Island jewel: carved and shaped by the sparkling rivers that feed its valleys and ravines, Coiba--the largest, most untouched, and unpopulated island of Central America--is part of a larger regional initiative designated a World Heritage Site.

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Island jewel: carved and shaped by the sparkling rivers that feed its valleys and ravines, Coiba--the largest, most untouched, and unpopulated island of Central America--is part of a larger regional initiative designated a World Heritage Site.

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On terra firma, the raucous sounds and flashes of red over the enormous forest canopy have disappeared. The boisterous scarlet macaws have departed, perhaps forever, from the continental forests of mainland Panama. But while the pressures of human expansion have caused the macaws to flee the isthmus, these colorful birds can still count on one very special and remote spot where they can live freely in the wild: Coiba Island.

Coiba is the largest forested tropical island in the Americas and is part of an archipelago of the same name now designated asa national park. Here, in their last refuge, large numbers of scarlet macaws can be seen feeding in a...

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