Soberanía National Park

Pipeline Road The rainforest you can reach before breakfast. This old dirt track through Soberanía National Park, beside the Panama Canal, sits about 50 minutes from Panama City, yet eBird lists between 444 and 461 bird species on the road alone, and the Christmas Bird Count circle that includes it logged 314 species in a single day in 1977. It is flat and easy walking, so the effort goes into an early start rather than a hard trek. Go at dawn with a local birding guide, who will pick out the shy forest-floor birds and canopy flocks that most visitors walk straight past. Gamboa, near the start of the road, has lodges for those who want several mornings.