home to some taxa of birds that don't make it to Isla Bastimentos, including toucans, woodcreepers, and tinamous. We had several of those: a pair of Keel-billed Toucans flying over the canal, a Great Tinamou calling from deep within the swamp forest, and heard-only Cocoa Woodcreeper and Northern Plain Xenops.

The straits between Isla Popa (which has toucans) and Isla Bastimentos (which does not) are less than a mile wide. Watching these Keel-billed Toucans fly across the canal made me wonder whether that's really too far for them to do

Yellow-headed Caracara

Some locals on the canal

Venado Canal scenery

There were also some other charismatic mangrove specialties to look for. As we made our way through the canal Matías spotted a Snowy Cotinga perched in the top of a tree, standing out bright white against the green leaves even from a distance. This was a bird I'd seen only very briefly in Costa Rica at Caño Negro, so it was great to get a proper look and a photo. Right below the cotinga we found a tiny American Pygmy Kingfisher which perched for a while giving us some nice photo ops. Álvaro somehow managed to spot a Short-tailed Nighthawk roosting motionless on a branch, and soon after we found three more of them! We did a full circuit of the canal, and on the far end we came upon a fruiting tree with a few Three-wattled Bellbirds–not the spectacular breeding male I'd been hoping for, but a proper lifer nonetheless.

Snowy Cotinga

American Pygmy Kingfisher

Another Muscovy Duck

Short-tailed Nighthawk

Three-wattled Bellbird

After a circuit of the canal we came ashore at a little dock next to a small house where the owners are apparently fine with the occasional group of birders looking around their property. A Yellow-throated Toucan came in and perched briefly as we got out of the boat, and we saw a hummingbird that turned out to be a Band-tailed Barbthroat, a lifer for Gabe and I. A pair of Pale-billed Woodpeckers flew around the treetops making a spectacle of themselves. Those were birds I'd only ever heard, so it was great to see them up close as they're truly spectacular woodpeckers.

In most of Costa Rica Yellow-throated Toucans are the more common of the two large toucans, but in this part of Panama Keel-billed Toucans dominate for whatever reason; this was our only good look at a Yellow-throated Toucan the whole trip

Band-tailed Barbthroat

Pale-billed Woodpecker

The real attraction of that spot wasn't the birds, however. It was the frogs; specifically, the Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs that were found in abundance in the leaf litter on the edge of the swamp. In most of their range Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs (known by locals as pumilio) are bright red as the name suggests, or have blue legs like the ones in Costa Rica called "blue jeans frogs." In the Bocas del Toro archipelago however they take on an absurd array of different color morphs, from orange or yellow to black, blue, or green and with a variety of different patterns. This is partly because the islands made for genetic drift between different islands' populations, but even in one island there can be a dozen or more different morphs. As a simple economist I can't fully wrap my head around the science of it all, but it seems that even the frogologists haven't totally figured out why there's so much variation here.

Matías and Álvaro had brought plastic gloves for frog-catching purposes (pumilio aren't as deadly as some of their cousins, but you wouldn't want to touch one and then touch your eyes), and we spent a while finding and photographic poison dart frogs. There was lots of other cool jungle wildlife too, including a Rainforest Rocket Frog, a giant long-horned beetle, and an iridescent orchid bee.

The first of what will be many, many pictures of Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Oophaga pumilio)

Rainforest Rocket Frog (Silverstoneia flotator)

Some kind of orchid bee (Euglossa sp.) on a spiral ginger flower (Dimerocostus strobilaceus)

A little soldier fly (Ptecticus testaceus, I think)

Ziegler's Stingless Bee (Tetragona ziegleri)

Baby Border Anole with a cricket

The other local species of "hot lips" (ugh) plant, Palicourea elata

Panamanian Spinyneck (Metaleptobasis foreli)

Ptychodes politus, a cool longhorn beetle

Mating Gray-waisted Skimmers (Cannaphila insularis)

We headed back to Tranquilo Bay for lunch, although on the way we had Álvaro stop the boat by a beautiful orchid we'd seen on a previous day when it had been too rainy to get pictures. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping, catching up with photo editing, and doing some casual naturalisting on the grounds of the lodge. The Greater Sac-winged Bats were still hanging out in their usual spot, and along the trail I spotted a Brown Basilisk and a Caribbean Least Gecko, the only record of that species for the trip.

Lady of the Night Orchid (Brassavola nodosa)

Greater Sac-winged Bat

Mudflat Fiddler Crab (Minuca rapax)

Brown Basilisk (Basiliscus vittatus)

White-tipped Cycadian (Eumaeus godartii)

Annoyingly the best picture I managed of Caribbean Least Gecko (Sphaerodactylus homolepis)

Large Woodskimmer (Uracis fastigiata)

Mangrove Tree Crab (Aratus pisonii)–who ever heard of a tree-climbing crab?

We spent another evening on the tower as the sun went down. The Three-toed Sloths were back again, this time a male displaying some impressive core strength as he munched on leaves, and a female with a tiny baby clinging to her belly. The Red-lored Amazons were too, along with a single Mealy Amazon that flew by, a photo-lifer for me. The usual mixed feeding flock came through the canopy, with White-browed Gnatcatchers, White-vented Euphonias, migrating Red-eyed Vireos, and a nice male Masked Tityra. As the sun set we had another flyby from a White-chinned Swift and later the Short-tailed Nighthawk.

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth living the good life

Mama and baby Three-toed Sloth

Red-lored Amazon

Mealy Amazon

Masked Tityra

Female White-browed Gnatcatcher

Male White-browed Gnatcatcher

Red-eyed Vireo, probably the most common migratory bird we saw in Panama

White-vented Euphonia

Nighttime naturalisting was another roaring success, with lots of new species at the moth sheet including possibly the strangest creature I've ever seen in real life: a planthopper nymph with iridescent tendrils coming out of its butt, looking like some kind of deep-sea creature, or maybe an alien from Pandora. Walking around with my thermal I had another encounter with Ferdinand the Central American Woolly Opossum, as well as a roosting male Crowned Woodnymph and an Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, which was a lifer for me. Just before I went to bed Josh and I were able to tape in the local Mottled Owl and get some pictures.

Left to right and top to bottom: Dolecta juturna, Neurophyseta sp. (I think), Salbia cassidalis, Glaphyria sp., Antiblemma ceras, Olive Arta Moth (Arta olivalis), Antiblemma mundicola, Banana Cockroach (Panchlora nivea), Cecrita lama

Left to right and top to bottom: Conchylodes nolckenialis, Streaked Sphinx (Protambulyx strigilis), Southern Milky Argyria Moth (Argyria lacteella), Panstrongylus geniculatus, Abrochocis esperanza, Eulepte gastralis, Tylozygus fuscolineellus (I think), some unknown curved-horn moth, Casuaria catocalis