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By Pam Owen
Special to the Rappahannock News
What do shade-grown coffee, army ants, and Rappahannock’s migratory songbirds have in common? They’re all part of the fascinating ecology of Panama.
Panama is located at the narrowest section of the Central American isthmus Unking the North and South American continents. According to the World Bank, it is the only Central American nation with “globally important tropical moist broad leaf forest,” and two-thirds of the country falls within what is considered “the highest- or high-priority category of biodiversity.” However, with increased farming, road construction, mining concessions, nativeforest exploitation, and other human activities, the native forests are fragmenting, threatening the ecological health of the country.
Panama is home to approximately 10 percent of the world’s varieties of birds— 930 species out of a total of 9,672. The Isthmus of Panama is the biologic bridge for 120 species of migratory birds. In the late 1990s, Shenandoah National Park ecologist Alan Williams participated in a study funded by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Institute that explored how habitat fragmentation in Panama affects its migratory and resident songbirds.
Last spring, Williams led a bird identification walk sponsored by the Rappahannock League for Environmental
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