Altos de Campana National Park: 20 years later

Altos de Campana was the very first stablished national park in Panama, back in 1966.  It protects humid pre-montane forests at the upper slopes of the Campana hill, but it's probably more popular among locals because of the breathtaking views of Chame Bay from its lower grassy slopes.  Due to its proximity to Panama City, it is a nice place to look for foothills species on a day-trip.  For some reason, I simply overlooked this magical place for more than 20 years since my last visit there was in April 1998 (although I have done several visits to the lookout in the grassy slopes after that)!

Panama trail, Altos de Campana NP

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to start very early and payed a visit to this park.  I was the only visitor that day (to the trails at least).  The chilly atmosphere and the twisted trunks show the strength of the wind that face this part of the park.  Slowly, the activity started to grow.  The dawn chorus was full of new species for my Big Year quest.  In a quick succession I recorded Plain Antvireo, Spotted Woodcreeper, White-breasted Wood-Wren, Bananaquit, Red-crowned Ant-Tanager and Tawny-capped Euphonia.  The several different vocalizations of the euphonia fooled me for a while, until I was able to watch a pair close to the entrance to the trails.

Female Tawny-capped Euphonia

Walking the trails hearing only my steps and the song of the birds was truly relaxing I must admit.  It was so peaceful that I even started to hear the noise of ground-dwelling species over the dry leaves.  One particularly loud noise caught my attention.  Through a window in the foliage, I was able to watch a dark silhouette hoping from one site to another.  It was a familiar sight, one that I saw in the general same area in my last visit twenty years ago.  Some pishing and the bird revealed itself: a Black-crowned Antpitta!

Black-crowned Antpitta

This curious individual stayed long enough for a couple of photos.  After a while, I heard a second individual deep inside the dark forest.  There is no doubt that these birds inspired the tales of goblins and elves that our grandparents told us to warn us not to wander alone through the forest.  Well, I was wandering alone in this forest and was fortunate enough to see this goblin!  With limited time, I returned to the entrance of the park, not before taking my time photographing some nice butterflies on the way.

Heliconius cydno

This photo doesn't make justice to this Heliconius cydno! The flashes of blue and white when flying, as well as the soft shades of yellow and orange when perching are simply sublime.  As soon as I left the forest, the inclement heat of the grassy slopes hit me hard.  My plan was to drive directly to Panama City, but in the last minute I decided to make a stop at the lookout of grassy slopes.

Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch

After a while, a single Wedge-tailed Grass-Finch was very briefly interested to my attempts to attract him with playback.  This species is localized in Panama, absent from sites with apparently suitable habitat, and those slopes are a classic site to finding him.  After twenty years, I can say that Altos de Camapana NP still have a lot to offer and continue to be a very nice place to relax and watch birds (and butterflies), specially if you are short of time!