Which bird species do you think is the biggest attraction to visitors of your lodge (please only name one species)?
Probably the endemic Azuero Parakeet.
Azuero Parakeet (photo: Kees Groenendijk)
What is the name of your lodge, and since when has your lodge been operating?
Hotel Heliconia, operating since 2010.
Black-hooded Ant-shrike (photo: Kees Groenendijk)
How best to travel to your lodge?
We are a 5-hour car ride (or two bus rides) on good roads away from Panama City, which has daily flights from Europe and North America.
Great Green Macaw
What kind of services – except for accommodation and food – does your lodge offer to visiting birders?
Our feeders are visited by 5-10 species of hummingbirds. We have 8 ha of forest with 3 km of trails around our lodge. We offer guided tours to Cerro Hoya NP to find the endemic Glow-throated Hummingbird and to Coiba NP to find the endemic Coiba Spinetail. Visit www.tanagertourism.com for more information.
Sapphire-throated Hummingbird (photo: Kees Groenendijk)
What makes your lodge special?
Our 8-hectare reforestation project around the lodge. We transformed an ´ecosystem´ consisting of cattle and cattle-egrets into a young tropical forest where nearly 150 species of birds have been registered.
Azuero Warbler (photo: Charles Davies)
What are the 10 – 20 most interesting birds that your lodge offers good chances to see?
- Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus)
- Black-hooded Antshrike (Thamnophilus bridgesi)
- Brown-backed Dove (Leptotila battyi)
- Orange-collared Manakin (Manacus aurantiacus)
- Fasciated Tiger-Heron (Tigrisoma fasciatum)
- Azuero Parakeet (Pyrrhura eisenmanni)
- Glow-throated Hummingbird (Selasphorus ardens)
- Coiba Spinetail (Cranioleuca dissita)
- Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant (Atalotriccus pilatus)
- Sapphire-throated Hummingbird (Chrysuronia coeruleogularis).
Orange-collared Manakin (photo: Kees Groenendijk)
What is the best time to visit your lodge, and why?
December to February is the best time for birding. Resident birds and migrants from North America are all present. August is good for birds, humpback whales, and nesting sea turtles.
Azuero Mountain-gem (photo: Charles Davies)
Is your lodge involved in conservation efforts? If yes, please describe them.
Yes. We work with Panama Wildlife Conservation to protect the great green macaw and the glow-throated hummingbirds. We work with FUNDAT and the Maleana association to protect sea turtle nesting sites.
Pale-eyed Pygmy-tyrant (photo: Kees Groenendijk)
What other suggestions can you give to birders interested in visiting your lodge?
Most trails are rough, so bring sturdy walking shoes.
Three-wattled bellbird (photo: Fabio Olmos)
Do you have activities for non-birders? If so, please describe.
Yes, we organize snorkel and general wildlife trips to Coiba and Cerro Hoya, in season (15 July to 15 Sept, we organize whale-watching trips, and from September to December, you can help release sea turtle hatchlings.
If any reader of 10,000 Birds is interested in staying at your lodge, how can they best contact you?
Via our websites (hotelheliconiapanama.com, Coibatrip.com and Tanagertourism.com or email: tanagertourism@gmail.com.
Glow-throated Hummingbird (photo: Charles Davies)
Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers of 10,000 Birds?
You can watch a brief clip of our reforestation effort here and a brief clip of our trip to Coiba here.
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