Gamboa Rainforest Resort: Above It All

The view from the canopy tower at Gamboa is incredible: the hotel grounds, the Chagres, and the Panama Canal all at once. And birds to boot!

The most dazzling and least expected constellation of my entire trip was had atop the tower, where a fine Bay-breasted Warbler fed in the treetops at eye level while a trio of noisy Blue-headed Parrots flashed around beneath us. I’d seen the parrot, poorly, a couple of times before, but this was my first chance to really enjoy their beauty, with deep blue heads and glistening green wings.

We lingered as long as we could, enjoying the occasional bird and the snoozing kinkajou in the rafters, but when the cruise ship cruisers arrived for the climb, we ducked the crowds and headed back down, where the hotel grounds were as lively as could be. Crimson-backed Tanagers were abundant and conspicuous; this one was wearing a silver bracelet.

The Gray-headed Chachalacas were still feeding off my veranda; hardly appropriate behavior for a cracid, but they did manage to frustrate every effort at a good picture.

Less coy were the Southern Lapwings pacing off the lawns and tennis courts. This is a species on the move, and it won’t be long (depending on your time scale, I suppose) before they arrive here in southeast Arizona; there are already signs of the attempt to colonize the Atlantic Coast of North America, and they have appeared on the Pacific Coast in Mexico.

Not bad for birds seen on the walk back to one’s room!