For many around the world, seeing a wild raptor is truly special. There is no substitute for watching a hawk soaring over an open field or spying a falcon perched in a tree. Yet at certain times of the year, in some areas, rivers of these birds can be seen passing through the sky as millions of hawks, vultures, and other raptors migrate between North and South America.

While monitoring migratory songbirds with another project, ADOPTA's field team noticed exceptionally large concentrations of raptors were migrating past Bocas del Toro in northwestern Panama. We realized that the Talamanca mountains and Caribbean sea were creating a natural bottleneck in the birds’ migration routes, and started looking for an ideal location to establish a long-term monitoring project in the area. In early October 2021, Karl Bardon, an experienced hawk counter from the United States, accepted an invitation to start monitoring the raptor migration in Bocas Ridge and the project officially began.

Almost 2 million raptors were observed in the fall 2021 HawkWatch, confirming this area as an exceptional count location. Since then, as many as 5 million birds have been observed migrating through Bocas del Toro in a single season!

After the first season’s success, we have expanded the monitoring to include three counting sites at the Bocas Ridge Hotel & Residences, Valle de Agua, and Gavilán hill. Together with our research team, we have been training local interns – including young indigenous women – to help with the monitoring. The income they receive directly supports the local community, many of whom lack electricity and/or running water, and provides individuals the agency to take an active role in protecting their local environment.