Gamboa is a small town in the Republic of Panama. It was one of a handful of permanent Canal Zone townships, built to house employees of the Panama Canal and their dependents. The name 'Gamboa' is the name of a tree of the quince family.
Gamboa is home to caymans, crocodiles, iguanas, and several hundred bird species. Given its location at the "end of the road" and the single road connecting it to the rest of the Canal Zone, Gamboa is also adjacent to significant tracts of relatively undisturbed rainforest. A trail that follows an old pipeline ("Pipeline Road") is considered one of the best birding hikes in Panama. It is one of the premiere bird watching sites in all of Central America. Many amateur birdwatchers join ornithologists for yearly bird counts held near Gamboa by the Audubon Society of Panama.
