Bird Watching at Pipeline Road

Pipeline Road is perhaps Panama's most famous birding destination. It is 10 miles of secondary and primary rainforest, with a dirt road that snakes through the forest, passing a series of small creeks. This road is also used by the Smithsonian Institute as a research area. It is well known for its quality birding that includes Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo, Speckled Mourner, Red Capped Manakin, Streak-chested Antpitta and Ocellated Antbird.

The entire 17.5-km length of Pipeline Road is easily walked. The first 7-km section is mostly level, whereas the 10.5-km section farther in is more hilly. Walking offroad in the forest is quite easy because the mature forest canopy precludes most understory growth. 

The narrowness of the road allows the tree canopy to continue uninterrupted, so birds are easily seen both in the forest and directly overhead. From 2 km onward, the road is barely wide enough to permit passage by a 4-wheel-drive vehicle; there, the road seems more like a trail. In that section, birds including antwrens, trogons, motmots, and puffbirds often are only 2 to 10 meters from the birders