Pipeline Road is the most celebrated birding site in Panama and one of the most productive single birdwatching locations in the Western Hemisphere. It is a 17-kilometre gravel track running through the lowland rainforest of Soberanía National Park, built originally to service a fuel pipeline, now maintained as a trail. The Audubon Society's annual Christmas Bird Count has recorded more than 400 species along this road in a single day — a world record for a 24-hour count that has been broken and re-broken at this site. Panama as a whole has more bird species than the continental United States and Canada combined, and a large proportion of them pass through or live in the corridor between here and Gatún Lake.
Beyond birds, the road is good for mammals: Geoffrey's tamarin monkeys are often seen in the canopy, Geoffroy's spider monkeys occasionally, and white-tailed deer, coatis, and armadillos cross the road. Night walks with a guide can produce kinkajous and ocelots.
The road is 30–40 minutes from Panama City by taxi or car, making it one of the most accessible world-class birding sites anywhere. A guide is strongly recommended, both for species identification and for knowing where to look; most birding guides based in Panama City include Pipeline Road as their standard half-day trip. Early morning (before 8am) is the most productive time.