Birding Gamboa and Pipeline Road

Gamboa is a quiet town in the shores of the Gatun lake (central Panama) that offers a wide variety of habitats. From gardens and residential areas to primary forest, you can find it all there, close to Panama city. With so many options, the perseverance is the key. That's why we try to visit this place almost every weekend and last saturday was not the exception. Osvaldo Quintero and myself went to this place, making our first stop in the ammo dump, as usual. With cameras in hand, we checked the marshes, finding the usual suspects: a juvenile Rufescent Tiger-Heron (close to a nest), Wattled Jacanas, White-throated Crake, Green Heron, a pair of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, Rusty-margined Flycatcher, and so on... Then, Osvaldo spotted three little birds high on a tree. A quick check with my binoculars confirmed that they were Olivaceous Piculets, a lifer for Osvaldo, and only the second time that I have seen this bird in Gamboa.
We entered the Pipeline Road (seeing a Little Tinamou at the entrance) and began to walk from the first bridge (Juan Grande). The activity was low, and the rising heat made us reach only the third bridge (Frijoles). Anyway, we heard some birds and tried to fotograph a Black-bellied Wren (frustrating). We deserved a cold drink, so we headed to the Rainforest Discovery Center. Trust me, you must visit this place. Is located in the middle of the forest, and they have the best lowland hummingbirds feeders in Panama (you can see my video here). If the hummingbirds don't impress you, then the circuit of trails or the 100 feet observation tower will. The place was crowded, but nonetheless we enjoyed the hummingbirds and some antbirds and tanagers attending an antswarm (no Ground-Cuckoos this time). This place is excellent for both the amateur birder and the bird-maniac-lister-&-twitcher. After saying goodbye to Margelis and Julia (our hostesses), we returned to the city. The plans for the evening include to attend the 11th PAS Owls, Wine and Cheese Night (Osvaldo) and to finish some case reports (I'm not in vacations yet!).