Panama is an extraordinary country for seabirds because it has something almost no other country in Central America can offer: two very different oceans separated by a remarkably narrow strip of land. The Pacific Ocean lies to the south and the Caribbean Sea to the north, and between them are thousands of kilometres of coastline, islands, mangroves, beaches, mudflats, rocky shores, estuaries and offshore waters.
This makes Panama much more than a place to see a few pelicans flying along the beach. Its coasts support an enormous variety of marine birds, from spectacular frigatebirds and diving boobies to pelicans, gulls, terns, skimmers, oystercatchers and huge numbers of migratory shorebirds. Panama's location also makes it an important meeting point for birds travelling between North and South America. Millions of migratory shorebirds use the country's coastal wetlands during their journeys, with Panama Bay being particularly important.
Two oceans, two different experiences
One of the fascinating things about birdwatching in Panama is that the Pacific and Caribbean coasts don't feel like identical versions of the same environment.
The Pacific side has enormous tidal changes in many areas, extensive mudflats, mangrove forests and broad estuaries. The Caribbean coast has its own combination of islands, reefs, beaches, mangroves and coastal forest.
That variety gives birds many different places to feed and rest.
And then there are the islands.
Panama has roughly 1,500 islands and islets, many of which remain surprisingly poorly surveyed by scientists. The islands of Coiba National Park in particular contain important seabird colonies, including Brown Boobies and Magnificent Frigatebirds.
For a birdwatcher, this means that getting offshore can completely change what you see.
Brown Pelicans: the coastal giants
One of the easiest seabirds to recognize in Panama is the Brown Pelican.
You don't need binoculars to identify one. Their enormous bills and expandable throat pouches make them unmistakable, and watching them fish is even more impressive.
Brown Pelicans often fly low over the water, sometimes in lines, flapping and gliding close to the waves. Then, when they spot a fish, they can perform one of the most spectacular feeding behaviours of any coastal bird: the plunge dive.
Instead of simply landing on the water and grabbing a fish, the pelican can climb above the surface, fold its wings and dive almost vertically into the ocean.
It looks completely ridiculous until you realize how effective it is.
The bird is essentially turning its entire body into a guided missile.
Audubon describes the Brown Pelican as a coastal-water specialist that commonly flies over shallow coastal waters and is particularly recognizable by its plunge-diving behaviour.
The enormous throat pouch has a scientific purpose
That giant pelican bill isn't just there to make the bird look prehistoric.
The expandable pouch underneath the bill acts as a fishing tool. The pelican plunges into the water, opens its bill and captures fish along with a large quantity of water. It then raises its head and allows the water to drain away before swallowing its food.
It is a remarkably specialized feeding system.
Watching a pelican fish also gives you a good demonstration of how differently birds can solve the same problem. A gull grabs food from the surface. A tern dives. A frigatebird steals or snatches food from the air or water. A pelican dives from above.
Same ocean.
Completely different strategies.
Magnificent Frigatebirds: the pirates of the sky
If Panama has a bird that looks as though it belongs on the flag of a pirate ship, it is the Magnificent Frigatebird.
These huge black seabirds have extremely long, narrow wings and deeply forked tails. Males have a remarkable red throat pouch that can be inflated during courtship displays.
But their most impressive feature may be their ability to remain airborne.
Frigatebirds are superb soaring birds and can spend long periods flying over tropical seas without needing to land. They use rising air currents to remain aloft while searching for food.
They are so closely associated with the sea that Audubon notes that Magnificent Frigatebirds can even cross the Isthmus of Panama from one ocean to the other.
Think about how bizarre that is.
A seabird can be flying over the Pacific in the morning, cross the narrowest part of the Americas, and eventually find itself over the Caribbean.
Panama is literally sitting in the middle of its flight path.
Frigatebirds have a rather cheeky feeding strategy
Frigatebirds have another unusual behaviour.
They are capable of taking food from other seabirds.
A frigatebird can pursue another bird in the air and force it to drop or regurgitate food, which the frigatebird then grabs.
This behaviour has earned frigatebirds a reputation for being the pirates of the seabird world.
They also catch flying fish and other marine prey and can pick food from the ocean surface.
Their long wings are perfectly suited to soaring, but their feathers are not particularly adapted to repeatedly diving into seawater. That makes their aerial lifestyle particularly useful.
They can spend enormous amounts of time above the ocean without behaving like a traditional diving seabird.
Brown Boobies are built for diving
Then there are Brown Boobies, which take almost the opposite approach.
Where frigatebirds specialize in staying airborne, boobies are excellent divers.
They can sit on rocks, islands and coastal structures and then plunge into the ocean after fish.
Panama's offshore islands provide important breeding habitat for Brown Boobies. Smithsonian researchers studying Isla Boná documented Brown Booby nests there along with colonies of Brown Pelicans and Magnificent Frigatebirds.
And Coiba National Park is another spectacular location for observing seabirds.
Researchers working on Jicarón and Jicarita islands reported hundreds of Brown Boobies and frigatebirds gathering along the southern shoreline of Jicarita at sunset, creating what Smithsonian described as an exceptional opportunity for watching pelagic birds.
That must be an incredible sight.
Imagine sitting on an isolated Pacific island as the sun goes down while hundreds of seabirds gather around cliffs above the ocean.
Panama's islands are seabird cities
Some offshore islands essentially function as seabird cities.
During breeding season, cliffs and vegetation can become crowded with nesting birds. The surrounding ocean provides food while the islands provide places where adults can raise their young.
This is one reason islands are so important to seabirds.
A bird may spend most of its life travelling enormous distances over the ocean, but when it needs to reproduce, it needs a very specific place where it can safely land, nest and raise a chick.
That makes apparently insignificant little islands incredibly valuable.
A tiny rocky island that looks completely useless to a human being may be an extremely important piece of real estate to thousands of seabirds.
Coiba is one of Panama's great seabird destinations
For anyone fascinated by marine wildlife, Coiba National Park is one of the country's most remarkable places.
The park includes Coiba Island and a huge surrounding marine environment in the Gulf of Chiriquí. Smithsonian describes Coiba as one of the wildest places in Central America, with exceptional biodiversity both on land and in the sea.
The birdlife is fascinating as well.
Research on Jicarón and Jicarita has demonstrated that even islands within this already well known national park can still produce new bird records. Surveys between 2004 and 2019 documented 115 species on Jicarón and 53 on Jicarita, including species that had not previously been recorded from Coiba National Park.
That is a great illustration of how much there still is to discover in Panama.
Terns: the aerial fishing specialists
Panama's coastal waters are also used by numerous terns.
Terns are elegant, streamlined seabirds with long pointed wings and sharp bills. Many species are expert plunge divers, hovering or flying above the ocean before suddenly dropping toward the surface to catch fish.
They can look almost effortless in flight.
A tern may spend minutes flying back and forth above a particular patch of water, apparently doing nothing, and then suddenly fold its wings and disappear beneath the surface.
Their ability to exploit small fish near the surface makes them an important part of tropical marine food webs.
The Black Skimmer is one of the weirdest
One of Panama's most unusual coastal birds is the Black Skimmer.
Its bill looks as though somebody made a mistake during construction. The lower mandible is longer than the upper mandible.
But that strange design is incredibly clever.
The skimmer flies low over calm water with its lower bill cutting through the surface. When it encounters a fish or other prey, the bill snaps shut.
It is one of the most specialized feeding techniques found among birds.
Seeing a group of skimmers flying low across the ocean at sunset can be an extraordinary experience because they almost look as though they are slicing the surface of the water with their beaks.
Audubon identifies the Black Skimmer among the important shorebirds found along Panama's coast.
Oystercatchers have completely different equipment
The American Oystercatcher is another fascinating coastal bird.
Instead of diving into the ocean, it searches along beaches and rocky shorelines for shellfish.
Its enormous, strong bill is designed for opening or extracting mollusks from rocks and sand. The bird's black head, white body and striking orange-red bill make it particularly recognizable.
In Panama, both resident and migratory populations occur.
Watching an oystercatcher feeding is a reminder that seabirds don't necessarily have to catch fish to depend on the sea.
For some species, the real treasure is hiding inside shells.
Panama is incredibly important to migratory shorebirds
Not every coastal bird in Panama actually lives there year round.
This is one of the most remarkable parts of Panama's bird story.
The country lies along major migration routes connecting North and South America. Every year, enormous numbers of shorebirds arrive from breeding grounds much farther north.
Panama's mudflats, mangroves and estuaries become temporary feeding stations.
Audubon estimates that 1 to 2 million shorebirds use Panama's coastal wetlands each year, including habitats around the Bay of Panama.
The Bay of Panama is particularly spectacular. Audubon reports that it supports around one third of the global population of Western Sandpipers and around one fifth of the world's Semipalmated Plovers.
Those numbers are extraordinary when you realize that the birds using Panama's coastline may have travelled thousands of kilometres to get there.
Western Sandpipers are tiny birds with enormous journeys
The Western Sandpiper is a perfect example.
It is a relatively small shorebird, yet its migration connects Arctic breeding grounds with coastal areas much farther south.
When the birds arrive in Panama, they can gather in huge numbers around productive mudflats.
They spend their time feeding on small invertebrates and other food exposed by the tides, building up the energy reserves they need for the next stage of their journey.
To a casual visitor, a flock of tiny shorebirds running around a mudflat might look like an ordinary part of the beach.
Scientifically, it is an international event.
A single wetland in Panama can be supporting birds whose lives are connected to ecosystems thousands of kilometres away.
Ruddy Turnstones are miniature beach engineers
Another fascinating visitor is the Ruddy Turnstone.
The name tells you exactly what it does.
These birds walk along beaches and rocky shorelines, using their bills to flip over stones, seaweed and debris in search of insects, crustaceans and other small creatures.
It is a wonderfully practical adaptation.
Instead of searching randomly across the beach, the bird changes the environment slightly to reveal what is hiding underneath.
Panama provides important winter habitat for Ruddy Turnstones and other migratory shorebirds.
Black-bellied Plovers can travel enormous distances
The Black-bellied Plover is another migratory shorebird that can be found around Panama's beaches and wetlands.
Its appearance changes considerably between breeding and nonbreeding plumages, but the species is generally a fairly large, sturdy shorebird.
During migration, Panama provides an important place to stop, feed and rest.
That makes coastal wetlands much more than beautiful scenery.
They are essentially refuelling stations for international travellers.
Destroy the wetland and you aren't simply affecting a bird in Panama.
You may be affecting a bird whose breeding grounds are thousands of kilometres away.
The Bay of Panama is an extraordinary bird spectacle
One of the most fascinating places to appreciate this phenomenon is the Bay of Panama.
It is an unusual juxtaposition of nature and one of Central America's largest cities.
Panama City's skyscrapers can rise behind enormous coastal mudflats where thousands of birds are feeding.
It is difficult to think of many places where such an enormous modern city and such an important migratory bird habitat exist so close together.
Audubon has identified the Bay of Panama as one of the most important coastal areas for migratory shorebirds in the Americas.
Mangroves are extremely important
Mangroves may not look particularly exciting to the average tourist, but they are among the most important coastal ecosystems for birds.
They provide feeding areas, shelter and nesting habitat while also supporting fish, crabs, mollusks and countless other organisms.
That creates a food web.
Fish feed in mangrove waters.
Birds feed on fish.
Shorebirds feed on invertebrates in nearby mudflats.
Frigatebirds patrol the skies.
Pelicans dive into the water.
And migratory species arrive seasonally to exploit the enormous productivity of the ecosystem.
Audubon has highlighted Panama's mangrove forests and coastal wetlands as particularly important habitat for migratory birds and has identified development, pollution and plastic waste among the threats facing these ecosystems.
Watching seabirds in Panama
You don't necessarily need to take an expensive expedition to see interesting marine birds in Panama.
Pelicans can be seen around many coastal areas.
Frigatebirds are often visible soaring overhead.
Terns patrol beaches and bays.
Oystercatchers work along shorelines.
And migratory shorebirds can gather in huge numbers in suitable wetlands.
But getting onto a boat changes the experience completely.
Once you move away from the beach, the horizon opens up and birds begin appearing over the water. Islands become potential nesting colonies, and species that rarely approach beaches become much easier to observe.
The Pacific islands of the Gulf of Chiriquí, particularly around Coiba National Park, can provide spectacular opportunities for this kind of wildlife watching.
The incredible connection between land and ocean
One of the most interesting things about Panama's seabirds is that they demonstrate how impossible it is to separate the country's marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
A frigatebird may fly across the isthmus.
A pelican may feed in coastal waters and nest on an island.
A booby may spend its life travelling between an offshore colony and fishing grounds.
A Western Sandpiper may arrive from the Arctic and spend the winter feeding on Panama's mudflats.
A mangrove may provide habitat for fish that eventually become food for birds.
Everything is connected.
And because Panama is so narrow, these connections can occur over surprisingly short geographical distances.
Panama's seabirds are a reason to look up
There is something wonderfully satisfying about sitting beside the Pacific Ocean in Panama and watching a frigatebird float effortlessly overhead, a pelican plunge into the water and a group of terns dart across the waves.
Then you notice tiny shorebirds running across the mudflat.
You look farther offshore and see boobies.
You look toward the mangroves and find an oystercatcher.
And suddenly the coastline doesn't look empty anymore.
It is full of life.
Panama's seabirds demonstrate just how much is happening beyond the beach itself. Some are permanent residents, some arrive seasonally, some spend most of their lives at sea and others use Panama for only a few precious weeks during enormous migrations.
The country is effectively a crossroads for birds travelling between continents and oceans.
And perhaps that is the most fascinating thing about Panama's seabirds: the bird flying past you may not really belong to Panama at all. It may belong to an enormous international journey that happens to pass through Panama's spectacular coastline.