Field Guides Birding Tours

WILD DARIEN
Cana & Cerro Pirre

A true wilderness area accessed by chartered aircraft; rich Neotropical avifauna with many endemics and species of restricted range.
2008
December 27-January 5, 2009
with Dave Stejskal		 2009
February 12-21
with John Coons

2010
February 11-20

$3475 (December 2008); $3375 (February 2009). 10 days
From Panama City. Limit: 8
Double rooms in bunkhouse at lower site (with warm showers and flush toilets), permanent tented camp at upper site (with cold showers and flush toilet; 2 nights); moderate trails at Cana; difficult trails to and above upper camp. Our staff travel agents can book your air travel for this tour. Contact us at (800) 728-4953 for more information. 2009 tour may be combined with PANAMA'S CANOPY TOWER II.

See our triplist for 2008(February) or 2007(December) or 2007(January)

Ocellated Antbird
Ocellated Antbird
by participant Anthony Collerton
On the Colombian border at the southern end of the Serranía de Pirre, a hundred miles from the nearest road, Alturas de Nique reaches into the clouds above the vast lowland forests of Darien.  Pirre’s isolation has fostered the development of several endemic species (Beautiful Treerunner, Pirre Warbler, Pirre Bush-Tanager, Green-naped Tanager) and a number of “Darien specialties” restricted to the forested slopes of eastern Darien and adjacent northwestern Colombia (Rufous-cheeked Hummingbird, Dusky-backed Jacamar, Varied Solitaire, and Sooty-headed Wren).  Panama endemics restricted to eastern Panama are also found here, such as Stripe-cheeked Woodpecker and Violet-throated Toucanet.  Large cracids and big macaws that have been essentially extirpated from most of the rest of Panama are still regular here in the wilds of Darien.

Once the site of the world’s most productive gold mines, abandoned Cana is the perfect base for our exploration of Pirre’s abundant wildlife.  Here flowering Erythrinas attract such lovely birds as Viridian Dacnis, Scarlet-browed Tanager, Barred Puffbird, Black-tipped Cotinga, and Cinereous and One-colored becards, not to mention a plethora of hummingbirds.  Raptors, too, abound—soaring over the airstrip and perched in the towering trees.  In the surrounding forests we’ll search for all the specialties, including the enigmatic Sapayoa, and we’ll check out every column of raiding army ants in hopes of locating a seething swarm for such prizes as Black-crowned Antpitta and Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo.  Along the way we could encounter any of four species of monkey or even a Baird’s Tapir.

During our trip we’ll climb the steep ridge trail up Alturas de Nique (known as “Cerro Pirre” by convention) and camp for two nights on the upper slopes.  On our way up or on a morning climb in the forest above our campsite, we could encounter Purple-throated Woodstar, Wing-banded Antbird, Ochre-breasted Antpitta, a singing Rufous-breasted Antthrush, a curious Choco Tapaculo, perhaps a Crimson-bellied Woodpecker, and several wonderfully musical Varied Solitaires, together with the highly localized endemics in the forest near Pirre’s summit.  If you’re strongly lured to the wilderness and willing to hike and camp, join us in Darien for the most exciting birding in Middle America.

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