Birds of Trinidad and Tobago

Last year, when flying back from Grenada, a stewardess overheard us talking about the birds we saw and told us about the birds in Trinidad and Tobago. Because these islands are below the equator and off the coast of South America, they get many species that are not seen in the US or elsewhere in the Caribbean. So this year we planned a trip to Trinidad and Tobago. Below are a few of the highlights. Over the next month or so, we'll post additional photos and stories of birds from this region, intermixed with the birds of New Jersey.


Tufted Coquette


Blue-crowned Mot Mot


Rufous-tailed Jacamar


Golden-headed Manikan


Scarlet Ibis

A Brief Visit to Puerto Rico

Red-legged Thrush


Pearly-eyed Thrasher



Gray Kingbird


Killdeer


Smooth Billed Ani

We went to Puerto Rico for a long weekend to escape the cold of New Jersey. We stayed at the St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort which has achieved an Audubon gold rating for its preservation efforts. Although there was an island on the resort which they bill as a birding spot, the birds really weren't plentiful, perhaps because the resort recently opened. It was nice to see the nutmeg mannikin on the property, but otherwise it was the common Caribbean birds.

While relaxing on the beach and reading a birding book, we decided to visit the nearby El Yonque rain forest, a national park known for birding and we saw several species endemic to Puerto Rico, including the Puerto Rican woodpecker, our primary quest, but also the Puerto Rican Stripe-headed tanager, the national bird of Puerto Rico. We also saw the yellow shouldered blackbird but didn't get any photos.

Birds of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican Stripe-headed Tanager (male)


Puerto Rican Stripe-headed Tanager (female)


Puerto Rican Tanager


Mangrove Cuckoo




Puerto Rican Woodpecker



Puerto Rican Flycatcher

Nutmeg and Bronze Mannikins from Puerto Rico

Birds of Harbour Island, Bahamas

One doesn't go to Harbour Island in the Bahamas for birding. We went to avoid the cold, celebrate a birthday, walk along a stunning pink sand beach, listen to the gently rolling waves, and gaze into the turquoise ocean under a blue sky. However, just before we left, we discovered that our destination, the Pink Sands Hotel, is a bird sanctuary recognized by the Audubon Society. The hotel actually doesn't market itself as a birder's choice, does not go out of its way to attract birds, and no staff seemed overly knowledgeable about  the birds. However, there are a good number of trees on the landscaped grounds, and we saw many warblers. The quantity wasn't great, but there were a wide variety of bird species. We even saw a Cape May warbler, a bird that has eluded us in Cape May.

Prairie Warbler


Cape May Warbler


Yellow throated Warbler



Northern Parula


Palm Warbler


American Redstart (Female)


Ovenbird


Bahama Woodstar


Female Painted Bunting


We also saw a black and white warbler, a black throated blue warbler, a yellow rumped warbler,  some catbirds and a few tropical mockingbirds but didn't photograph them all.

Harbour Island: Birds and Blooms

Northern Parula


Bananaquit


Bahama Woodstar

Prairie Warble

Harbour Island: Raptors in Flight

Kestrel

Osprey

Harbour Island: Pink Sands Beach Birds

Night Heron (Yellow Crowned Juvenile)


Plover

Babycakes: Caribbean Elaenia from Antigua

When on vacation, Mike and Chris tend to rise early; it seems to be a great time of day to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the nature and surroudings of our new environment.  By about the third or fourth day, Chris is content to stay in bed, trusting that Mike, who still is up at sunrise to alert her to anything particularly special. That was the case with our friend Babycakes.  The first thing Mike said to Chris one morning when she joined him outside was, "would you like to meet Babycakes?"  He had been watching this flycatcher stay in the same tree and sing a call that sounded like babycakes (or bb king,) and was anxious to point it out to Chris.  This bird was most cooperative, and even after Chris took a walk down to Babycake's tree with Mike, it continued to spend a lot of time in the same spot entertaining us. Each morning after that babycakes would sing for a few hours and we could even hear her from the beach.

Below is a video of 'babycakes" mainly to record its song.

American Kestrel in Antigua

Antigua: Black-Whiskered Vireo

By our last day, we thought we had seen all the birds near the villa, but Chris spotted this Black-Whiskered Vireo in with the flycatchers, Antillean bullfinches, and bananaquits,