Panama has a reputation for being noisy.
Howler monkeys shout through the jungle. Cicadas sound like malfunctioning electrical equipment. Frogs call from every puddle. Toucanets crash through branches. Parrots announce their opinions to everyone within half a kilometer.
And then the sun goes down.
Suddenly, the jungle changes.
The daytime birds disappear into the foliage, monkeys settle down, and the forest begins producing a completely different soundtrack. Somewhere above you, a soft whoosh passes between the trees. A strange whistle comes from the darkness. Something clicks. Something screams. And occasionally, two enormous eyes appear in the beam of a flashlight.
Panama has entered its night shift.
And among the most fascinating members of that night shift are its owls.
Panama is owl country
Panama has an extraordinary variety of habitats packed into a relatively small country: Caribbean rainforest, Pacific lowlands, cloud forests, mangroves, dry forests, plantations, mountains and enormous protected areas.
That means there are plenty of places for nocturnal birds to make a living.
Among Panama's owls are species such as the Spectacled Owl, Crested Owl, Mottled Owl, Black-and-white Owl, Central American Pygmy Owl, Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Tropical Screech Owl and Striped Owl.
And they don't all behave like the stereotypical owl sitting on a branch going hoo hoo at midnight.
Some hunt from exposed perches. Some disappear almost completely into dense vegetation. Some specialize in insects. Others can take surprisingly large prey.
The owl you encounter depends enormously on where you are.
The Spectacled Owl looks like it knows something you don't
The Spectacled Owl is one of the spectacular larger owls of Central America.
Its name comes from the striking facial pattern around its eyes, giving it the appearance of wearing enormous spectacles.
It is a rainforest predator and can be difficult to see despite its size because dense tropical forests provide an almost ridiculous number of places for a large bird to hide.
And this is one of the great frustrations of nocturnal birding:
You can hear the bird.
You can sometimes pinpoint the direction.
You can even shine a flashlight toward the sound.
And there is absolutely nothing there.
The owl has apparently ceased to exist.
Until it decides otherwise.
The Crested Owl looks like it has been designed by a fantasy artist
The Crested Owl is another spectacular Panamanian species.
It has prominent feather tufts that give its head a distinctly prehistoric appearance.
Seeing one perched quietly in the darkness can be an almost surreal experience. You are looking at a modern bird, but something about the silhouette makes your brain briefly wonder whether you've stumbled into a lost dinosaur documentary.
Like many tropical owls, it is primarily nocturnal and spends much of its day concealed in vegetation.
Finding one can therefore feel less like birdwatching and more like discovering a secret.
But Panama's tiny owls may be even more surprising
Not all owls are big.
The Central American Pygmy Owl is tiny.
And it is absolutely adorable.
It is also a predator.
Pygmy owls have proportionally enormous personalities for such small birds. They can hunt insects and small vertebrates and may be active during daylight as well as around dawn and dusk.
That makes them particularly interesting because they don't always follow the traditional "owls only come out at night" rule.
In tropical forests, the boundaries between day and night can be surprisingly flexible.
Owls aren't the only birds working the night shift
This is where Panama gets really interesting.
If you go looking for nocturnal birds, don't limit yourself to owls.
One of the most extraordinary groups to encounter is the Potoos.
Potoos are masters of camouflage.
They sit motionless on branches during the day and can look almost exactly like a broken branch or piece of dead wood. Their plumage is cryptic, their posture is bizarre and their enormous eyes give them an almost supernatural appearance.
At night, they become active hunters.
And their calls are wonderfully strange.
A potoo doesn't sound like the cute little bird you might expect from its appearance.
It sounds like the jungle has developed a sense of humor.
Common Potoos are masters of disappearing
The Common Potoo occurs in Panama and is particularly associated with forest edges and wooded habitats.
During the day, it may sit completely motionless with its eyes partially closed, relying on camouflage rather than trying to escape detection.
This is one of the great evolutionary tricks of the tropical forest.
Instead of running away...
Become a stick.
And not just approximately stick-like.
Potoos can be astonishingly convincing.
Even experienced birdwatchers can walk directly past one.
Then there are the nightjars
Panama also has several species of nightjars, another group of nocturnal birds that most ordinary tourists never realize exists.
Nightjars are often active around dusk and during the night, feeding primarily on flying insects.
They have enormous mouths relative to their heads, which makes perfect sense once you understand their feeding strategy.
Imagine flying through the darkness opening your mouth and collecting insects.
That's basically the job description.
Nightjars can be incredibly difficult to spot because their brown and gray plumage blends beautifully into leaves, branches and forest floor.
You may hear one repeatedly without ever seeing it.
And then suddenly it flies across the road in front of you.
For about two seconds.
Congratulations.
You have just seen a nightjar.
The Great Potoo is one of Panama's legendary night birds
If you are extraordinarily lucky, you might encounter a Great Potoo.
It is huge compared with many other nocturnal birds and has a wonderfully bizarre appearance.
Its enormous yellowish eyes, enormous mouth and camouflage make it look like something created specifically for a creature-feature movie.
The Great Potoo spends the day pretending to be part of a tree.
At night it becomes an insect-eating predator.
And if you manage to see one sitting motionless on a branch, it is one of those wildlife encounters that stays in your memory.
Owls have an unfair advantage in the darkness
Owls are beautifully adapted for night hunting.
Their large eyes gather available light extremely efficiently, while their hearing is exceptionally sensitive.
And then there are those famous feathers.
The leading edges of an owl's flight feathers have specialized structures that help reduce the sound produced as air passes over the wings.
The result is extraordinary.
You may hear an owl calling.
You may watch it take off.
But when it flies past you, there can be remarkably little sound.
For prey animals, that is a serious problem.
Imagine trying to survive in the jungle while the predator capable of eating you has effectively installed a silent mode.
Their ears are part of the secret
Some owl species have asymmetrical ear openings, with one positioned slightly differently from the other.
This helps the bird determine where a sound is coming from.
That becomes extremely useful in a dark forest where visibility is limited.
An owl doesn't necessarily need to see a mouse clearly.
It can listen.
A rustle in the leaves.
A tiny movement.
A sound from somewhere below.
The owl calculates the direction and goes hunting.
It's basically biological surround sound.
The jungle becomes a completely different place at night
This is why a night walk in Panama can be so much more than simply looking for snakes and tarantulas.
During the day, you are seeing one version of the forest.
At night, you enter another ecosystem.
Owls begin calling.
Potoos become active.
Nightjars hunt insects over clearings.
Bats pour out from roosts.
Kinkajous climb through the canopy.
Olingos and other nocturnal mammals appear.
Tree frogs begin calling.
Insects become extraordinarily abundant.
And occasionally, something large moves through the vegetation that you absolutely cannot identify.
That last category is part of the fun.
And don't expect every owl to say "hoo"
This is perhaps the biggest misconception about owls.
There isn't one universal owl sound.
Different species produce whistles, hoots, screams, barks, growls, tremolos and strange rhythmic calls.
Some sounds barely resemble what you would imagine an owl making.
This is why learning the calls of local species can be far more useful than simply walking around with a flashlight shouting "owl!"
Although, to be fair, many people do exactly that.
The best way to find nocturnal birds
If you really want to see them, don't simply wander randomly through a forest at midnight.
Go slowly.
Listen.
Stop frequently.
Use a dim flashlight when possible and avoid shining bright light directly into animals' eyes for long periods.
Look at branches rather than just the ground.
Check forest edges, clearings and quiet roads.
And most importantly, learn the calls.
Once you recognize the sound of a particular species, finding the bird becomes dramatically easier.
Panama's forests are full of animals that you will hear long before you see them.
That is especially true after dark.
The real magic happens when you stop looking
The strangest thing about nocturnal birding is that sometimes the best strategy is to do absolutely nothing.
Turn off the flashlight.
Stand still.
Let your eyes adjust.
Listen.
The forest starts revealing itself.
A frog calls from somewhere nearby.
A nightjar makes a distant sound.
Leaves move above you.
Something flies silently between two trees.
Then, somewhere in the darkness, an owl answers.
You may never see it.
And strangely enough, that can make the experience even better.
Because in Panama, the jungle doesn't shut down when the sun disappears.
It changes shifts.
And while most visitors are asleep, an entire world of owls, potoos, nightjars, bats, frogs and other creatures is getting ready for work.