Tranquilo Bay Features:

1. •Incredible birding
   

2. •Biodiversity of flora & fauna
   

3. •Biologist/Naturalist guides
   

4. •Amazing eco adventures
   

5. •National parks and reserves
   

6. •Indigenous Culture
   

7. •Gracious accommodations
   

8. •Outstanding fresh meals
   

Experienced Biologist And Naturalist Guides

All of our guides have called Bocas del Toro home for ten years or more.  They are biologists and naturalists who for many reasons have spent a lifetime in the pursuit of wildlife.  They have years of experience observing the local flora, fauna, ecology and natural history of the Bocas del Toro area specifically and Panama in general.  Collectively our guides have over 40 years experience exploring this remote area of the Western Caribbean Slope.  During the last decade our expeditions have taken us through many habitats from the upper montane cloud forests through the lowland rainforest to the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea.  Our guides have Wilderness First Responder (WFR) training and are well prepared to manage challenging situations if necessary.  The Western Caribbean Slope is a remarkable geographic natural phenomenon, seeing it come to life through the knowledgeable eyes of our guides is a fascinating experience.

Panama Birding Tours

If your travel arrangements include and overnight stay in Panama City, many of the most famous areas for birds in Panama, such as Pipeline Road, Soberania National Park, Metropolitan Park, Old Gamboa Road and the Rainforest Discovery Center, can be arranged as a day trip from your Panama City hotel.  Tranquilo Bay will be happy to assist you in planning any Panama City tours, by making reservations or putting you in contact with the most reputable tour providers and best naturalist or bird guides in Panama.

Birding Western Panama - Bocas del Toro

Birding in Panama, an area roughly the size of South Carolina, there are well over 900 recorded bird species, more than the U.S. and Canada Combined.  The Province of Bocas del Toro hosts two overlapping Endemic Bird Areas, (EBA 019) Central American Caribbean Slope and (EBA 020) Panama and Costa Rica Highlands.  A Panama birding tour is not complete without visiting western Panama’s Caribbean slope, one of the most important areas for restricted range avifauna in the world.

In western Panama the Caribbean Slope of the Talamanca mountain range, Tranquilo Bay’s back yard, plunges some 11,000 feet from the high alpine forest of La Amistad National Park into the lowland rainforests bordering the Caribbean Sea, in a span of less than 40 miles.  Within the areas we explore from our comfortable facility the altitude ranges from 7,000 feet to sea level in a zone where nearly 500 species of birds can be found.  This extreme biodiversity and high level of endemic species is due to abrupt changes in altitudinal zones and extreme geographic features creating many distinct ecosystems, as well as, migratory corridors.

Tranquilo Bay is located on 100 pristine acres, adjacent to Bastimentos National Marine Park, amongst the convergence of 3 distinct ecosystems.  This creates an extremely diverse and unique wildlife observation site where flora and fauna overlap from separate worlds increasing diversity.  In a week it is possible to identify over 100 species of birds without leaving the property.  There are several elevated porches throughout the facility, creating an incredible eye-level view.  While birding onsite you might also encounter white-faced capuchin monkeys, night monkeys, two and three toed sloths, iguanas, caiman, butterflies, a variety of frogs and lizards, and within the canopy a collage of rain forest hardwood and fruit trees, lianas, mangroves, ferns, orchids and cycads.

From your cabana, on the rainforests edge overlooking the Caribbean Sea, wake to the morning call of hundreds of red-lored Amazon parrots, the beautiful voice of flocks of Montezuma oropendolas, and the mysterious sounds of the Green Ibis on the wing.  Take coffee on your private elevated veranda as humming birds zip by, raptors hunt for their morning meal and brown pelicans share a few sardines with the magnificent frigates, just beyond the mangrove forest.  Hundreds of trees, bushes, and flowering plants have been strategically blended throughout our living areas to attract a diverse variety of birds without the use of feeders.

Our central location in the archipelago allows us to explore freely, traveling by boat directly from the facility for all of our excursions.  Due to dramatic geographic formations and Bocas del Toro’s dynamic environment the range of different bird habitats seem endless.

Birds Of Isla Bastimentos  (Common favorites)

1. •Gold Collared Manakin
   

2. •Three Wattled Bell Bird
   

3. •Violet Crowned Wood Nymph
   

4. •Red Lored Amazon Parrots (by the hundreds)
   

5. •Green Ibis
   

6. •White-Crowned Pigeon
   

7. •Blue Dacnis
   

8. •White Hawk
   

9. •Red-legged Honeycreeper
   

10. •Green Honeycreeper
    

11. •Lineated Woodpecker
    

National Parks And Reserves

Of Bocas del Toro, Panama

To say that the biodiversity here is extreme would seem just a bit reserved.  The Province of Bocas del Toro is host to an UNESCO world heritage site, is part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, the zone of two overlapping Endemic Bird Areas and home to Amistad National Park, Bastimentos National Marine Park, Palo Seco Forest Reserve, and the San San Pond Sak Wetlands.These protected areas form a biological corridor ranging from upper montane cloud forest to the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea.  No other protected area complex in Central America contains as many viable populations, species, or life zones. The avifauna is particularly diverse with some 600 species.  The Talamanca range is estimated to support about 4% of all terrestrial species on the planet earth.

Bird Photography And Digiscoping

We have several excellent vantage points surrounding the lodge that are superb areas for photographing and digiscoping the birds of Bocas del Toro.  There are also many fruit trees throughout the facility that are full of birds when fruits are in season.  You won’t have to carry your heavy equipment very far to get some great bird photos while on site.  Tranquilo Bay maintains spotting scopes, low-mid quality binoculars, and a few portable tripods.