Birding Pipeline Road Panama with Whitehawk Birding

Sharing is caring!

In March of this year, I had the pleasure of birding in Panama for a week during my spring break. I stayed in Panama City and birded the Metropolitan Nature Park before taking an Uber to Gamboa to check out the action along Pipeline Road. I booked a day of birding with Whitehawk Birding. I already wrote a specific post about the experience of tracking an army ant swarm to see birds like the ocellated antbird. This post will cover the rest of the day.

Ammo Pond birding

I was picked up promptly at 5:30 a.m. by Michael at the Gamboa Rainforest Lodge. Our first stop was Ammo Pond, which was just outside the entrance of Soberania National Park and the famed Pipeline Road. During World War II, the United States dug these ponds to get easy access to water in case they needed it to put out fires from a possible German or Japanese attacks. The ponds provide an easy open access to water birds.

Related: Birding Finca El Pilar near Antigua, Guatemala

At first, the birding started out slow here. We saw greater and smooth-billed anis, a pale vented pigeon, and several different flycatchers. The longer we stayed, the more birds just popped out into view. Ironically, the most interesting birds we saw here were not even water birds. A male and female barred antshrike stole the show. The male appeared on barbed wire that protected nearby building, and the female was working the nearby vegetation. The difference between the male and the female is striking, but they are both equally beautiful.

We then started seeing some waterbirds including several rufescent tiger herons, both a green and a ringed kingfisher, black-bellied whistling ducks, wattled jacana, and a purple gallinule. Then, a flock of over 30 brown pelicans flew over. Another non waterbird highlight was a Panama flycatcher, which is endemic to the country.

Pipeline Road birding and Soberania National Park

We then drove into Soberania National Park to begin birding Pipeline Road. The first species we saw entering the national park was not a bird. A three-toed sloth was up in one of the trees at our first stop. Our first objective was a golden-collared manakin, but seeing a sloth first was a nice surprise. Soon after, we saw a couple of the manakins as they were making their snaps to get heard.

After the manakins, we saw a couple of birds that were quite familiar to me. Chestnut-sided warblers and bay-breasted warblers are two species that I saw early on that I would see once again in a couple of months. They are two species that migrate through Chicago in May. In fact, if I could talk warbler, I would have tried to convince them to join me on the flight home. It would have saved them a thousand miles of flying. I then saw a broad-billed motmot, which is a bird I definitely do not get to see in Chicago or anywhere near.

Once we entered Pipeline Road, the birding was pretty nonstop. We saw shiny honeycreepers, black-breasted puffbird, a white-necked jacobin, and a roadside hawk. I was not necessarily targeting any species, but of course you always want to see the sexy birds like the keel-billed toucan and the collared aracari. These two species did not disappoint as I got good pictures from both species.

Turned around by a storm at the Pipeline Road trailhead

We kept working up the gravel road, parked the car, and then walked away from the car. Michael would go back to get the car, and we would repeat continuing to bird up the road. Eventually, we came to a trailhead where the trail continued and the road ended. Threatening rain and thunderstorms began, so we decided not to go any further and continue to bird in the adjacent area. We saw a fasciated antshrike, and then ran in to the army ant swarm birds. A red-capped manakin was heard then spotted making it the second manakin of the day.

I would love to return and hike all of Pipeline Road. That is a journey for another day. On this day we saw almost fifty species. Other highlights included white-whiskered puffbird, slaty-tailed trogons, and a male and female northern black-throated trogons. The black-throated trogons and the puffbird were two more lifers.

I definitely would recommend Whitehawk birding if you go to Panama. There are many options for guides in Panama, but Michael with Whitehawk was exceptional. They run guided trips throughout Panama, so I hope to hook up with them again for another excursion in the future.

Other posts from Panama:

Birding the army ant swarm along Pipeline Road

Metropolitan Nature Park Panama

Here are ebird links from Ammo Pond and Pipeline Road

Adventure on!