Panama Birding Tour

Panama is a superb birding tour destination that allows us to explore some of the most accessible rainforests and high-altitude cloud forests on Earth. The native flora is simply stunning, and more than 10.000 species have been already identified. With roughly 29% of its territory protected within 15 nature reserves, Panamá is fast becoming a must-see destination for nature travellers the world over. Situated perfectly as a natural land bridge between the Americas, Panama also holds an incredible diversity of bird species and offers the perfect introduction to Neotropical birding. A whopping 978+ species have been recorded in this tropical paradise – that’s more than the USA & Canada combined – and in a country about the size of South Carolina! Furthermore, Panama birding is a joy as long travel days and arduous hikes are not necessary.

We begin our set of Panama birding tours in the vast rainforests of the Darien and its myriad of exciting birding opportunities. Key targets in this area include Harpy Eagle, Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo, stunning Blue Cotinga, Ocellated and Wing-banded Antbird, Rosy Thrush-Tanager and the bizarre Sapayoa.

Our Best of Panama tour concentrates on three further key areas. We spend several days in the Canal Zone, allowing us an unrivalled opportunity to explore the rainforests of Soberanía National Park. These exquisite forest and wetland sites provide diverse birding, while mammal opportunities are excellent. Our next attraction is the delightful hill country of El Valle de Antón where we explore cloudforest and a new range of mouth-watering Panama birding species!

We finish off our time in Panama with an extension to the Western Highlands of Chiriqui, part of a chain of volcanic mountains straddling the Panamanian and Costa Rican border. One of the obvious targets here will be the awe-inspiring Resplendent Quetzal, along with numerous hyperactive hummers including Volcano Hummingbird, Black-and-yellow Phainoptila (Silky-flycatcher), Turquoise Cotinga, Three-wattled Bellbird, Collared Whitestart, Flame-throated Warbler, the incomparable Snowcap and White-bellied Mountaingem whilst also dedicating time to finding the recently split Chiriqui Yellowthroat.

Panama birding tour

Client Testimonials

Having Rich Lindie as the Rockjumper guide was a "known commodity", as he was our guide for our Kenya & Tanzania trip in 2015. We have found Rich to be an excellent guide with undoubted birding skills, but also excellent people skills.

DB & RB, Panama 2018

Both guides and trip were great. Especially glad that Adam Walleyn offered to stay at the Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo location and skip lunch if any others wanted to also skip lunch to try to view the bird. Only two of us skipped lunch to stay with Adam and all three of us got to see the bird.

JB - Panama 2022

As is the tradition with all of the Rockjumper guides that we've had the pleasure of being in the boonies with, Tuomas Seimola was outstanding. We enjoyed the trip a lot.

RO & TO - Panama 2019

This was my first international birding tour experience, and so while I have no basis for comparison, I was completely satisfied by this tour. The guides were excellent. Their knowledge was near encyclopaedic, and most importantly, never-ending. I would actively seek to go on tour with Tuomas Seimola again.

CC - Panama 2019

Rich Lindie was an excellent guide and he really tried hard to find something interesting in the poor birding areas.

BR, Panama 2018

Rich Lindie was skilled, patient and good-humoured. I also think he did a good job of balancing the different needs of the group. Rich also balanced the list I had shared with him of my target birds with the time we had available.

LC, Panama 2018

Forrest is truly a pleasure. His bird-finding skills, both by sight and ear, are phenomenal, but even more striking is his singular personality and people skills. Always enthusiastic. Not only would I travel with Forrest again, I preferentially would select a tour if he was guiding.

AF, Panama

I really enjoyed the tour. Guides were knowledgeable and helpful, the group dynamics were good and - most importantly, we saw loads of exciting birds. I would undoubtedly have missed many species without the expert guidance and knowledge of Tuomas Seimola and the team.

BS - Panama 2019

Forrest is an outstanding guide. I often have trouble getting on a bird and he was very patient with me. He lived up to all the hype my friend told me. Looking forward to more trips with Rockjumper and especially with Forrest.

LR, Panama

First let me just say that the tour was excellent, the birding sites were interesting, the pace was perfect, Rob and both local guides were amazing. Top marks.

DR, Panama

* Please note: these prices are subject to foreign exchange fluctuations. 1231231

Panama