Wildlife of the Azuero Hills: A Field Guide for New Residents

The Azuero Peninsula has a reputation, not entirely undeserved, as the most deforested corner of Panama's Pacific arc. Cattle ranching cleared much of the original tropical dry forest over the twentieth century, and the hills around Los Santos and Herrera still carry that history in their open, sun-bleached pastures. But drive or walk into the folds of land nearer the coast, around Cañas, Tonosí and Playa Venao, and the picture changes. Here, steep ravines and hillsides too awkward for cattle have kept patches of secondary and remnant forest intact, and in the last two decades a slow, patchy regeneration has taken hold on land left to rest. For anyone living on or visiting a property in these hills, that regenerating forest is the source of nearly all the wildlife encounters worth writing home about.

The dawn chorus and howler monkeys

Nothing announces the Azuero hills at first light quite like the mantled howler monkey. Their call is less a hoot than a rolling, guttural roar that can carry for a kilometre or more across a valley, and it is often mistaken by first-time visitors for wind, a distant engine, or something considerably larger than a monkey weighing seven or eight kilos. Troops of six to fifteen animals hold loose territories in stands of guácimo, mango and strangler fig, and a property with mature trees along a ravine or fence line stands a fair chance of hosting a resident troop, or at least a visiting one.

Howlers are folivores by preference, browsing young leaves, flowers and fruit, and they move surprisingly little in a day, which makes them easier to relocate by ear than by sight. The best listening times are the half hour after sunrise and the last light before dusk, particularly ahead of rain. At Denter Tumas, the tree line along the eastern boundary has, in our experience, been a reliable place to hear a troop most mornings, and guests staying in the casita often mention the calls as one of the more memorable parts of a visit.

Oropendolas and the hanging nest colonies

Almost as distinctive, and considerably more visual, are the Montezuma and chestnut-headed oropendolas that colonise tall guarumo and cuipo trees in loose colonies of woven, pendulous nests, sometimes forty or fifty to a single tree. The birds themselves are striking: chestnut and black plumage, a bright blue-and-pink bill, and a liquid, gurgling song accompanied by an almost theatrical forward bow as the male sings from a branch. Colonies tend to favour isolated emergent trees near open ground, which is one of the small mercies of the region's patchwork of pasture and forest edge; a single tall tree left standing in a field can become a small ecosystem in itself.

• Montezuma oropendola: larger, with a striking two-tone bill and a deep, cascading call.
• Chestnut-headed oropendola: smaller and more social, often colonising in larger numbers.
• Both species favour tall isolated trees near forest edges, not deep interior canopy.
• Nest colonies are most active and easiest to observe from January through April, during the dry season breeding period.

A broader cast of birds

The Azuero hills sit within one of Panama's more accessible birdwatching regions, precisely because the mix of pasture, secondary scrub and forest remnant produces a high edge-species count. Crested caracaras and roadside hawks patrol open fields; collared aracaris and keel-billed toucans move through fruiting trees in small parties, usually detected by their yelping calls before they are seen; and a decent stand of forest along a stream is likely to hold trogons, motmots and several species of woodcreeper. Coastal properties add frigatebirds, brown pelicans and, at the right time of year, migrating shorebirds along the tidal flats near Playa Venao and Cambutal.

What to bring

A modest pair of binoculars (8x42 is a sensible all-purpose choice) and a regional field guide or app cover most needs. Early morning and the hour before dusk remain, by a wide margin, the most productive windows; the middle of a dry-season day is largely silent, with most activity paused until the heat breaks.

Mammals beyond the monkeys

White-faced capuchins are the other primate commonly seen in the Azuero hills, more curious and considerably more mobile than howlers, moving in noisy troops through the mid-canopy and occasionally raiding fruit trees close to houses. Nine-banded armadillos, common opossums and various species of tayra and coati round out the more visible mammal life, generally encountered at dusk or via their tracks the following morning. Ocelots and other small cats persist in the region's more forested corridors, though sightings are rare and usually the province of camera traps rather than daytime walks; their presence is one of the better arguments for maintaining forested corridors between properties rather than clearing to the boundary line.

Dry forest regeneration in practice

What makes the Azuero hills genuinely interesting from a conservation standpoint is not untouched wilderness, of which there is very little, but active regeneration on formerly cleared land. Left ungrazed, Pacific dry forest recovers in a fairly predictable sequence: pioneer species such as guarumo, balo and various Cecropia colonise open pasture within a few years, followed over a decade or two by a thickening secondary canopy that begins to attract fruit-eating birds and, eventually, mammals that disperse the seeds of slower-growing hardwoods. Landowners who fence a hillside or ravine and simply stop mowing or grazing it are, often without realising the scale of it, participating in one of the more effective forms of forest restoration available: doing nothing, deliberately.

Typical time to closed secondary canopy

10-15 years

Regional dry season

December to April

Best birding window

05:30-08:00

Living alongside wildlife

For anyone considering a property in the region, wildlife should be thought of as a genuine amenity rather than an incidental backdrop. Retaining mature trees during any landscaping, fencing rather than clearing ravines, and keeping outdoor lighting modest at night all measurably improve the odds of a resident howler troop or a returning oropendola colony. At Denter Tumas, the gardens were laid out around existing mature trees rather than in spite of them, which is part of why the estate has become something of a quiet wildlife corridor between the surrounding hills and the coast.

Seasonal notes for visitors

Dry season (roughly December to April) brings clearer trails, easier access to viewpoints, and the peak of oropendola nesting activity, though vegetation is sparser and some understorey birds retreat deeper into remaining shade. Green season (May to November) thickens the forest considerably, brings a surge of insect and amphibian activity after the first rains, and tends to concentrate wildlife around remaining water sources, making certain streams and ponds unusually productive for observation.

Those weighing up a private estate in the Azuero hills, whether as a residence, a retreat, or simply a long-term nature-minded investment, are welcome to arrange a private viewing at Denter Tumas, where the tree line, the ravine and the resident wildlife are as much a part of the property as the villa itself.