In 2014, Canopy Family offered its first-ever official Brilliant Butterflies of Panama tour with 14 participants. What started as a small experiment has grown into highly anticipated tours running twice a year, in May and August, when butterflies are most abundant in Panama. The tour was inspired by Nelson Dobbs, a visitor who came in 2012 to the Canopy Lodge and stayed for five nights. But curiously, his goal was not to observe birds like most of our visitors, but to photograph as many butterflies as possible. Our Canopy Family guide Faustino “Tino” Sánchez was assigned to guide him and was immediately captivated by this entirely new way of observing the outdoors. He began digiscoping and taking butterfly pictures with his phone. Each day after the tours, Tino observed that Nelson meticulously identified the butterflies, so Tino accompanied him in this task.
To identify the butterflies, they relied on the largest digital database available, butterfliesofamerica.com, alongside two essential field guides: A Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America and A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America. Both books were authored by Jeffrey Glassberg, a famous biologist and president of the North American Butterfly Association. “Using this webpage is like arriving to the biggest chocolate store ever,” Tino reflects. “There is a whole world of butterflies out there and when you enter you need to know where to look.” Thanks to Nelson, Tino learned exactly how to navigate it.
Over time, Tino began observing, photographing, and identifying butterflies on his own. He later met Kim Garwood during her visit to the Canopy Lodge. Kim co-authored the renowned three-volume Butterflies of Central America and created the vital identification resource neotropicalbutterflies.com.
The tour’s development was enriched by Canopy Family biologist Linda Harrison. Linda began studying butterflies in Floridayears ago while working at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. Moving to Panama opened up a whole new realm of biodiversity for her. Having studied butterflies, moths, and insects since 2011, she was instrumental in partnering with Tino to advance Canopy Family’s butterfly list. Today, Linda maintains a staggering checklist of 1,063 butterfly species recorded around Canopy Family lodges, accompanied by photographs of 930 of them. Linda and Tino guided the butterfly tours together from 2014 to 2024, when Tino took the leadership of the tours. However, Linda still keeps the Canopy Family butterfly records updated, and whenever a new species is spotted, she is the first person Tino consults with.
With 12 years of experience, Tino can now identify a butterfly from a photograph even if only a small part of it is visible. He continues to guide birding and nature tours throughout the rest of the year, which make up the majority of his tours. “It is like speaking two different languages,” Tino says. “I speak birdwatching most of the time, but when I am on a butterfly tour, I change my cassette to butterfly-watching!” Some Canopy Family visitors even hear about Tino before they arrive in Panama and specifically ask him about butterflies. This recognition has come as a surprise to Tino, who never expected it. He notes that butterfly watching is the perfect companion activity to birding, because you’re sure to find butterflies along the way, especially when bird activity slows down.
Linda and her husband Jerry have also ventured into the world of moth watching, which is like the next level given moths’outstanding diversity in the neotropics. Recently, the Canopy Tower installed a moth-viewing station equipped with white and UV attracting lights where visitors can spend their evenings or early mornings viewing these insects. “Because the Canopy Tower is right in the middle of the rainforest and has very little light pollution, it is the perfect place to set up a moth station,” Tino explains. A similar station is already operating at Canopy Camp.
More recently, butterfly expert and citizen scientist Barbara Woodmansee and her husband Marc dedicated a book to Tino, to thank him for the time they spent observing butterflies together in Panama. Tino’s dedication continues to grow as he explores new tools; he has now registered more than 1,000 butterfly sightings in the e-Butterfly app.
Besides guiding many more butterfly tours, Tino has an upcoming challenge: his dream is to write a book on the butterflies of Panama. This project will fill a gap in the knowledge of Panama’s biodiversity, support local conservation initiatives, and encourage more people to visit the country to observe these colorful and gentle creatures. So, if you are looking for new ways to explore the rainforest, let’s go chasing butterflies together. The Canopy Family lodges will be waiting for you!