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A relaxing, week-long stay at the comfortable Canopy Tower during raptor migration. Expect world class birding, excellent accommodations, and incredible views of wildlife and scenery.

Situated at the crossroads of Central and South America, Panamá’s unique shape acts as a natural funnel between the continents, concentrating migratory birds on a narrow strip of land during their long biannual journeys. Making use of thermals which form over land, migratory raptors gather in massive ‘kettles,’ numbering in the thousands, sometimes more, during peak migration. Much depends on weather conditions and wind, but when conditions are right the raptor migration can be nothing short of spectacular – over a million raptors have been recorded in a single day in this small Central American country!

Our week-long stay is planned during fall raptor migration, so we’ll take every opportunity to experience the spectacle to the fullest, and we hope to see a good diversity of both migratory and resident species. We’ll sort through hordes of southbound Broad-winged and Swainson’s Hawks for anything else we can find, from Zone-tailed and Short-tailed Hawks to Mississippi and Double-toothed Kites, and Black & Ornate Hawk-Eagles. White, Barred, and Savannah Hawks are regularly seen as well. Though a focus of our tour will certainly be on raptors, we will take full advantage of the Canopy Tower’s convenient location and explore a number of other excellent hotspots from our base in Soberania National Park.

Join us and experience North America’s spectacular raptor migration in one of the best all-round birding locations in Central America!

Itinerary in Brief

Some of the birds we hope to see: Raptors - thousands of Broad-winged & Swainson’s Hawks and Turkey Vultures; Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture, Hawks (White, Zone-tailed, Roadside, Short-tailed, Gray-lined, White-tailed); Hawk-Eagles (Black and Ornate); Kites (White-tailed, Pearl, Double-toothed, Mississippi, Gray-headed); Forest-Falcons (Barred and potentially Collared); Falcons (Bat, Peregrine, Merlin, Aplomado, American Kestrel); Yellow-headed & Crested Caracaras

Other birds we hope to see: Black Guan, Crested Bobwhite, Scaled Pigeon, Plain-breasted Ground-Dove, Purplish-backed Quail-Dove, Common Potoo, Hummingbirds (White-necked Jacobin, Rufous-breasted, Green, Long-billed, and Stripe-throated Hermits, Black-throated & Veraguan Mangos, Green Thorntail, Rufous-crested Coquette, Green-crowned Brilliant, Long-billed Starthroat, Purple-throated Mountain-Gem, Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer, Snowcap, Snowy-bellied, Sapphire-throated, Violet-headed, Violet-bellied, and Blue-chested Hummingbirds); Gray-cowled Wood-Rail, Sunbittern, Rufous, Broad-billed, Tody, Lesson’s, and Whooping Motmots, Spot-crowned Barbet, Northern Emerald-Toucanet, Yellow-eared Toucanet, Stripe-cheeked, Crimson-crested, and Cinnamon Woodpeckers, Russet Antshrike, Spot-crowned Antvireo, Dull-mantled Antbird, Black-crowned Antpitta, Brown-billed Scythebill, Red-faced Spinetail, Lance-tailed, Velvety, White-ruffed, Rufous-browed Tyrannulet, Scale-crested and Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrants, Bran-colored & Tufted Flycatchers, Orange-billed Sparrow, and many tanagers (including Tawny-crested, Flame-rumped, Crimson-backed, Golden-hooded, Bay-headed, Emerald, Black-and yellow) and many more.

North American Migrants include: Bay-breasted, Kentucky and Tennessee Warblers, Northern and Louisiana Waterthrush, Summer and Scarlet Tanagers, Broad-winged and Swainson's Hawks, & many more.