Warblers during a trip to the southern canal zone and Cerro Azul in Panama Dec 13-16

Bay breasted Warbler, Pipeline Road, Gamboa, Panama, Dec 13, 2023

Chestnut sided Warbler, Pipeline Road, Gamboa, Panama, Dec 13, 2023

I decided to make a few day stop in Panama on my way home from Brazil to break up the long flight home. I had never been to Panama before and the country actually holds two very range restricted warbler species. The first is Pirre Warbler which occurs deep in the Darian section of southern Panama on the Colombia border and the second is Tacarcuna Warbler which also primarily occurs in roughly the same areas deep in the Darian. There are some reports of the species occurring on a couple of mountains further north, with one of those areas being Cerro Azul and this is the spot I would spend most of my limited time in Panama in an attempt to find the species there. 

After very long final day in Brazil, several hours at the São Paulo airport and then a red eye flight I finally arrived in Panama. The flight was actually a bit early and it was a smooth trip through immigration and I was out of the airport to meet my guide Edwin from Whitehawk Birding around 6:30AM. We started the drive through the rush hour traffic of Panama City and headed to Gamboa along the Panama Canal and then on to the famous Pipeline Road where we spent a few hours before a lunch break. The number of overwintering Bay Breasted Warblers was impressive and was about tied with Chestnut sided Warbler as the most frequent warbler seen. Other warblers seen included Yellow Warbler and Common Yellowthroat. 

Yellow throated Warbler, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 14, 2023

Yellow throated Warbler, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 14, 2023

Black throated Green Warbler, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 14, 2023

Tennessee Warbler, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 14, 2023

Bay breasted Warbler, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 14, 2023

The first full day in Panama saw us heading out before dawn to make the drive up to Cerro Azul in the long shot attempt to locate a Tacarcuna Warbler. We arrived in the area around seven and started a series of walks in the area. Unfortunately the wind was a factor all day and made tracking down birds a bit of a hassle. We tried our best but came up empty on the Tacarcuna Warbler but all was not lost as we had a number of warblers including two that tripped the eBird filter with Yellow throated Warbler and Black throated Green Warbler. We ended the day with half a dozen warbler species with Tennessee Warbler being the most common and the others being Bay breasted Warbler, Black and White Warbler and Chestnut sided Warbler. 

Louisiana Waterthrush, Rio Mono, Cerro Azul, Panama, Dec 15, 2023

Jungle without a Tacarcuna Warbler in it, Cerro Jefe, Panama, Dec 15, 2023

The final full day in Panama we headed back up to the Cerro Azul area. On our way up the mountain we made a brief stop along a small river known as the Rio Mono. As we looked along the rock strewn river we noticed a Louisiana Waterthrush working the swift moving river. A Bay breasted Warbler was also seen during this stop. These ended up being the only warbler species we got in the Cerro Azul area for the morning. We decided to come down the mountain to look for other species in a remnant portion of mangroves around midday. This location produced a few Yellow Warbler and a Northern Waterthush.  We had just three species of warbler for the day. The low number was mainly due to not spending as much time in slightly lower elevations on the mountain where we had more diverse mixed flocks the day before. 

Sadly we missed finding the Tacarcuna Warbler despite a valiant effort. The species may not even exist in the area any longer as there are very few reports in the last several years despite the area receiving fairly birder coverage. I figured it was worth a try and would have saved me from having to make a much, much more involved trip to the very remote Darian area of Panama to see it. During my time in Panama I had ten species of warblers.  More on the entire trip beyond the warblers at the following link: Panama Dec 2023.