A bad day birding is better than a day at the office
In the thick of the tropical forest of Pipeline Road is the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center. It is here where you will pay your entry fee to use the tower, but it’s also where you will find cold drinks, some snacks, and even mostquito repellent.
There are even wash rooms!
But best of all, you can rest here, if you’d like, and just take in all the hummingbirds that visit the feeders.
We stopped by the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center to get lunch after we visited the tower that morning. Every Sunday they offer a fried fish lunch—sometimes with plantains and sometimes with rice—for only $12. The fish was fresh and delicious and nevermind that that the fish seemed to be looking at me. I devoured it.
If you’re wondering: Why yes, the bees were still swarming me. I felt like that Peanuts character, Pig Pen, who walked around surrounded by his own private cloud of dust, but for me it was a cloud of bees. The nectar in the feeders was drawing them to the Center and the bees from hell found me. So I just gave up trying to take photos and stayed clear of the feeders.
Yet, before giving up, I managed to get a nice shot of this guy:

Violet-bellied Hummingbird
Plus, there was a tree full of all these butterflies and swallowtails and who isn’t happy when they see butterflies? (Unless you’re dead inside.)
Listen to our guide, Beny Wilson describe each of the species on this video.
Here’s another nice shot of that hummingbird.

Violet-bellied Hummingbird
Sure, it’s nice to race around the world in hopes of getting a million dollars, but do you really see anything?
I’ve told Steve on numerous occasions that we could never do The Amazing Race. We’d totally lose right out the gates because we’d be too busy looking through our binoculars at the birds.
(Though send a swarm of bees chasing after me and I bet I’d come in first place.)
Be sure to stop by the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center during your trip to Pipeline Road. The folks who run it, like all the Panamanians we’ve met over the years, are warm and kind.
I like everything about this post, with he exception of the dead fish. A Violet-bellied anything would make my day!! Happy Birding to you.
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Haha, but that fish was actually tasty! (I put my napkin over its face while I ate it.)
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Unless you caught it wild, caught it and dispatched it yourself, one little napkin is not veil enough to hide what horrible things went in to that ‘tasty’ meal. If you knew what I knew, Ms. Boice …
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😲
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Wonderful shots of the Violet-Bellied! Butterfly video is lovely. You had more butterflies than the week I was there. And more bees too I guess. Always amazes me how much the seasons and weather changes everything from week to week.
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enjoy your blog
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