Birdwatching

The jungles and the skies are filled with the songs of many different birds in Bocas Del Toro. Bird watching is not yet a very developed activity, but one that promises to expand very quickly, once suitable conditions and qualified guides are established. However, bird watching can be done! It can be done by sea or by land, and even if you are not waiting watching only for birds, you will see them! Sea birds are very abundant. One of the biggest attractions over all the other birds has to be the Red-billed Tropic Bird (Phaeton aethereus), that nests in the Swan Cay, the only place known in the Caribbean that these birds nest. In that same key, declared a Bird Sanctuary, the brown booby (sula leucogaster etesiaca) also nests, whereas other important sea birds like the brown pelican (pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis), the frigate (fregata magnificens) and diverse gulls and terns are present but do not nest. In the coasts of mangroves it is possible to observe other birds, in addition to the aforementioned ones, specially the sandpipers, diverse herons and egrets, neotropic cormoran (Phalocrocorax o. olivaceus), the kiskadee and king fisher. In the forests and jungles it is possible to observe hummingbirds, tiles, hawks, doves, parrots, owls, oropendolas, woodpeckers, toucans (Popa Island), tanagers and many others. And the list of birds could not be complete without mentioning the inhabitants of the cities and towns: the great-tailed grackle (Cassidix mexicanus peruvianus), that already has extended also to the forests, black-headed vulture (Coragyps atratus) and the sparrows.