“Horrific…. Unprecedented.…Complete and utter devastation…Human, environmental and economic ruin.“ These are the words people are using to describe to me the impact of Hurricane Dorian, the Category 5 storm that pounded the northern Bahamas for 2 straight days.
McLean’s Town on the eastern end of Grand Bahama Island. (photo by Meredith Kohut)
Last night I spoke with Erika Gates, a recent BirdsCaribbean Board member and resident and owner of eco-tourism businesses in Grand Bahama. She told me that the area around the Lucayan National Park is still in search and rescue/recovery mode. Rescue teams have not even reached the farthest east community of McClean’s Town yet!
In the community of High Rock, only 12 out of about 100 homes are still standing. One resident (and member of our Birdscaribbean community) is cooking for 100 people a day when supplies are brought in! The non-profit World Central Kitchen (Chef José Andrés) is cooking 6,000 meals a day on location to feed those that have lost everything.
We have also received reports that Dorian left the oil facility in High Rock in shambles. Sam Teacher, founder of the Freeport-based non-governmental organization Coral Vita, saw the damage firsthand. He said that the tanks’ white domes and sides were stained black and six of the domes that top the tanks were gone. Oil was soaking into the soil, lying across the highway, and covering a now-flightless bird.
The Need for Clean, Fresh Water
The oil tanks at the Equinor South Riding Point oil facility in High Rock, Grand Bahama, were severely damaged, causing a large spill. Eric Carey, Executive Director of the Bahamas National Trust, commented: “This can be a serious environmental disaster that we need to get on top off because this could be catastrophic.” (photo by Sam Teacher)
Petroleum is toxic and fresh water is limited on Grand Bahama. The population is almost entirely dependent on its aquifers for drinking water, and the water table on these islands is usually near the land surface. The spill could have an equally horrendous effect on marine life—which people depend on for both food and their economy. Sam worries the oil could further erode the coral and mangrove, already damaged by the hurricane, and destroy the natural sea wall that is supposed to protect the island from storms.
Our hearts go out to the people of these islands, many of whom are BirdsCaribbean members and friends. We are thankful that, as far we know, our friends and colleagues are safe and accounted for. We stand with our 30-year partner, the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), and pledge to do our best to help them with recovery of their birds, wildlife and national parks. To do this I need your help right now!
Our Experience With Major Hurricanes
Two years ago, we saw similar devastation when Hurricanes Irma and Maria cut a swathe of destruction across 18 different islands and leveled them. We know from experience that there are three tiers of action required to alleviate the situation:
Massive trees were felled and most were stripped of leaves and fruit, leaving little food for birds. (photo by Erika Gates)
Crisis management – simply addressing the most immediate needs of all survivors, both human and wildlife, to receive food and shelter;
Rapid assessment of restoration needs. For BirdsCaribbean that means assembling teams that can survey and evaluate the situation of species at risk and the habitat restoration needed to ensure their survival.
Formulating long-term policy changes that will make the communities and island’s habitats more resilient and better protected from the next terrible storm. That storm will inevitably appear on the horizon, now that climate change has made extreme hurricanes an annual event.
We know that the most immediate need will be supplemental food for starving birds. Most trees have been stripped of flowers, leaves, fruit and seeds. As we did for Hurricanes Irma and Maria, we are organizing delivery of nectar feeders and seed so that hungry birds will have help getting through a period of serious food shortage.
Delivering Hope
Students from Bagatelle Primary School, Dominica, with bird feeders and nectar after Hurricane Maria devastated this country and others in 2017.
Feeding the birds is beneficial not only to the birds, but also indirectly to people. Hundreds of people on multiple islands, who received supplies for the birds in 2017, told us they were happy to help the birds, even though they themselves were struggling to survive. The simple act of helping another living creature was truly uplifting in a situation where people felt helpless. As birds began to recover, people felt this was a tiny but important first step towards normal life. The birds lifted their spirits, reminding them that nature – and their own lives – can be rejuvenated and renewed.
Right now, there is a huge need to help with the ongoing humanitarian crisis. We are gratified to see the outpouring of assistance with food, water and shelter, as well as rescue and evacuation to other islands and the U.S. for the tens of thousands that lost their homes. BirdsCaribbean’s role is to focus on the birds and ecosystems we all depend upon.
Mobilizing for the Restoration
As soon as conditions on the islands are stabilized, we are ready to help with the surveys, restoration and recovery actions: clean-ups, planting trees, and repairing and replacing damaged equipment and infrastructure in national parks and birding hotspots. It is a massive amount of work and we need your help to make it happen.
Four threatened endemic species on Grand Bahama and Abaco (clockwise from upper left): Bahama Parrot, Bahama Swallow, Bahama Warbler, Bahama Nuthatch. (photos by Lynn Gape, Melanie Rose Wells, Erika Gates and Bruce Hallett)
With huge parts of both islands flooded and hammered by strong winds for two days, we are seriously concerned about how four threatened and endemic birds that live on these islands are doing after the hurricanes. These species will be the focus of the first surveys. They include the Bahama Parrot (ground nesting population in Abaco, also occurs in Inagua in the southern Bahamas), the Bahama Nuthatch (only occurs on Grand Bahama, Critically Endangered), Bahama Warbler (only occurs on these 2 islands) and the Bahama Swallow (GB and Abaco comprise 2 of its 3-island range). Intensive surveys of the Bahama Nuthatch in 2018 found just 5 birds; this species has declined by more than 95% since the 1960s and 70s.
Other country and island endemics like the Olive-capped Warbler, Bahama Woodstar, Cuban Emerald, Red-legged Thrush, and many migratory warblers (like Kirkland’s Warbler, Painted Bunting), waterbirds and shorebirds (Piping Plover, Reddish Egret), and others also call the diverse habitats on these islands home.
We know from experience that birds are resilient; many are able to survive severe storms and hurricanes by hunkering down on the ground or sheltering in low vegetation. The fact that Hurricane Dorian raged for 48 hours without a break is almost without precedent. We are fearful about how many birds were able to survive this onslaught. Undoubtedly, many were lost during the storm.
By restoring the incredibly diverse ecosystems of the Grand Bahama and Abaco Islands, we will greatly increase our birds’ chances of survival. In addition, the sooner the islands and parks recover, the sooner we can restore residents’ livelihoods that are dependent on these ecosystems.
The gorgeous Bahama Woodstar, endemic to the Bahamas, is one of the many species impacted by the devastation of Hurricane Dorian. (photo by Keith Salveson)
Although they will never be quite the same, we are optimistic and determined that these islands can be restored to their former glory once again, teeming with tropical vegetation and beautiful wildlife across the landscape. I need your help to make this happen, please give generously.
Thank you to all of you that have expressed concern and have already donated, and to those that are donating now!
Lisa Sorenson, Executive Director of BirdsCaribbean (Lisa.Sorenson@BirdsCaribbean.org)
If you prefer to donate with a check, please make the check out to “BirdsCaribbean” and in the memo section, note that it is for Hurricane Dorian Relief. If you have questions or wish to make other arrangements for donating, please feel free to contact Jennifer Wheeler, BirdsCaribbean Financial Officer (jennifer.wheeler@birdscaribbean.org) or Lisa Sorenson (Lisa.Sorenson@BirdsCaribbean.org).
Checks can be mailed to: BirdsCaribbean, 841 Worcester St. #130, Natick, MA 01760-2076
Plunging Brown Pelicans put on a show each day next to our dining terrace at Karibea Beach Hotel, Le Gosier, Guadeloupe. (photo by Holly Garrod)
Plunging pelicans, soaring terns and majestic frigatebirds put on a dazzling show outside the dining terrace, as we ate delicious French cuisine. Impromptu discussions sprang up over coffee and drinks. Bright T-shirts, bird paintings and merchandise were on sale; members’ posters sparked intense learning sessions; and brilliant keynote speakers kept us on the edge of our seats.
It happens every two years, and it just keeps getting better. This year, BirdsCaribbean held its 22nd International conference in Le Gosier, on the French West Indies island of Guadeloupe. 250 delegates from 34 countries gathered for discussions, lectures, workshops – and perhaps most importantly, to connect with each other – under the theme, Keeping Caribbean Birds Aloft.
The conference took place at the lovely seaside Karibea Hotel from July 25 – 29, 2019. BirdsCaribbean partnered with the Parc National de la Guadeloupe for an exciting week of learning, sharing, and discovery.
While #BirdsCarib2019 is now behind us, the memories and friendships made will keep us aloft as we collectively continue to move our science and conservation work forwards. For those who were not able to attend this year and for delegates feeling wistful for woodpeckers and croissant, here is a recap of some of the highlights and activities that made this event so special.
All About Birds – and People
250 delegates from 34 countries gathered for out 22nd International Conference in Guadeloupe. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
The first day of the conference started with some rock n’ roll, literally, as our delegates were shaken awake by a 4.7 earthquake! On arrival, registration buzzed with the laughter and excitement of a family reunion – was it really 2 years ago that we saw each other last?
Our delegates quickly got to work birding across the island. Who was the first to see the endemic Guadeloupe Woodpecker? An incredible 422 checklists were entered into eBird Caribbean by our delegates and more than 95 bird species were detected. We couldn’t have done this without the help of our local guides. BirdsCaribbean conferences are great opportunities for local guides to showcase their islands, their natural beauty, and best spots for seeing wildlife.
And once again, the Guadeloupe conference highlighted the Caribbean’s amazing diversity—its birdlife, peoples, and cultures. A critical discussion during the conference was the need to expand and develop bird tourism in the region through BirdsCaribbean’s Caribbean Birding Trail (CBT). Everyone was excited that the CBT Project recently launched a new and much improved website.
Featured speaker, Anthony Levesque, shared his excitement and many accomplishments about his work with birds on Guadeloupe. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Always a highlight of our conferences, delegates packed the main room each morning to hear our passionate keynote speakers celebrate the diversity of thought, culture, knowledge and work within our community. On the first day, dedicated BirdsCaribbean member, Anthony Levesque, opened our traditional session to celebrate our host country – Guadeloupe Day – and shared his personal journey of how Guadeloupe, its nature, and its birds have shaped his life. His excitement was infectious as we applauded his own phenomenal efforts and felt his hope about the future for his island’s capacity for science and conservation.
We also welcomed Ambassador Dessima Williams to the island, an Elected Partner of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute and former Ambassador to the United Nations, who inspired us to engage with the UN’s sustainable development goals to enable bird conservation. Other keynote presentations on each morning of the conference inspired delegates on topics as diverse as the evolution of beauty, relationships between birds and plants, landscape management, avian olfaction, and restoration of a damaged wetland.
Challenges, Solutions, Optimism
The Guadeloupe conference saw the launch of an exciting new Mentorship program* where younger BirdsCaribbean members paired with mentors that have more experience in their specific areas of interest, including scientific writing, data analysis, research techniques, conservation strategies, education, bird guiding, career development, and more. The launch culminated in an energizing mentee-mentor dinner, with pairs spilling out across the venue long into the evening, to share knowledge, inspire, support and learn from each other.
Conference workshops offered practical opportunities to learn new skills and share important knowledge, including grappling with data analysis in R, being the solution to plastic pollution, addressing shorebird harvesting, and becoming a media maestro.
Ancilleno Davis had the audience dancing to his dubstep remix of inspired by eBirders! (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Other topics addressed included the challenges to the survival of the region’s birds and habitats, including illegal wildlife trafficking, invasive species, and the threat of development. Several speakers and sessions emphasized the need for stronger advocacy, involving communities, and education to fight the greed that is the root cause of many of our environmental problems.
We heard inspiring stories about engaging young people through education and diverse audiences via social media, and explored visual art and dubstep music as conservation tools. We heard about valuable contributions to our scientific understanding of avian ecology, and learned how to address the challenges of hurricane recovery, caged birds and illegal wildlife trade. And we took the time to acknowledge and celebrate our successes, including invasive species eradication, endangered species recovery, and successful restorations of habitats believed too-far gone to ever be brought back.
The passion continues to flow
The heart of BirdsCaribbean and our conferences is the passion of our members to support conservation of regional endemic and endangered birds as well as migratory species that visit our islands. Most importantly, our conferences give us an opportunity to share and celebrate the new and continued work of our members. Much of what made this conference special is symbolic of all biennial BirdsCaribbean conferences and we encourage you all to look out for details about our next conference in 2021!
Delegates from Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines gather for a group pic. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
The momentum continues amidst the growing comradery and passion that the conference helped fuel. We will be sharing a series of posts over the next few weeks that highlight the work our partners have done, and provide more details on some of the presentations and conference content. If you have a suggestion for an article, please email us at info@birdscaribbean.org. Thank you for reading, and please subscribe and consider donating to help us “Keep Caribbean Birds Aloft”.
Special thanks are due to our major sponsor, Parc National de la Guadeloupe, as well as the Karibea Beach Hotel, Environment Canada, the U.S. Forest Service International Programs, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Para la Naturaleza, The David Webster Charitable Trust, Benjamin Olewine IV, American Bird Conservancy, Caribaea Initiative, Rare Species Conservatory Foundation, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Wildside Nature Tours, Optics for the Tropics, Inc., Holbrook Travel, Environment for the Americas, NuStar, the Bermuda Audubon Society, Vermont Center for Ecostudies, Vortex Optics, Carefree Birding, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Levesque Birding Enterprise, Amazona, The Friendship Association, and Hideaways of Ti Heights.
*If you would like to be a mentor or want to be connected with one, don’t hesitate to reach out to us! Email Mentorship Program leaders Adrianne Tossas (agtossas@gmail.com) and Ancilleno Davis (ancillenodavis@gmail.com).
Dancing with the local performers on the last evening of the conference. (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Leno Davis talks about engaging diverse audiences through creative avenues, like music and art (photo by Mark Yokoyama)
Keynote Speaker, Gabrielle Nevitt, shared her exciting research an avian olfaction and the ability of seabirds to smell plastic! (photo by Fred Sapotille)
St. Martin delegates, Jenn Yerkes, William Allanic,and Mark Yokoyama, in Les Fruit de Mer uniforms.(Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Our fearless translators provided English-French-Spanish translation throughout the entire 5-day conference! (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Busy and not-so-silent Silent Auction (Photo by Mark Yokoyama)
Old friends reunited: Leo Douglas and Maurice Anselme. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Herb Raffaele supporting new Grenadines bird guide with authors Aly Ollivierre and Juliana Coffey. (Photo by Mark Yokoyama)
Ancilleno Davis had the audience dancing to his dubstep remix inspired by eBirders, say what?! (photo by Fred Sapotille)
The Founders Award for Best Student Paper went to Christopher Cambrone.(Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Andrea Thomen (Dominican Republic) shares her work with Leo Douglas (Jamaica / USA). (photo by Mark Yokoyama)
“Keeping Caribbean Birds Aloft” was the theme of BirdsCaribbean’s 22nd International Conference in July in Guadeloupe.
Delegates from Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines gather for a group pic. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Featured speaker, Beny Wilson, did a mini-training on bird guiding and the bird tourism market during the Caribbean Birding Trail session. (photo by Fred Sapotille).
Smiling volunteers help with conference check-in, left to right, Jen Mortenson, Alieny Gonzalez, Natasha Atkins, Arnaldo Toledo. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
The right person, Stephen Durand, got this one-of-a-kind binocular harness with Imperial Parrot artwork by Jessica Canizares (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
New friends (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Main conference room at Karibea beach Hotel. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Plunging Brown Pelicans put on a show each day next to our dining terrace at Karibea Beach Hotel, Le Gosier, Guadeloupe. (photo by Holly Garrod)
250 delegates from 34 countries gathered for our 22nd International Conference in Guadeloupe. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Arnaldo Toledo and Maikel Canizares show the beautiful t-shirt artwork created to fight the Caged Bird problem in Cuba, Caged Bird Working Group meeting (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Dominicans and Lisa Sorenson. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Important conference notice about dancing with Herb at the party on the last night.
Conference organizer-in-chief, Justin Proctor with Guadeloupe organizers, Maitena Jean, Catherine Chicate-Moibert and Anais Abatan. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Kate Wallace (Dominican Republic) won a Life-time Achievement Award for her 20 years of tireless bird education and outreach work. (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Jennifer Wheeler sounding the conch to signal the start of a session. (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Keynote speaker, Richard Prum, dazzled the audience with his fascinating talk on The Evolution of Beauty and bird mating tactics. (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Keynote speaker, Tomas Carlo, gave an exciting talk on bird-plant interactions and their consequences for habitat restoration. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Maurice Anselme, General Director of the Parc National de la Guadeloupe (PNG) and Mylene Musquet, Executive Director of PNG, on the last evening of the conference. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Dessima Williams, wowed us with her inspiring and poetic keynote talk. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
The Cuban contingent! A record 20 Cubans attended, thanks to our generous sponsors! (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Prepping conference bags with the Cubans (Photo by Justin Proctor)
We thank Director of the Parc National de la Guadeloupe (PNG), Maurice Anselme, and his fabulous crew for outstanding help with organizing the conference! (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Keynote Speaker, Orisha Joseph (Sustainable Grenadines Inc) told us about the incredible restoration of Ashton Lagoon in Union Island. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Keynote speaker, Dr. Howard Nelson, called for more collaboration across the Caribbean to save birds and their habitats. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Group selfie attempts. (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Guadeloupe conference souvenir bird bands. (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Much learning took place at the evening poster sessions. (photo by Mark Yokoyama)
Anthony Levesque (Guadeloupe) won a President’s Award for his bird research, education and conservation work in Guadeloupe. (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Conference t-shirts for sale on Day 1 of the conference (photo by Mark Yokayama)
Featured speaker, Anthony Levesque, shared his excitement and many accomplishments about his work with birds on Guadeloupe Day. (photo by Fred Sapotille)
Two of our fearless leaders, Justin Proctor (Birdscaribbean Vice President) and Lisa Sorenson (BirdsCaribbean Executive Director) on the first morning of the conference. (Photo by Fred Sapotille)
Bird Hide at Grand Etang on Waterfalls Field Trip.(Photo by Anais Abatan)
Visit the newly-redesigned website for information on the best sites, guides and tours in the region!
More visually appealing. Easier to navigate. A LOT more information about birding hotspots in the Caribbean, how to get there, and which guides and operators can offer the best birdwatching experience on the ground.
Those were our objectives when we embarked on redesigning the Caribbean Birding Trail (CBT) website. Now, we are finally ready to launch the CBT’s new online home and to share it with you, and the world! Click here to access the new website.
The CBT was launched in 2011 by BirdsCaribbean in order to promote authentic experiences that benefit local people and encourage the protection of the Caribbean’s natural resources, including birds and their habitats. The website has always been a key part of making this happen.
Overhauling the website and building a customized directory (and beautiful maps!) of the birding gems of the Caribbean was no small task. To do the project justice, we knew we would need to learn as much as possible about every birding nook and cranny there is on each island. And we are here to tell you…there are many!
What’s Special about the New CBT Website
Map of the West Indies from the CBT website showing locations of Birding Sites, History/Culture Sites, and bird-friendly Accommodations. You can also toggle on and off eBird Hotspots on this map. Note that this is a work in progress: we need YOUR help to add many more sites!
As you scroll through the pages, you will find information about 138 birding sites in 24 countries. We are also proud to be promoting more than 50 guides and tour operators. These are people and enterprises who are from the Caribbean, or who now call the region home. We also aim to include a listing of every field guide and book that our partners have published for their islands. We also provide links to as many additional resources as we possibly can, giving you as full a picture as possible of the wealth of birds, habitats, and local customs and folklore.
Through the website, we also strive to tell the story of the Caribbean and its incredible natural heritage through pictures. There are nearly 700 species of birds known from the Caribbean, including 171 species that are endemic to the region and found nowhere else in the world. Furthermore, there are thousands of endemic plants, snails, lizards, frogs, mammals, and insects; and the beautiful landscapes and geological treasures that the birder will discover along the way. We have collected almost 1,000 photos thus far, and hope for many, many more.
Narrow-billed Tody by Dax Roman
It’s a Work in Progress, and We Love Our Partners!
If you are one of the dozens of individuals who supplied us with photos and/or information about people and places, we thank you! And we ask that you keep the information coming. We are not planning to stop adding to the website. In fact, our goal is for the CBT’s new site to become the number one resource in the world for planning a trip to the Caribbean to see birds, or simply to enjoy the nature and culture of the islands. We are going to build it into the “go-to” site for Caribbean birding.
We consider this website a work in progress. We will always accept suggestions for additional sites, guides, and accommodations to add; or edits and corrections to existing pages. We also greatly appreciate high quality photos, especially of birds.
Our online presence has already helped spur fruitful discussions with tour operators, and as a result BirdsCaribbean has partnered with three different companies (Wildside Nature Tours, Birding the Islands, and Carefree Birding). These companies are committed to giving back to the islands, and they donate a portion of their profits from Caribbean tours to BirdsCaribbean to invest in conservation.
The CBT…More than Site Promotion
CBT Guide Training in Cuba.
The CBT project is not just about places to go. Through the CBT we are also helping create authentic experiences, and building capacity where needed in the Caribbean to do so. Essential to this is the Caribbean Birding Trail Interpretive Guide Training program, a five-day intensive course where participants not only learn to identify the local bird species and their connection to the environment, but also discover how to use interpretation techniques that will bring this knowledge to life for their birding guests.
The training helps guides to uncover unusual pieces of local science and cultural context that will spark the imagination of the birders and have them fully engaged during their tours. Professional bird and nature guides, certified through the National Association of Interpretation in the U.S., conduct this exciting, hands-on training program.
The reason we thought this important is for the same reason we think the Caribbean Birding Trail itself is important. It is because birds are windows to nature. And in the Caribbean, they are also portals for getting away from the tourism hubs and into the beating heart of the islands. They facilitate discovery, having an authentic experience, and bird by bird, getting to know the real Caribbean.
Our new video is now available on the CBT website and on our YouTube channel. The four-minute long video gives the viewer an enticing glimpse into the birds they will see, and a taste of the culture they can get immersed in when they go looking for those birds.
With Deep Gratitude
Thank you again to everybody who contributed to the original CBT website and this much-improved 2.0 version.
Special thanks to our CBT cartographer, Aly DeGraff Ollivierre for creating the awesome maps and helping solicit, organize, and upload content to the website. Also to Holly Robertson, the CBT Project Manager, for her role as webmaster and digging deep into the world of WordPress.
We would be nowhere without the patience and fortitude of our web designer, Kathleen McGee of BTN Designs, and the vision of Ted Eubanks and Fermata, Inc in originally charting the course of the Caribbean Birding Trail and establishing the first iteration of the website.
With deep gratitude we also thank the donors who financially supported the development of this website over the years: the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund, the Marshall-Reynolds Foundation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act Program.
Links to articles about our Caribbean Birding Trail Guide Training workshops:
A Puerto Rican Flycatcher sings at first light on Global Big Day. (Photo by Hector Ortiz)
Congratulations to all our citizen scientists out there! The biggest day in birding was even bigger for the Caribbean this year. May 4, Global Big Day 2019, saw 846 checklists posted on the eBird Caribbean site, topping last year’s 698. This is quite a big jump in one year!
Whether it was by the sea, in the hills or in backyards, over 200 Caribbean birdwatchers, ornithologists, photographers and nature enthusiasts grabbed binoculars and cameras on May 4. They recorded 330 species in total, including 140 endemics. This means that no less than 80% of the Caribbean’s special birds, found nowhere else in the world, were seen in one single day. This is a very encouraging development. You can see all of the Global Big Day data from the West Indies on eBird.
A pair of Bobolinks were spotted on the Cayman Islands. (Photo by Denny Swaby)
This year, 21 islands played a part in Global Big Day. In recent years, an annual (friendly) competition in the West Indies has been warming up between the Bahamas and Puerto Rico. This year the race to the top was again close, but the Bahamas emerged as winners, spotting 138 species. Puerto Rico came in just six species behind and Cuba came in third with 125. Who will the winner be next year? Trinidad and Tobago, grouped with South America in Global Big Day counts, spotted 194 species.
Globally, a record 33,459 enthusiasts went out birdwatching in 171 countries, finding 6,842 species. Two thirds of the world’s bird species were spotted in a single day. The Western Hemisphere dominated the global results; Colombia came out on top for the third consecutive year with the stunning total of 1,591 species, followed by Peru.
A Wilson’s Plover in Anguilla. (Jacqueline A. Cestero)
BirdsCaribbean and eBird Caribbean thank all who went out on Global Big Day, even if only for a short time. The main point is that you participated, making an invaluable contribution to science and conservation. As the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project, eBird had 1.85 million observations on Global Big Day. eBird is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in collaboration with partner groups such as BirdsCaribbean – and hundreds of thousands of eBirders. For more information, go to the Caribbean portal: https://ebird.org/caribbean/home. You may also download the free mobile app, which makes tallying those numbers even easier. Enjoy!
Field technicians check the the hawk chicks for Philornis pici fly larvae. These parasites will feed off the chick’s blood which can result in death. (Photo by Eladio Fernandez)
These are two names sometimes given to the elegant Ridgway’s Hawk, a Critically Endangered bird of prey which lives only on the island of Hispaniola. This hawk has an estimated population of just 450 individuals in the Dominican Republic, and is believed to be extirpated in Haiti. Since 2000, The Peregrine Fund – a non-profit organization working for the conservation of threatened and endangered birds of prey worldwide – has been in the Dominican Republic, fighting to save this species. The program consists of four major components: scientific research and monitoring, assisted dispersal, environmental education and community development.
I came on board this project in 2011 and have been amazed at the incredible strides our great team has made for the conservation of this species. As I write this, we are right in the middle of the busiest time of year – Ridgway’s Hawk nesting season! As many of our local field crew are busy nest monitoring, banding chicks and treating young for botfly infestations, I have had the privilege to spend some time at our new release site in Aniana Vargas National Park.
The Community is Key
A newly released Ridgway’s Hawk spending some time on the release tower. (Photo by Marta Curti)
Part of our long-term goals for the conservation of this species include creating 3 additional populations outside of Los Haitises National Park – the location of the last known population of this species. Last year, our team leader, Thomas Hayes, spent a lot of time searching for potential new release sites that would provide the hawks with sufficient prey and nesting habitat as well as relative protection from human threats. In fact, one of the main reasons we chose this park was because of the communities that surround it. Most of them make their living selling organic cacao and are already committed to environmental protection!
But before we could begin releases in this area, we had to do much more than pick a spot and set up a release site. We had to make sure we had the support from the local community members. After all, the success of the project and the survival of the hawks very much depends on the residents’ reactions to these efforts.
So, over the past several months our team has made many visits to Los Brazos, the nearest community to the release site. We held town meetings to discuss the possibility of releasing hawks in the area. We also brought a few individuals from the town of Los Limones (outside of Los Haitises National Park) where we have been working for close to two decades. The residents learned from them first-hand what benefits the project could bring to their own community. After receiving the go-ahead and full support of the people of Los Brazos, in March we constructed two towers to house the young hawks prior to release. We hired several community members to help with transporting materials through the forest to the site (about a 30-minute walk) and construction.
How Are the New Releases Doing?
Members of all ages from the surrounding community were able to enjoy the hawks. (Photo by Marta Curti)
As of the writing of this report, 14 Ridgway’s Hawks have been released into the park. They continue to do well. Nine more are currently in the hack boxes* and will be released within the next two weeks. We hope to bring at least two more hawks to the site, to be able to release a total of 25 individuals this year. All the hawks have been fitted with transmitters which help us locate them during this critical stage of their development.
In order to benefit the community as well as the hawks, we built and provided one free chicken coop to each household in Los Brazos. This will help prevent any conflicts between Ridgway’s Hawks, other raptors and domestic fowl. We also hired and are in the process of training three full-time, seasonal employees and three seasonal, paid volunteers. These young community members are responsible for monitoring and caring for the released hawks, under the supervision of Julio and Sete Gañan. Some have even taken the initiative to give presentations in nearby communities and schools. Our presence in Los Brazos also provides other sources of income for individuals as we pay for additional services such as cooking, laundry, house rental and transportation, among others. We have been overjoyed by the enthusiasm shown by the people of Los Brazos and surrounding communities in support of this project and the Ridgway’s Hawk.
Over the next few months, the released hawks will naturally develop their hunting and survival skills and in no time – they will become completely independent. When that happens, the young hawks will disperse to other areas within and outside the park.
Learning More About the Guaraguaíto
Los Brazos community members giving presentations on the Ridgway’s Hawk in local schools. (Photo by Marta Curti)
In order to keep the hawks as protected as possible once this happens, we have to make sure our education program reaches other surrounding communities before the hawks do. To that end, we expanded our education program to the region. To date we have visited 10 other communities that surround the park, going door-to-door, and giving presentations in local schools. We have also engaged local teachers to help us spread this important conservation message.
To date, we have conducted two workshops for a total of 38teachers working in schools around Aniana Vargas National Park. These two-day workshops are designed to provide teachers with the tools necessary to be able to talk about conservation issues one-on-one within their communities and in the classroom. The training also showed how to utilize whatever materials are on hand to create fun and dynamic learning experiences for their students. Our goal is for the educators to duplicate what they learned and help spread the word about the hawk and conservation far and wide.
Workshop activities include creating artistic sculptures of Ridgway’s Hawks out of recyclable materials; putting on a play – complete with actors, costumes and scenery; a bird watching excursion; playing a food-chain game; and participating in “Raptor Olympics.” During these exercises, the teachers are learning about the Ridgway’s Hawk’s biology, food chains, birds of prey, and conservation issues and actions. We have since received word from some participants, who are already putting what they learned into action. Some teachers have begun giving presentations at their schools about the hawks, and one hosted a mini-workshop with the other teachers at her school. We have also conducted art activities in several schools around the area, focused on birds of prey and the Ridgway’s Hawk.
The Future Looks Brighter, Thanks to Support!
Kids with our new Ridgeway’s Hawk brochure. (photo by Marta Curti)
Additionally, we have printed our first children’s brochure (in Spanish and Haitian Creole) and poster, and we are making progress on several other educational materials! We still have a lot of work to do in order to conserve this species and to reduce the human threat to its survival. However, we have made great strides and will continue to work hard for a better future for this beautiful raptor and for all wildlife and wild places, besides the human communities in Dominican Republic that live alongside them. I can’t wait!
We are grateful to our in-country partners Fundación Grupo Puntacana, Fundación Propagas, ZooDom, Cooperativa Vega Real, and Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales: and to our generous donors: BirdsCaribbean and the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund, and Premios Brugal Cree en Su Gente. And very importantly, we thank all of our local employees and volunteers, and all the community members for ensuring the success of this project. We could not do it without your support!
Hover over each photo to see the caption or click on the photo to see a slide show.
Art activity using new children’s brochure on the Ridgeway’s Hawk. (photo by Marta Curti)
Art activity – learning to draw Ridgeway’s Hawk. (photo by Marta Curti)
Morning meeting in the field. (Photo by Eladio Fernandez)
Local volunteers and community members tracking the hawks using radio telemetry. (photo by Marta Curti)
Banding the chicks is important for identification and research. (Photo by Eladio Fernandez)
Youth showing her Ridgeway’s Hawk artwork. (photo by Marta Curti)
Community members come to see the released hawks. (photo by Marta Curti)
Learning to identify birds seen on our walk at a Teacher Training Workshop (photo by Marta Curti)
Newly released Ridgeway’s Hawks spending time near the release tower. (photo by Marta Curti)
Teacher Training Workshop: Playing a food chain race game to learn about the importance of food chains. (photo by Marta Curti)
Bos Brazos community members giving a presentation on the Ridgeway’s Hawk in a local school. (photo by Marta Curti)
Hack box for the Ridgeway’s Hawk (photo by Marta Curti)
Locals monitoring the released hawks. (photo by Marta Curti)
By Marta Curti, The Peregrine Fund. Marta Curti began working as a field biologist with The Peregrine Fund (TPF) in 2000 when she worked as a hack site attendant on the Aplomado Falcon project in southern Texas. She has since worked as a biologist and environmental educator on several TPF projects from California Condors in Arizona to Harpy Eagles and Orange-breasted Falcons in Belize and Panama. She has been working with the Ridgway’s Hawk Project since 2011.
* A hack box is a specially designed aviary that serves as a temporary nest for young hawks awaiting release into a new area. The hawks are places in the hack box at a young age (before they are naturally able to fly). They remain in the hack box for about 7-10 days, until they are at the age of fledging. During their time in the hack box they are fed daily and become accustomed to their new home so that when the doors are open, they will naturally want to return to the site for food. Over time they will develop their hunting skills and once independent they will disperse naturally from the release area and no longer show up for the food we provision.
We are impressed. We are excited. We are hopeful. Yes, CWC 2019 has sparked some emotions among us all!
First and foremost, we at BirdsCaribbean wish to thank you – our partners, who joined in the 2019 Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC). The Census is now in its tenth year of data collection by energetic birders across the region. Over the three-week count period ending on February 3rd, we received a total of 321 checklists from 19 countries, with 212 different species observed. We are deeply impressed by the work you have all put in!
This year’s CWC was unusual in some ways. We were not sure what to expect. In 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria cut a swathe of chaos and destruction across parts of the region. Our birds suffered and struggled to survive, and conservationists struggled to recover along with them. Results from the CWC in 2018 a few months later were worrying. Our counters reported dramatic declines in the diversity and numbers, even of some of our most common bird species. We might have expected this as the hurricanes damaged fragile wetland habitats – which had already been threatened in recent years by human activities. Even though the storms occurred in 2017, those ecosystems still have a long road to recovery.
The results from this year were heartening, compared to the post-hurricane CWC results in 2018. There were quite a few surprises and records during the counts.
Locations of the sites surveyed during the 2019 Caribbean Waterbird Census (Map by Aly Ollivierre)
Encouraging Numbers
It’s early days yet. We won’t have a complete picture of how birds are recovering until we analyze all of the data. However, there have been promising reports from the field. In the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Canadian Wildlife Service led Piping Plover surveys with a team of partners and volunteers. The team counted 134Piping Plovers this year at six sites – compared to 62 plovers at three sites in 2018. Among these birds, the surveyors spotted 15 marked with unique leg codes (including ten from their own study!).
A group of Piping Plovers foraging in Cayo Paredon Grande, Cuba. (Photo by Martin Acosta)
The teams visited a variety of good shorebird sites including foraging sand and mud flats, salinas, and ponds. Black Rock, an area of islets and sandbar on the south side of Middle Caicos, came out top in terms of the range of species and numbers counted. Almost 1,500 shorebirds were spotted, including 180Red Knot (five of which were banded with unique codes). In the past, this location has yielded many bird sightings, but in the post-hurricane count last year numbers were lower (around 500 birds). This may have been due to the redistribution of sand from Hurricane Irma which limited good foraging habitat. The abundance of birds has since tripled – which is exciting news.
In Cuba, Professor Lourdes Mugica and her team from the University of Havana counted 41Piping Plovers in Cayo Paredon Grande on the north coast of the island. Lourdes reports that they observed more Piping Plovers in other areas. However, interestingly this is the largest flock her team has ever encountered in four years of CWC monitoring. Five of the birds were banded – these were read and reported in their eBird entry.
Is it too early to suggest that this lovable, endlessly fascinating bird is making a comeback?
Exciting Discoveries
Does this plover look suspicious to you? It’s a Common Ringed Plover, which should be overwintering in Africa. Seen in Guadeloupe, this is the third record for the Caribbean. (Photo by Anthony Levesque)
On to Antigua, where Andrea Otto and her team from the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) spotted a Wattled Jacana! Not only is this a new island record, but it is a first sighting for the West Indies. This range map from eBird Caribbean clearly shows that this is a South American species. In addition to the jacana, the group also saw an American White Pelican – a new record for the island. Both are incredible sightings – check out the eBird report here!
Andrea and Natalya Lawrence shared the news of the Wattled Jacana sighting, explaining the importance of the CWC and Antigua’s waterbirds in a lively television interview on the “Antigua Barbuda Today” morning show. To see the interview, complete with photos, advance to 2:05:15 here). Our partners at EAG really helped to put their island’s waterbirds on the map!
Nature Explorers Anguilla also had an unexpected American White Pelican during their CWC count at Meads Bay Pond in Anguilla. According to the literature available and eBird records, it would appear to be a first record for the island. Way to go team! Their eBird list is available here.
Anthony Levesque in Guadeloupe spotted a Common Ringed Plover. This is only the 2nd Guadeloupe and 3rd Caribbean record of this species! Common Ringed Plovers usually overwinter in Africa (see the eBird range map). They are quite a challenge to identify in the field, especially when they are supposed to be on the other side of the world! Read Anthony’s descriptive notes on his eBird list here.
In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Lystra Culzac spotted a single male American Wigeon. This is also a rare, and possibly first, sighting for the island.
Future CWC Surveyors in the Making
Students practice their waterbird identification in Jamaica during the CWC. (Photo by Ava Tomlinson)
In Jamaica, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) hosted 65 students to participate in the CWC in the Palisadoes, Port Royal Protected Area. Students learned about the importance of the area, which is a RAMSAR site close to the capital city of Kingston, and the species they might encounter. In addition, they learned about the impact of pollution on this fragile environment.
The students used materials from BirdsCaribbean, including “Wetland Birds of the Caribbean” and “Seabirds of the Caribbean,” identification cards, binoculars, and data sheets, and set out to record their observations. They worked in groups of four, validating the type of birds seen under the guidance of NEPA staff. The students were excited to see the Belted Kingfisher, Magnificent Frigatebird, Royal Tern, Ruddy Turnstone, and Sandwich Tern.
On World Wetlands Day, a group from BirdLife Jamaica counted in the same area, which is slated for tourism development – including a retractable pier for cruise ships that is already on the island. How will this affect the wetland habitat and the birds that shelter there? Time will tell. Among the species counted there was a “party boat” full of Laughing Gulls.
Disturbing Events
Grupo Acción Ecológica (Dominican Republic) discovered and removed over 300 traps for waterbirds during their CWC counts. Here, an American Flamingo is freed. (Photo by Maria Paulino)
Wetlands were the focus for Maria Paulino and her team from Grupo Acción Ecológica in the Dominican Republic. However, there were some unhappy discoveries. At one of the country’s important wetland sites, Monte Cristi on the north coast, the team found large traps designed to catch American Flamingos. Tragically, other species were casualties – including a dead Snowy Egret, a dead Reddish Egret – and two days later, a similar trap was found with three dead Tricolored Herons. The team freed one trapped flamingo from a trap.
Altogether, the team removed over 300 traps! This terrible situation was reported to the Environmental Department in Santo Domingo and (hopefully) this will pressure the government into taking some action. It is not clear what the fate of the flamingos would be when caught, but Maria Paulino has heard that they are sold to resorts and hotels.
What is the CWC?
The Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC) is a multi-partner, region-wide waterbird and wetland monitoring program led by BirdsCaribbean. The goal of this program is to learn more about the distribution, status, and abundance of waterbirds in the Caribbean in order to better conserve and manage these beautiful birds and their habitats.
Environmental Awareness Group in Antigua discussed the CWC and their record findings in a television interview.
The program also aims to increase awareness, build capacity (for example through training workshops), and engage communities and volunteers in wetland monitoring and conservation. Ultimately, we want to identify and ensure that as many important wetland sites as possible are protected, thus nurturing the many fascinating bird species that live in them.
Since the program began in 2010, dedicated bird enthusiasts have ventured into wetlands across the Caribbean to systematically survey all types of waterbirds (shorebirds, seabirds, wading birds, marshbirds, and waterfowl). The three-week regional counting period begins on January 14th and ends on February 3rd each year – just including World Wetlands Day (February 2nd).
However, this is not a “once per year” event – you certainly don’t have to wait until January of 2020 to join the CWC. We collect data all year-round! To learn more about migration routes and important stopover sites, everyone is asked to count waterbirds as often as possible throughout the year, especially during migration periods in fall (August-November) and spring (March-May).
The CWC forms part of the International Waterbird Census (IWC) – the largest volunteer waterbird count in the world, organized by Wetlands International and now in its 53rd year. We are still relatively “new kids on the block,” but after ten years we are making valuable contributions to the knowledge base for these critical but often overlooked species.
The collected data is recorded on the newly designed eBird Caribbean online platform.
Any time you are counting birds in Caribbean wetlands, you can enter your data on eBird as a CWC Point Count or Traveling Count. Make sure to choose one of these protocols on “Observation Type” if using the eBird Mobile app (be sure to choose eBird Caribbean portal in your Settings), or on Step 2 of data entry on your laptop.
A rare American Wigeon (male) spotted by Lystra Culzac and Glenroy Games in St. Vincent. (photo by Lystra Culzac)2019 CWC Survey team in the Dominican Republic – Kate Wallace, Maria Paulino and Daniel Mejia.
Fela and Pepe, inseparable, on the search for Puerto Rican Todies.
Join Justin Proctor on his adventure to Puerto Rico where he was invited to help launch an exciting new book on one of the Caribbean’s most unique birds.
Everybody in Puerto Rico knows José (Pepe) González Díaz and Felisa (Fela) Collazo Torres in the same way: as a husband-wife team just as inseparable from each other as they are from their island’s natural landscapes. They wake up every day just as in love as when they met decades ago, and just as ready as they were the day before (and the day before that) to go out amidst their mountains, valleys, and rivers to discover something new…together. I’ve never met another couple like them. They are, like Puerto Rico, something beautifully special.
It is no hyperbole when I make the claim that Pepe and Fela have collectively spent tens of thousands of hours researching, photographing, filming, and producing educational materials about their island’s flora and fauna. It isn’t difficult to find their Aves Puerto Rico FelPe (Fela + Pepe) insignia on dozens of full length documentaries covering everything from endemic butterflies to birds. Their extensive YouTube channel is a good place to start your way down the rabbit hole. Keep in mind as you look through their material how much “behind the scenes” time and effort it takes to capture some of the high-quality, rare footage of many of the species that are featured. A 20-second shot of never before seen behaviors was likely the product of days, if not weeks, of time spent waiting and watching from within a cramped little blind.
Pepe and Fela’s trademark logo, involving a blend of both their names
A sampling of the multimedia filmed, edited, and produced by Pepe and Fela.
But beyond these invaluable pieces of work, Pepe and Fela are probably even better known for something else.
Todies.
For more than 15 years, they have consumed themselves with unravelling the story of the Todidae family. And the more they dug, the more they found. The Todidae family is unique for so many reasons, but perhaps the most obvious is that it is a small family of only five species, all of which are collectively endemic to the Greater Antilles. You’ll find one species in Cuba, one in Jamaica, two in Hispaniola, and one in Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Rican Tody, locally named San Pedrito, is one of the five tody species endemic to the Caribbean.
That’s it. They belong to the Caribbean and nowhere else.
Todies are also unlike any other birds that you’ll ever see, guaranteed, which makes them a major attraction for birders and photographers from all over the world. But don’t just take my word on it. Pick up a copy of Pepe and Fela’s coauthored book, La Raíz de las Antillas: La Historia de la Familia Todidae, which has certainly proven itself to be the most comprehensive historical account of these birds ever published. The book is now available on Amazon, and should find its way into the hands of any birder that has ever had the pleasure of spending (or longed to spend) a few moments with a tody.
The book does an excellent job of navigating readers through the last three-hundred years of documentation of the todies, and how so many people struggled to describe these birds for what they really were. Consistently confused with hummingbirds and oftentimes inaccurately illustrated, the todies weaved their way in and out of ornithological accounts as different birds almost every time. And so readers will quickly come to appreciate the detective work that Pepe and Fela have undertaken so as to guide us efficiently and accurately through the convoluted timeline of the todies. The late James W. Wiley summarized it well:
“The book is an important contribution to our knowledge of the family Todidae as well as a major contribution to Antillean ornithology in general. The authors’ exhaustive investigation and compelling presentation are an exceptional model for others to follow.”
Readers will also be quick to notice that the authors have interlaced an important message throughout their book: that their island’s tody species—the Puerto Rican Tody, or locally the San Pedrito—rightfully deserves a change of its scientific name, Todus mexicanus. Through their historical account of the species, Pepe and Fela make a clear case for changing T. mexicanus to T. portoricensis or T. borinquensis (the latter derived from “Borinquén”, the original Taíno name for Puerto Rico). Geographically speaking, this makes sense, because the Puerto Rican Tody has never touched foot in Mexico. And the reason for the misleading mexicanus species name has likely stemmed from just a quick moment of confusion that occurred in the late 1830s, when two tody specimens collected at two different localities were later misidentified and subsequently documented incorrectly.
However, the process of procuring a formal scientific name change through the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) can be a challenging one. Unfortunately, current taxonomy is rife with species that have geographically-misleading scientific names, and the ICZN does not usually address these cases. However, Pepe and Fela’s case has additional ground to stand on (read the book to find out!), and so they are continuing to push forward. For them, the name is important; the San Pedrito is as unique and beautiful as the island of Puerto Rico itself, and because of that, has limitless potential to grow into an icon of pride and stewardship for Puerto Ricans over their island’s rich biological diversity. But the tody and what it can signify loses power and influence when its name does not match the people that should care about it the most.
Pepe and Fela are on a mission to establish the San Pedrito’s taxanomic name as Todus portoricensis
Over the last couple of years, La Raíz de las Antillas (for short) has been enhanced and amplified through a series of revisions and new editions. It was in early 2018 that Pepe and Fela reached out to BirdsCaribbean, and ultimately our Journal of Caribbean Ornithology (JCO) editorial team, to see if we’d be willing to help proofread and copy-edit the first full-length English edition, appropriately titled, The Root of the Antilles: A History of the Todidae Family. One of the JCO’s best editors, Alice McBride, decided to take it on. She did such an outstanding job of cleaning the grammar that Pepe was compelled to go back to the original Spanish edition and make some changes. As the Managing Editor of the JCO, I was excited to see us involved with the future of the book, while equally interested in seeing how the collaboration could grow over time. A few months later, the opportunity came in the form of an invite from Pepe and Fela for us to attend the much-awaited, public release of their book scheduled for the 8th of December in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.
One of the perks of being employed by a non-profit are the (sometimes) flexible hours. With the rest of the BirdsCaribbean and JCO crew tied up with “work,” I was thrilled to be offered the opportunity to fly down and represent us. It was a chance to see Puerto Rico for the first time, be hosted personally by Pepe and Fela, and see my fifth and final tody species. Done deal, sign me up! The hospitality I received and the fun I had over just a short five days on the island is worthy of its own full-length account. But in short, it was spectacular, and one of those trips where the puzzle pieces all just come together perfectly, over and over again. From spending afternoons with the Puerto Rican Parrots in El Yunque and the shorebirds in Cabo Rojo, to sipping a fresh cup of mountain coffee while seeing my first San Pedrito at La Mocha, to squeezing in a grand-finale sunset from the Arecibo Observatory (eat your hearts out James Bond fans), I had no choice but to fall in love with Puerto Rico (it would have been easy despite).
Casa Pueblo in Adjuntas, PR made for the perfect venue to celebrate Pepe and Fela’s coauthored book, The Root of the Antilles_A History of the Todidae Family
Through all of that, it was the day of Pepe and Fela’s book release that took me most by surprise. Looking back, I’m not sure what I originally expected to unfold, but it was definitely second-rate to the magnitude of what greeted me. The event was hosted by Casa Pueblo. My best attempt at describing this organization is by saying that they’re engaged with absolutely every initiative that a community needs and wants, and they’re doing it right. An hour before the ceremony was going to take place, the venue’s auditorium that could comfortably seat 75 people was overflowing into every open space available. Among the crowd were members of the Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña (SOPI), passionate birders, wildlife photographers, professors, school groups, and a myriad of community members. Everyone was excited about Pepe, Fela, the todies, and the great success story surrounding all three. Bands played, beautiful presentations and speeches were made, handmade gifts were given, and food and drink were shared—it was a true celebration, filled with friendship and pride.
The invitation we all received was for a book release, but anyone attending would agree that what actually transpired was an opportunity for Puerto Rico to show its gratitude to Pepe and Fela for all they had done, and continue to do, for the people and wildlife of the island they love. I consider myself lucky and fortunate to have been a part of that truly special day.
The story of the Puerto Rican Tody can no longer be told without the addition of Pepe and Fela, nor can their personal story be told without the tody. I hope that everyone reading this gets a chance to meet all three of them. In the meantime, while the winter days are short and cold, brush up on your tody history by picking up a copy of The Root of the Antilles: A History of the Todidae Family. And by doing so, you’ll be supporting all of the great work and forward progress that it stands for.
Pepe and Justin sit beneath a painting of the San Pedrito done by Pepe himself.
The Imperial Parrot, locally known as the Sisserou, is the National Bird of Dominica. (Photo by Paul Reillo)
In April 2018, we published an article about the controversial export of threatened parrots from Dominica to Germany. After the 2017 hurricane season, the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP) exported two Sisserou (Imperial Parrots; Amazona imperialis) and ten Jaco (Red-necked Parrots; Amazona arausiaca) in March 2018. ACTP claimed that establishing a captive breeding population at their facility in Germany was an “emergency measure.”
A new report by Lisa Cox in The Guardian has uncovered just how dishonest ACTP has been in its dealings with captive birds. It also reveals the criminal history of its director, Martin Guth. This new information amplifies our initial outrage and serious concern for the exported birds from Dominica. Before we highlight the report’s findings, here is a brief history of events:
Timeline
17 Mar 2018:
2 Imperial Parrots and 10 Red-necked Parrots are secretly removed from Dominica’s Parrot Conservation and Research Centre. They are exported via private charter plane to ACTP’s facility in Germany.
3 Apr 2018:
BirdsCaribbean publishes their first blog post about the incident, describing the legal, scientific and ethical problems with this export.
5 April 2018:
Thirteen organizations, including BirdsCaribbean, prepared and signed a letter to the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) expressing outrage over the transfer. The letter was also sent to representatives within CITES, the government of Dominica, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the European Union, .
April 2018:
ATCP publishes a statement in responses to the letter arguing that an external facility is the best option to protect these birds from natural disasters.
1 May 2018:
Forty international researchers, veterinarians and conservation leaders, including BirdsCaribbean, continued to express concern. They recommended the repatriation of the parrots and a full investigation into ACTP’s activities. This letter was sent to Dominica’s Director of the Environmental Coordinating Unit and Director of Forestry, Wildlife and Parks in addition to Germany’s Federal Agency for Conservation of Nature.
10 Dec 2018:
The Guardian publishes two articles by Lisa Cox about ACTP. The first is an exposé into how ACTP has acquired one of the world’s largest collections of endangered parrots. The second details Australia’s own dealings with ACTP, despite concerns.
What did the investigative report reveal?
Red-necked Parrots, also known as Jacos, are endemic to Dominica. (Photo by Paul Reillo)
Dominica has not been the only country to have questionable dealings with the ACTP. Since 2015, ACTP has removed 232 parrots from Australia (80% of all live native bird exports) including endangered birds like the Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo. In Brazil, the Spix’s Macaw is extinct in the wild; ACTP has 90 per cent of the existing global population (142 of the 159 birds left). The organization has also acquired endemic parrots from St. Lucia and St. Vincent.
The article reports that the ACTP has a license to operate as a zoo in Germany. Exports to zoos are typically granted under the assumption that the birds will be on exhibit. But the site is not easily accessible by public transport, there is no car park, and no clear indication that the facility is open to the public. There are no signs that offer information about opening hours or admission prices. Also, ACTP is not registered with any major international zoological association.
So what happens to the birds? That remains unclear as ACTP does not publish inventories, animal transactions, or financial reports. The article does note, however, that the German federal conservation agency is aware of private social media messages that show Australian birds apparently imported by ACTP offered for sale for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Guardian reporters describe Martin Guth as a convicted criminal, former nightclub manager, and “unofficial debt collector.” He served a five-year jail sentence for kidnapping and extortion in 1996 and a 20-month term for extortion in 2009. The reports also allege that “at least one individual who works with ACTP has a conviction for involvement with illegal bird trading.” German authorities reportedly deny any knowledge of Guth’s criminal background.
Yet, when ACTP applied to the Environment Department in Australia to be recognized as a zoo, it was asked: “If the zoo is privately owned, has the owner ever been convicted of a criminal offence or declared bankrupt?” ACTP responded that it was not privately owned. Its response in relation to criminal offences was marked “n/a”.
The Guardian reports have sparked strong reactions among conservationists on social media. Stephen Durand from Dominica’s Forestry Department said they confirm his worst fears: “When Martin Guth visited Dominica in January 2018…his first declaration was that he had absolutely no interest whatsoever to conduct any breeding programme for Dominica’s Parrots. And so here it is. History to confirm that Dominica’s Parrots were traded to a fraudulent zoo in the name of conservation, owned by a convicted criminal businessman.”
The Sisserou is endangered and endemic to Dominica. (Photo by Paul Reillo)
BirdsCaribbean and our fellow conservation organizations will continue to put pressure on authorities and individuals responsible for the controversial export of Dominica’s wildlife to ACTP. We stand by our recommendation to repatriate the 12 parrots. First, transfer the birds to a credentialed, experienced zoological facility to check for diseases. If deemed healthy and disease-free, return the birds to the Parrot Conservation and Research Centre in Roseau, Dominica. We also recommend a full investigation of all parrot imports by ACTP into Germany as well as ACTP’s activities with CITES I species (including inventory history). Finally, we support a ban on all future transfers of Caribbean parrots to the ACTP.
Dr. Paul R. Reillo, President of the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation and co-Director of the Tropical Conservation Institute at Florida International University, points out: “Dominica’s parrots have survived hurricanes for millennia, and wild populations have rebounded thanks to broad-based, on-island conservation measures.” Dr. Reillo, who has worked in Dominica for over 20 years, also believes the parrots should be returned as soon as possible.
The lush habitat for which Dominica is famous, and the birds that live in it, were dealt a bitter blow by Hurricane Maria. However, like its people, the island is resilient – and so are its birds. The island’s biodiversity should be allowed to recover at its own pace – and within its own borders, as Dr. Reillo notes.
Parrot habitat in Morne Diablotin National Park in Dominica – The forest is recovering after the passage of Hurricane Maria in September 2017. Photo taken in late 2018 by Stephen Durand.
The last time we met them, Yvan Satgé and his colleagues from Grupo Jaragua and USGS – South Carolina Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit were hiking up and down the high slopes of Loma del Toro, in the Dominican Republic. They were in search of active Black-capped Petrel burrows in which to set traps for adults returning to feed their chick. Read Part I of the story here.
“Hay uno!” – There is one!
The endangered Black-capped Petrel or “Diablotin” only breeds in the mountains of a few Caribbean nations. (Photo by David Hollie)
Excited by the prospect of capturing Black-capped Petrels for the first time, I am awake well before sunrise. Even the local rooster is surprised by the beam of my headlamp emerging from the tent. I knock on the door of the caseta where the rest of the team sleeps and, within a few minutes, our group heads into the forest, a flock of LED lights floating in the night mist. When we reach the ridge that marks the edge of the petrel colony, there is just enough light to sense the tall presence of Hispaniolan pines, their bark beaded with water droplets caught in lichen and moss. We catch our breath while listening to the muted sounds of dawn: a few birds warming up in the distance, insects starting to chirp in the bushes, and Pirrín…who never stops talking.
To avoid unnecessary disturbance, we decide that only Ivan, the youngest and fittest of the group, will check on the traps. If he finds a trapped petrel, he will call us by radio to join him. Ivan scrambles down the slope of loose soil and rocks and disappears into the dense understory vegetation. Up on the ridge, as we solemnly listen to the radio, even Pirrín is quiet. In the momentary silence, I review the steps in the tagging process myself: record the time; remove the bird from the trap; check it over for condition or injury; place it in the cloth bag; weigh it; attach a metal band to its right leg. If the petrel is heavy enough, glue the GPS tracker to the base of the tail feathers with epoxy, and secure it with strips of waterproof cloth tape and a small zip-tie. Take measurements: tarsus, wing cord, bill (culmen) length and depth; take a picture of the bird’s profile; place it back in the nest; record the time. Collect any poop samples. Breathe.
The radio screeches: “Hay uno!” – There is one. My heart races as we enter the ravine, single-file. Despite our excitement, we need to move slowly through the branches and vines that block our path at knee and chest height. In front of the burrow, we review the procedure once again and assign roles. Ivan removes the trap from the tunnel’s entrance, revealing a small but handsome black and white bird with a black mask over its eyes and a shiny thick black beak: Diablotín, the Black-capped Petrel. Patrick places the petrel into the cloth bag and weighs it as José Luis takes notes. Meanwhile I begin to prepare the GPS tracking equipment, but Patrick stops me halfway through: “370g: it’s a light bird…” I won’t need the tracking equipment this morning after all.
The Seabird Biologist Receives Two Gifts from the Diablotin
José Luis Castillo holds a Black-capped Petrel ready to be equipped with a GPS tracker, while Pirrín Matos watches the procedure. (Photo by Yvan Satgé)
An implicit standard in the tracking of birds’ movements is to keep the mass of the tracking equipment below 3% of the mass of the bird to avoid undue burden. Counting the waterproofing, epoxy, tape and zip-tie, the mass of our GPS loggers adds up to a bit less than 9g, meaning we could equip petrels weighing as little as 300g. The night before, however, we had decided to raise the weight limit in case the stress of tagging a smaller petrel might cause it to abandon its chick. As important as our research can be for the conservation of Black-capped Petrels, we do not want to jeopardize the health or reproductive success of the already-endangered birds we study. It is tempting to bend our own rule in our excitement – but it’s always best, in any expedition, to follow decisions made with a clear head.
The petrel rewards us with a gift of sorts: a fresh fecal sample for my diet study lands on my legs. Will this poop contain DNA from squid, or from some unknown prey? We hope to find out soon. Now, we band the petrel and, after quick measurements and a photo, it’s time to place it back in its burrow. Too happy to release my first Black-capped petrel, I am not careful enough of its beak and receive the mark of the seabird biologist: a bleeding gash into the flesh of my finger.
Over the next ten days, we capture eleven more Black-capped petrels, nine of which we equip with a GPS tracker. We also set up three “base-stations” near their burrows: powered by solar panels, the base-stations will download the data stored in a tracker whenever a petrel comes back to feed its chick. Ernst and his team will retrieve the base-stations and data when they come back in June for their monthly check of the colony.
A Patient Ball of Fluff
Gerson Feliz inspects the chamber of a newly found Black-capped Petrel nest, revealed by a fallen tree: Gerson will protect the 2-week old chick with an improvised roof of branches, rocks and soil. (Photo by Yvan Satgé)
During our discussions, while, bathing in the sun after afternoon rains, huddled around the cooking fire, or preparing GPS trackers in the caseta at night, I have realized that spending so much time at Loma del Toro is challenging for the team. My companions have families and other responsibilities in town (Ivan will leave early to take tests for his high school certificate – we all thought he was finished with school for the year!). Although cellphones and WhatsApp make it easier for José Luis to chat with his wife and young kids or for Ernst to keep working on a multitude of other projects, their monthly monitoring visits to the colony usually last only a few days. Hence, we use these two weeks on the mountain as fully as possible.
One afternoon, Patrick, an expert rock-climber, refreshes the team’s climbing skills with two duffel bags full of safety equipment donated by Ted Simons, the leader of a 2001 expedition to locate Black-capped Petrel nests in this area. We use the ropes, harnesses and helmets to practice rappelling down petrel escarpments and climbing up trees where Hispaniola Amazons, a vulnerable endemic parrot also monitored by Grupo Jaragua, build their nests.
On other days, we search for petrel burrows. After many hours of bushwhacking in dense underbrush, we find two new burrows near the monitoring area. One of them houses a grey ball of down feathers: a 2-week old Black-capped Petrel chick patiently waiting for its parents to bring it food. The other nest contains only a cold egg. This is the fifth abandoned egg that we have found in the area; in the 8 years that Grupo Jaragua has been monitoring the species, Ernst has only found a few such cases. The reason for these abandonments is difficult to pinpoint, but may include the presence of feral cats (which can kill or disturb incubating adult petrels) or the lack of available prey in the petrels’ foraging areas (which means the parents must spend more time searching for food and less time incubating their egg). We hope that our research will help us better understand how these threats affect the petrel population. I collect the egg for the Dominican Museum of Natural History while Gerson builds a new roof of branches, rocks and soil to protect the petrel chick.
The First Annual Diablotin Festival Takes Off In the Rain
With the help of Noah Jodice, Patrick’s son and a talented illustrator, I designed a poster of the Black-capped petrel’s travels that I had planned on giving to the village school. Unfortunately, the poster got lost during the trip from the US. (The poster is now also available online, in Spanish, French and Creole translations: just contact us).
When doing fieldwork, it is easy to lose track of the “normal” world and to forget which day it is. During this expedition, though, there is an important date on our calendar: April 19th, the day of the first annual Diablotin Festival organized by our colleagues Anderson Jean (Société Ecologique d’Haïti) and Adam Brown (Environmental Protection in the Caribbean). That day, we put on our best field clothes, clean our muddy shoes, pack some supplies for the hike and for our friends, and head down the mountain into Haiti.
We enter the village of Boucan Chat, where students from two local schools line both sides of the road, wearing bird masks or tree costumes over their school uniforms. The students have spent weeks learning about Black-capped Petrels and the importance of protecting their habitat in the surrounding mountains. Protecting habitats benefits not only the birds but also the whole forest. Preserved from illegal logging, forests can store more water during the rainy season, preventing farmed fields from flooding and keeping natural springs flowing during the dry season.
The buzz of a drone raises a few heads amongst the children but most of them seem accustomed to its presence. After three years of on-and-off filming in the area, the “Save the Devil” filming crew has almost finished its documentary on Black-capped Petrel conservation in Boucan Chat. The next day, they will screen a short version of the film in front of the Boucan Chat villagers, who will ask to see the film three times in a row!
A band arrives on a convoy of motorcycles, and the parade begins. Villagers hurry to the roadside to watch and the puzzled looks quickly give way to smiles. The parade doubles in size before reaching the football pitch in the center of the village, surrounded by vegetable fields and a few majestic Hispaniola pine trees, a reminder of the forests that once covered these foothills. The local Diablotins team, sponsored by Black-capped Petrel conservation work as a way to raise awareness and pride for the species, wear new uniforms emblazoned with an image of the petrel. A female team is now also supported to provide gender balance.
René Jeune, Haitian Black-capped petrel field biologist and at times human-size Diablotin, leads the parade of school children during the first annual Diablotin Festival in Boucan Chat, Haiti. (Photo by Ernst Rupp)
The dark clouds that have enveloped the mountains in mist since morning soon burst into torrential downpour. The audience runs for shelter under crowded house awnings while the dedicated players run and slide in the mud, keeping their eyes on the ball despite the violent rain. The game ends amid shouts of joy, with a victory for the Diablotins: the spirit of the tough little seabird may have given them an advantage. After soaked, shivering goodbyes and an hour-long hike in the rain, we are delighted to find that the heater of our pickup truck is working. While we drive back to the top of the mountain, however, we can’t help thinking of the football players who, after a passionate game in torrential rain, returned to cold, damp houses with only the pride in their communities to keep them warm.
Back at the caseta, we huddle around the cooking fire to enjoy the pot of soup that Ivan has prepared. The clouds have lifted and we can see the first stars between the crowns of the Hispaniolan pines. Soon, a Black-capped Petrel wearing a small GPS will swoop down into the forest and hurry into its burrow. When it comes out again and flies away for another fishing trip, invisible radio waves will have transported the secrets of its travels to our base-stations, patiently waiting for Ernst and his team to return to the mountain.
Next time, in Yvan’s last blog post, we will learn about the travels of the GPS-tagged Black-capped Petrels and of the fish they catch, from Colombia to the United States.
Yvan Satgé is a Research Associate in the Lab of Dr. Pat Jodice, at the South Carolina Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, Clemson University (Email: ysatge@clemson.edu). He has been studying various aspects of seabird ecology for the last few years.
A Green Mango visits a feeder in Puerto Rico—4,200 hummingbird feeders were distributed across 18 islands hit by hurricanes in 2017. (Photo by Manuel Torres)
We are 30 years old, and what a year 2018 – the Year of the Bird – has been!
The Caribbean has had another extraordinary year. It has been a “Tale of Two Cities” – or rather, two different groups of islands. On the one hand, it has been a story of restoration and a major push for recovery for islands devastated by the 2017 hurricanes. On the other hand, there were many encouraging developments on other islands; a number of conservation programs are under way that offer hope for our bird populations. Hispaniola researchers discovered new nesting sites of the critically endangered Black-capped Petrel. On St. Vincent and the Grenadines, BirdsCaribbean provided 24 people with sustainable economic livelihoods through our Interpretive Bird Guide Training Program.
BirdsCaribbean is deeply grateful for the generosity of donors and supporters throughout the year. This outpouring of support has helped us tackle the very tough work of identifying the post-hurricane needs of bird populations. This vital funding helped us provide our partners with the support they needed to get themselves, and the birds, back on their feet. Literally, at times – as many birds were shell-shocked!
There was much work to be done this year, but the Caribbean is well known for the resilience of its people. Our island-based partners rolled up their sleeves and got started. BirdsCaribbean helped communities rebuild and expand their conservation and education work, and launched new programs that focused on precious bird habitats – forests and coastal natural resources among them. It is always important to keep moving forward.
Over 60 species of birds were helped, including Bananaquits hummingbirds, pigeons, doves, parrots, thrashers, grassquits, and bullfinches-many found only on one or a few Caribbean islands. (map by Aly DeGraff Ollivierre)
However, some major challenges face us, and they are formidable. Some bird species – such as the Imperial Parrot in Dominica and the Bahama Nuthatch – now face extinction from the impacts of climate change, including storms. Island endemics are also threatened by a range of invasive species, and by poorly-planned human development projects. The situation is more critical and urgent than ever.
We do not want to lose these precious species – or the habitats they depend on.
Meanwhile, our vital education, science, and capacity-building programs across the Caribbean continue, in countries that did not make dramatic headlines. We launched the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund, raising more than $135,000 for groups that will engage and empower their communities to protect and sustainably benefit from their birds. We now have 15 years of archives from our Journal of Caribbean Ornithology, available for free download and we are working on getting the remaining 15 of our 30 years online. Our Seabird Monitoring Manual is now available in three languages. We supported many studies of species of concern, such as the Bridled Quail-Dove on St. Eustatius – a bird whose population has declined by 76% since Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Students participating in the CEBF Bird Fair in Antigua.
BirdsCaribbean also continues to make connections. We bring Caribbean people together through birds in several ways. We provide materials and small grants for creative annual programs, such as our Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (this year including Haiti for the first time) and World Migratory Bird Day activities. This year these community-based events reached over 100,000 people in 20 countries. Our specially designed BirdSleuth Caribbean educational program is in use in 22 countries through 40 teacher training workshops this year. Over 37,775 Caribbean children and 9,329 community members participated in the workshops – yes, we did the math! We continue to work with eco-tourism tour groups, expanding bird watching tours across the Caribbean. In 2018, we promoted trips to Cuba, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
Lastly, but importantly, we have continued our work to help restore critical bird habitats. In hurricane-hit St. Maarten, we helped purchase 300 mangrove seedlings as well as 500 other plants, beginning a long-term restoration project in Cay Bay and Sentry Hill. This was just one of ten restoration projects we undertook on four islands, all impacted by the 2017 storms: the restoration and replanting of Red Mangrove at Anguilla’s West End Pond, restoration and enhancement of nesting habitat for Red-Billed Tropicbirds at the IBAs of Dog Island and Prickly Pear cays, planting of native trees in the British Virgin Islands, and establishing a native tree nursery in St. Martin.
2019 will undoubtedly bring its own challenges. Looking towards the future, BirdsCaribbean is optimistic that it will continue to build a more secure, sustainable future for the islands and their birds, working with our amazing partners. We cannot afford to lose ground as we struggle with complex challenges. With the generosity of our donors, we will make further progress.We need your help as 2018 draws to a close.
We wish all our friends and supporters Happy Holidays and a successful New Year!
Help us protect Caribbean birds and restore habitats in 2019 – THANK YOU!!!One of our highlights from 2018 was our Caribbean Birding Trail Interpretive Guide Training Workshop in Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Participant Lystra Culzac role plays in her presentation by spotting a St. Vincent Parrot with her “clients.” (Photo by Kristy Shortte)Banded Red Knot “CTK” spotted at Cargill Salt Ponds, Bonaire. This bird was first captured and banded in 2004, making it at least 12 years of age. The salt ponds of Bonaire are providing critical habitat for this and other migratory birds during migration and winter. The salt ponds were recently designated a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site which will help raise awareness about the importance of Bonaire and the Cargill Salt Facility as a haven for migratory shorebirds. (photo by Fernando Simal)
Hannah Madden, an ecologist with the Caribbean Netherlands Science Institute, provides an update on the status of the Bridled Quail-Dove one year after the tiny island of St. Eustatius was ravaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Surveys just after the storms indicated the population was smaller, but similar to pre-hurricane levels. However, the extensive vegetation loss combined with an upcoming dry season and invasive predators meant that the battle for survival for this West Indian endemic had just begun.
Bridled Quail-Doves are named for the thick white stripe on their face, which resembles a bridle. (Photo by Hannah Madden)
Eight months after hurricanes Irma and Maria passed through the Caribbean, many aspects of daily life have returned to normal or have reached a new balance. While the dramatic effects of the storms are no longer international news, in some cases their consequences remain just as severe or are only just now revealing their impact. The population trend of the Bridled Quail-Dove on St. Eustatius (also knows as “Statia”) is one example of the latent and long-lasting effects of major climatic events.
Our team conducted population assessments for this shy ground-dwelling species before the hurricanes in May 2017 and two months after in November 2017. At that time, there was no reason to be alarmed. Our most recent assessment this year in May 2018, eight months after the storms devastated the island, yielded extremely low population estimates. The results were disheartening.
Bridled Quail-Dove Biology
The Bridled Quail-Dove (Geotrygon mystacea) is a regionally endemic species in the family Columbidae. On Statia, they only found in upper elevations (above ~150m) of the Quill, a dormant volcano, and inside the crater. It is easily distinguished from other dove species by the turquoise patch on its neck and white stripe (bridle) under the eye. Observant hikers are likely to spot this bird wandering the forest floor during daylight hours in search of food (seeds, fruits and the occasional gecko or snail).
This species is extremely sensitive to weather conditions. Activity and breeding are very much dependent on rainfall, and the dove is vulnerable to hurricanes and extended periods of drought. Similar to other Columbids, the Bridled Quail-Dove lays clutches of two eggs in a flimsy nest made of twigs up to six meters above the forest floor. They do not fare well in areas of human activity. Numbers have declined across the species’ range, presumably due to habitat loss. Hunting and predation by invasive mammals such as the black rat (Rattus rattus) are also perennial problems.
Statia’s Forests Hard Hit by Hurricanes
The inner slope of the Quill National Park before and after Hurricane Irma. (Photo by Hannah Madden)
Irma and Maria were the first recorded category five hurricanes to hit the Windward Islands. While Statia was spared extensive infrastructural damage in urban areas, its forest ecosystems did not fare so well. A recent publication by Eppinga and Pucko (2018) notes that an average of 93% of tree stems on Statia and Saba lost their leaves; 83% lost primary/secondary branches; 36% suffered substantial structural stem damage; and an average of 18% of trees died (mortality was almost twice as high on Statia than on the nearby island of Saba).
Our pre-hurricane assessment in May 2017 was encouraging. We found an estimated 1,030 (min. 561- max. 1,621) quail-doves across their local habitat, possibly the highest known density in the region. We were pleased and felt safe in the knowledge that the doves enjoyed some level of protection in the Quill National Park, which is also a designated Important Bird Area.
Changes in the estimated population size of the Bridled Quail-Dove on St. Eustatius over 3 different survey periods (+/- standard error). May 2017 (black) was pre-hurricanes Irma and Maria. Post-hurricane surveys were done at 2 months (November 2017, green) and eight months (May 2018, purple) after the storms.
Following the hurricanes in November, however, we repeated the surveys and recorded a decrease in the population of around 22% to 803 (min. 451 – max. 1,229). Moreover, we were worried about a continuing decline in the population, as a direct result of the hurricanes. Also, since rat populations are known to spike dramatically following hurricanes, we feared that this problem might worsen.
We conducted surveys again in May 2018, hoping to coincide with the quail-dove’s peak breeding season. However, instead of the usual ~70 transects, we had to walk an exhausting 255 transects in order to find enough doves for analysis. No doves were heard calling, most likely as a result of delayed breeding, and only 32 were detected during 2018 surveys compared with ~92 in previous years. Our fears were realized when we ran the analysis: in May 2018, the Bridled Quail-Dove population had declined by 76% compared with the previous year. It is currently very small at around 253 individuals (min. 83 – max.486).
Will the Bridled Quail-Dove Disappear from Statia?
The Bridled Quail-Dove is found in higher elevation forests on St. Eustatius and other islands in the West Indies. (Photo by Hannah Madden)
With such a small population, there is a very real risk that Bridled Quail-Doves could become extirpated on St. Eustatius. Conservation efforts are now urgently required. We do not know a great deal about the Bridled Quail-dove’s survival and reproduction rates. However, black rats live in all vegetation types within the dove’s entire range. It is critical that we control these invasive mammalian predators, as a first step towards boosting the species’ breeding levels and survival rates, in order to bring back the population of this highly vulnerable species to pre-hurricane levels.
Thanks to funding by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs under their Nature Fund initiative, a rodent control project, facilitated through the Caribbean Netherlands Science Institute (CNSI), is running on St. Eustatius. The authors are grateful to St. Eustatius National Parks Foundation for granting permission to conduct surveys in the Quill National Park. We also wish to thank the many generous donors who contributed to BirdsCaribbean’s post-hurricane fundraising appeal, which covered Dr. Frank Rivera’s costs to conduct surveys in November 2017.
By Hannah Madden (CNSI), Frank Rivera-Milan (USFWS) and Kevin Verdel (Utrecht University). Hannah is a Terrestrial Ecologist in St. Eustatius with the Caribbean Netherlands Science Institute. She also works as a bird and nature guide in her spare time, sharing the beauty and diversity of Statia with visitors. Hannah is an active member of BirdsCaribbean and has participated in several training workshops and conferences. She has published papers on different taxonomic groups, but especially enjoys working on birds.
Betty Petersen (1943-2013) was much-beloved by the conservation community for her kindness and generosity. (photo by Jeffrey Gordon)
BirdsCaribbean is very excited to announce the launch of the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund to advance the conservation of birds and habitats in the Caribbean region. We are thrilled by the response of the founding donors who have helped us already raise $127,000 towards our first-year goal of $150,000.
The Fund will provide competitive grants to groups or individuals who are engaging and empowering their communities to protect and sustainably benefit from their birds. We will begin accepting applications via our website on September 1st of this year.
Betty Petersen (1943-2013), a lifelong resident of Massachusetts, was, in her own way, a wizard. With nothing more than donated birding equipment, books, and a bit of cash, she turned local communities and school kids into committed conservationists, struggling NGOs into recognized players on the inter-American scene, and “paper parks” into real protected areas. And in the process she reminded us how rewarding it is to lend a hand when none is expected.
Betty’s connection to the Caribbean was strong. Birders’ Exchange, an initiative she began, provided equipment to ornithologists and conservation projects across the islands. It even had a special Cuba fund initiated by National Book Award-winning author, Phillip Hoose. Chilean-American author, Alvaro Jaramillo, stated that, “Betty was a force of nature… dedicated not only to the conservation of birds, but also in elevating local communities through education as well as helping them have the tools to be able to achieve their goals.”
At a recent gathering of Betty’s friends and family, Lisa Sorenson, our Executive Director, told the audience that she was so grateful for the outpouring of support we have already raised. “Just this month, we received another pledge of $25,000 from anonymous donors who want to inspire others to contribute to the Fund,” she commented. “Now our goal is to raise the remaining $33,000 by November so we can fund innovative projects in the Caribbean that will engage communities while reducing threats to birds and nature.”
Betty’s husband, ornithologist Wayne Petersen, recently said, “I am humbled and appreciative of everyone’s support and know this is exactly what Betty would want us to do to remember her.”
Betty Petersen helped many aspiring conservationists; we honor her legacy with this conservation fund.
Inspiration: Betty Petersen (1943-2013), a lifelong resident of Massachusetts, U.S.A. was, in her own way, a wizard. With nothing more than donated birding equipment, books, and a bit of cash, she turned local communities and school kids into committed conservationists, struggling NGOs into recognized players on the inter-American scene, and “paper parks” into real protected areas. And in the process she reminded us how rewarding it is to lend a hand when none is expected.
The Goal of the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund is to advance the conservation status of birds and habitats in the Caribbean region. The Fund provides competitive grants to groups or individuals to engage and empower communities and stakeholders to protect and benefit sustainably from their birds. The Fund and its grants will be administered by a designated advisory group within BirdsCaribbean.
Eligibility: Applications are invited from conservation organizations, academic programs or government working in the Caribbean. Successful proposals will benefit the conservation of birds and their habitats in the greater Caribbean region, including Bermuda, the Bahamas, and all islands within the Caribbean basin. Innovative projects that engage local communities and decision makers to alleviate threats and/or encourage sustainable use of threatened natural resources will receive priority for funding, as will projects that benefit high priority areas—such as Important Bird Areas or Key Biodiversity Areas—that are under serious threat.
Matching Funds: Applicants are encouraged to provide at least 1:1 matching funds toward the project cost. In-kind match qualifies. Proposals providing a higher match ratio may receive preference.
Application Guidelines
Applicants shall initially provide a pre-proposal in English, French, or Spanish. All require an English language version of the abstract.
Applications need to be emailed as a Microsoft Word document, with “Betty Petersen Conservation Fund Pre-Proposal” in subject line.
The application comprises a cover page, proposal (see guidelines below), and a curriculum vitae for the applicant that includes the names, affiliations, telephone and e-mail address for three individuals who can attest to the applicant’s effectiveness in previous bird conservation work.
Evaluation:
A committee appointed by BirdsCaribbean will review the pre-proposals and may invite full proposals from applicants whose projects seem best aligned with the goals and most likely to affect positive change.
The committee may select one or more projects each year for funding.
Awardees are required to submit a report 13 months from the day of the award explaining the results of the project to that point and also an accounting of how funds were used. For single-year projects this will be considered the final report. Multi-year projects must report annually, with continued funding dependent on adequate progress and use of grant funds. In all cases, unexpected challenges as well as progress beyond initial expectations require notation.
Awardees are encouraged to present the results of their work at the biennial International Meeting of BirdsCaribbean and publish in The Journal of Caribbean Ornithology.
Redonda, a massive barren rock before removal invasive rats and goats. Christopher Columbus named the island in 1493 and claimed it for Spain. Redonda was later transferred to the British Crown and around 7,000 tonnes of seabird guano was harvested annually from 1865 to 1914. It is believed that rats were introduced to the island during this period. The mining community was disbanded during World War I, after which the island was uninhabited. In 1967, Redonda became a dependency of Antigua and Barbuda. (photo by Jeremy Holden/ Fauna and Flora International)
A campaign to remove invasive rats and goats from Redonda has yielded spectacular results for the island’s unique and special wildlife.
The bare, prominent rock rising defiantly from the sea, with its steep, brutal cliffs and lunar-looking landscape – this was Redonda – Antigua & Barbuda’s obscure sister. If conservationists had waved a magic wand, the results could hardly have been more spectacular. Within 12 months of starving goats and thousands of ravenous rats being removed from Redonda, this remote Caribbean island has witnessed a miraculous transformation.
Since the ambitious restoration programme was rolled out, in short time, the rock of Redonda has been transfigured from an inhospitable landscape to a greener haven. More importantly, the unique plants and animals native to this isolated, uninhabited outpost of Antigua and Barbuda are making a rapid recovery after being freed from an alien invasion.
The rat eradication and goat removal work was completed by June 2017, and Redonda was officially declared rat free the following year in July 2018. The entire population of black rats (Rattus rattus) was eradicated using Klerat, a bitter, waxy rat bait that has been used successfully to remove rats from dozens of Caribbean islands since the early 1990s. Klerat was readily eaten by Redonda’s rats but ignored by the native reptiles, mammals and birds. The bait was distributed at intervals of not less than 40 metres, even down the high cliffs, to be certain of reaching every rat. The eradication team lived on the island for more than two months to monitor bait uptake and remove rat carcasses.
The goat operation, which took more than six months, brought the healthiest animals back to Antigua alive. All were thin and stunted due to the lack of food on Redonda, but have since gained weight and begun breeding on Antigua.
The Critically Endangered and endemic Redonda Ground Dragon rebounded after removal of Redonda’s rats. (photo by Jeremy Holden/ Fauna and Flora International).
Freed from these invasive animals, this uninhabited outpost’s unique native plants and animals are making a rapid recovery. Numbers of the Redonda Ground Dragon, a rare black lizard found nowhere else on the planet, have doubled in number – just one of the many fantastic beasts that have been pulled back from the brink of extinction by removing the predatory black rats and plant-devouring goats.
It doesn’t stop there. In less than a year, numbers of the equally rare Redonda Tree Lizard have tripled, hundreds of new trees have sprung up, land birds have increased tenfold, and the island’s globally important seabird colonies – including Magnificent Frigatebirds and several booby species – are having their best breeding year on record. The now lush and vibrant island is a stark contrast to what we know Redonda to be. A landing helicopter, instead of whipping up clouds of dust now beat down on the gently yielding blades of grass. The dying sister is yet alive!
Speaking on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Dr Helena Jeffery Brown said: “The Government of Antigua and Barbuda considers the return to life of Redonda as a shining beacon in our collective efforts towards ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation that will bring us another step closer to attaining some of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets 3.”
The project’s coordinator, Shanna Challenger, of the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) and Fauna & Flora International (FFI), added: “This has been the opportunity of a lifetime – witnessing the rebirth of an island. Changes forecasted to happen in five years occurred within months. Our conservation efforts really show the benefits of invasive species removal on Caribbean island ecosystems.”
Blood, Sweat, Toil and Teamwork
The survival of Masked Booby chicks will no longer by threatened by invasive alien species. Redonda has regionally and globally significant colonies of seabirds, including Brown Boobies, Masked Boobies, Red‐footed Boobies, Magnificent Frigatebirds and Red-billed Tropicbirds. It was internationally recognised as an Important Bird Area in 2009. (photo by Salina Janzan/ Fauna and Flora International)
In conservation, successful outcomes can take years if not decades to materialise, yet spectacular results on Redonda appear remarkably swift. The reality, of course, is that this ‘overnight’ transformation was a long time in the making with months of blood, sweat, toil and – above all – teamwork to catch dozens of nimble goats and remove over 6,000 rats from every inch of Redonda’s rugged terrain. This island makeover involved meticulous planning, ingenuity, and edge-of-the-seat manoeuvres that included abseiling down sheer cliff faces to lay down rat bait and – thanks to the skilled pilots of Caribbean Helicopters Ltd (CHL) – landing equipment in very tight spots.
New Zealand-based Wildlife Management International Limited led the rat eradication team: “We have over 30 years of experience in clearing invasive species from islands,” said ecologist Elizabeth (Biz) Bell, “but having a ground team, rope access team and helicopter team using a combination of bait stations and scattering by hand to successfully target all of the rats makes the Redonda project unique.”
The British Mountaineering Council played a vital role in ensuring that even the steepest cliffs could be reached to lay bait to get to every single rat. Skilled as they were, the volcanic cliffs of Redonda presented an extremely challenging environment for the climbers to operate in.
The safe removal of the malnourished herd of rare-breed feral goats presented an altogether different challenge. The goats were skilled climbers too! Capturing and safely relocating them took much patience and well-thought out plans.
What’s Next for Redonda?
Flowering Prickly Pear Cactus on Redonda. (photo by Salina Janzan/ Fauna and Flora International)
The long list of organisations that cooperated in this mission reflects the complex challenges that had to be overcome. The government of Antigua and Barbuda along with the Environmental Awareness Group and Fauna & FIora International joined forces with leading technical specialists from the UK, USA and New Zealand.
Thanks to their collaborative efforts, Redonda has been rat free for a year, while the feral goats have been rehoused and are being cared for by the government’s Veterinary and Livestock Division on Antigua. Equipment has been installed and protocols have been implemented to prevent future invasions.
Redonda harbours unique species that occur nowhere else in the world and globally important colonies of seabirds. Many argue that Redonda’s unique and special wildlife, coupled with the historical remains of one of the region’s largest guano mines, warrants greater protection for the island. They’re not the only ones. A recent nationwide survey revealed that over 96% of Antiguans and Barbudans agree the island should be protected.
Preparations for designating Redonda and the surrounding sea as a reserve are now under way, led by the Redonda Steering Committee, chaired by the Department of Environment. Commented Dr. Robin Moore from US-based Global Wildlife Conservation, which has supported this project and is now helping with planning for the protected area, “It’s incredible to see this radical and rapid transformation of Redonda from a bare rock to a carpet of vegetation. As plants and animals continue to rebound, this could truly be a showcase sanctuary for wildlife.”
Funding for the Redonda Restoration Programme has been provided by the Darwin Initiative, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service – Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, and Global Wildlife Conservation.
By Natalya Lawrence (Environmental Awareness Group & BirdsCaribbean) and Tim Knight (Flora and Fauna International). For more information about the project, visit the Redonda Restoration Programme on Facebook. Hover over each photo in the gallery below to see the caption or click on a photo to see a larger photo and a slide show.
Helicopter landing on a now green Redonda, October 2017, six months after removing rats and goats.
The rare endemic Redonda Tree Lizards have tripled in numbers. (Shanna Challenger)
Flowering Prickly Pear Cactus on Redonda. (photo by Salina Janzan/ Fauna and Flora International)
Helicopter landing on Redonda before invasives were removed. (Jenny Daltry/ Fauna and Flora International)
Isabel Vique and Shanna Challenger with one of the new trees in March 2018, 6 months after invasives were removed. (Jenny Daltry/ Fauna and Flora International)
Redonda transformed from bare rock to a carpet of vegetation within a few months after removal of invasives in October 2017. (Greg Scott Caribbean Helicopters).
Magnificent Frigatebird soaring over Redonda – Jeremy Holden/ Fauna and Flora International)
Magnificent Frigatebirds nesting on Ficus Tree – Salina Janzan/ Fauna and Flora International)
Barren landscape on Redonda before invasive rats and goats were removed. (Elizabeth Bell)
American Kestrels are among a dozen birds to have recolonised Redonda in the past 12 months. (Jenny Daltry/ Fauna and Flora International)
Redonda vegetation changes, including regrowth of ficus. (Elizabeth Bell/ Wildlife Management International)
Redonda rapidly becoming greener after invasive goats and rats were removed. (Elizabeth Bell/ Wildlife Management International)
Vegetation returned to Redonda within months after removal of invasive rats and goats. (Shanna Challenger)
Before – Project camp on Redonda, February 2017 (Jenny Daltry/ Fauna and Flora International)
Herbs, grasses and young trees on Redonda in March 2018. It’s hoped that the transformation of Redonda can be used as a global example of how a bare rock came to be a valuable and productive wildlife sanctuary. (Jenny Daltry/ Fauna and Flora International)
Piping Plover “AP” spotted on Cayo Coco Beach in Cuba, March 2018. It was banded in New Brunswick, Canada in 2017. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
“Almost daily, we learn more about what astonishing creatures shorebirds are, but at the same time how their populations are disappearing,” said Dr. Charles Duncan, Former Director of the Shorebird Recovery Project and BirdsCaribbean Director-at-Large . “World Shorebirds Day celebrates their wonder and brings attention to their plights. And in that celebration, we are reminded of our connectedness to one another and all life on this good green planet.”
World Shorebirds Day logo featuring a Ruddy Turnstone.
World Shorebirds Day 2018 – Thursday, September 6 – is about more than raising awareness of these beautiful, sometimes elusive birds. Sadly, we also need to recognize that around half of our shorebird species are in decline globally. Critical habitat is shrinking – in particular the stopover sites where the migratory birds take a pause, or spend the winter. These include the remarkable Cargill Salt Ponds in Bonaire, recently designated as a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) site of Regional Importance, Cabo Rojo Salt Flats in Puerto Rico, the first WHSRN site in the region, and many more.
World Shorebirds Day is an opportunity to learn more about the birds and their lifecycles. Moreover, citizen scientists can take action and participate in the Global Shorebird Count. You never know what unusual birds may appear in your binocular lens! Last year, a female Common Eider showed up in Bermuda. This year, a BirdsCaribbean birding tour in Cuba came across a leucistic Willet in the Zapata Swamp in March, as well as a banded Piping Plover, spending the winter in the Cayo Coco Cays on the north coast.
Note the leucistic (nearly white) Willet in the middle of a flock of Willets and Short-billed Dowitchers in Las Salinas, Zapata Swamp, Cuba. (photo by Ernesto Reyes)
Caribbean birders can register their chosen birding site via Google Maps hereand then do their shorebird count on the weekend of September 5-11, 2018, submitting findings on eBird Caribbean. If you’re new to eBird, check out this Quick Start guide. Note that shorebirds are a type of waterbird and any counts you do at wetlands, mangroves, mud flats, coastal areas or beaches count as Caribbean Waterbird Census counts. To increase the value of your count to science, be sure to count ALL birds at your site, including seabirds, herons and egrets, land birds, etc. This year, Bermuda Audubon Society will participate in the count by exploring Spittal Pond on September 8th.
To make your submitted data visible to World Shorebirds Day, please be sure to share your checklist with worldshorebirdsday eBird username of World Shorebirds Day (WorldShorebirdsDay) or add shorebirdsday@gmail.com email address, to your contact list, and share all your related checklists with us (only checklists made during the World Shorebirds Day count period between 1–7 September 2017 are eligible). Guidelines for sharing checklists are here.
Participate in the International Shorebird Survey (ISS)!
Some of our birds are already on the move. BirdsCaribbean invites all shorebird lovers to schedule some extra counts during the migration season (August to October and March to May) by volunteering for the International Shorebird Survey, a year-round initiative organized by Manomet since 1974. On eBird Caribbean simply do a Caribbean Waterbird Census entry, choosing the “CWC Point Count” or “CWC Area Search” on Step 2 of “Submit observations” in eBird Caribbean. After uploading, share the checklist with username “ISSData.”
Depending on the timing of migration, you may see a lot of birds or just a few at your site(s). Don’t be disappointed if you only see just one. Remember that very effort counts and adds to our knowledge of shorebirds and waterbirds and their habitat needs in the Caribbean!
Good luck and we look forward to hearing about your findings and seeing your photos! Please share on our BirdsCaribbean Facebook page.
Banded Birds
Be sure to be on the lookout for banded birds! Especially Piping Plovers, Red Knots, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, and Sanderlings. You may report your sightings to BandedBirds.org and the USGS Bird Banding Lab which oversee all banding in the United States.
Handout from the US Fish and Wildlife Service that provides information about Piping Plover banding locations and how to read and record the flags for reporting.
It is unclear how many nuthatches may be left. Observations of two birds together and other single birds (including a juvenile) scattered across miles of forest indicate that five or more birds could survive.
The Bahama Nuthatch is an Endangered species, only known from native pine forest on Grand Bahama Island, which lies approximately 100 miles off Palm Beach, Florida. Closely related to the Brown-headed Nuthatch of the southeastern United States, the Bahama Nuthatch is considered by some authorities to be a distinct species (Sitta insularis) while others regard it as a subspecies (Sitta pusilla insularis) of the Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitta pusilla).
Locations of Brown-headed (Bahama) Nuthatch sightings on Grand Bahama in ebird. Most sightings are in the Lucaya Estates Pine Forest. The sighting in Freeport is at the Rand Nature Center in November 1978.
Common on Grand Bahama in the 1960s, the species declined drastically. Extensive population surveys in the mid-2000s by Hayes et al (2004) and Lloyd and Slater (2009) confirmed that the birds had become very rare; it was estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 individuals remained, all within the “Lucaya Estates” area. It had not been seen since Hurricane Matthew hit Grand Bahama in October 2016.
Two search teams worked in coordination with Bahamas National Trust (BNT) to rediscover the bird during the breeding season, starting in April of this year. One team was led by Zeko McKenzie and his students at the University of The Bahamas-North, supported by American Bird Conservancy, and another by University of East Anglia (UEA) masters students Matthew Gardner and David Pereira, in conjunction with BirdLife International.
Both teams first observed nuthatches in May 2018, documenting their observations with photographs. McKenzie’s team observed five birds in all, starting with a sighting of two individual Bahama Nuthatches together on May 1. The next sighting was on May 23, over a mile from the first observation, and included a juvenile bird accompanying a Bahama Warbler. The juvenile was distinguished from adults by the lack of distinctive brown plumage on the crown of the bird’s head. A video recording of this juvenile Bahama Nuthatch by McKenzie was the earliest documentation of the species’ continued survival in 2018, and was followed by additional photographs of adult birds by both research teams later in May and in subsequent months.
The Bahama Nuthatch exhibits several highly unusual and endearing behaviors: It is one of the very few bird species that conducts co-operative breeding, in which young males assist with nest construction, nest sanitation as well as feeding of the female sitting on the eggs, nestlings and fledglings. It is also one of the few birds known to utilize a tool. On occasion, it uses a bark chip, held in its bill, to pry off bark portions during foraging for insects and grub. (photo by Carrol Henderson)
Dr. Diana Bell, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said, “The Bahama Nuthatch is a critically endangered species, threatened by habitat destruction and degradation, invasive species, tourist developments, fires and hurricane damage.”
Regarding the moment when he saw the Bahama Nuthatch, Matthew Gardner recalled, “We had been scouring the forest for about six weeks, and had almost lost hope. At that point we’d walked about 400km (250 miles). Then, I suddenly heard its distinctive call and saw the unmistakable shape of a nuthatch descending towards me. I shouted with joy, I was ecstatic!”
“The photographs clearly show this distinctive species and cannot be anything else,” said Michael Parr, President of American Bird Conservancy. “Fortunately this is not a hard bird to identify, but it was certainly a hard bird to find.”
Parr continued, “Despite the critical situation for this species, other birds—such as the New Zealand Black Robin—have recovered from tiny populations. We are optimistic that conservation can also save the Bahama Nuthatch.”
All of the Bahama Nuthatches was observed within the Lucaya Estates, an area previously logged during the mid-1900s and since developed with many miles of roads for residential development.
Bahama Nuthatch photographed in July 2018. (photo by Erika Gates)
A last sighting and photographs of a pair of Bahama Nuthatches was made by Erika Gates, well-known Grand Bahama birder and guide and BirdsCaribbean Director, on June 28, 2016, prior to Hurricane Matthew on October 6, 2016. She is elated at the recent sightings of the bird. “This will hopefully generate sufficient excitement in the scientific community to begin aggressive research and map a much needed conservation strategy,” she commented.
Bahamian researcher Zeko McKenzie said, “Although the Bahama Nuthatch has declined precipitously, we are encouraged by the engagement of conservation scientists who are now looking for ways to save the species.” Zero had previously set up nest boxes for the Bahama Nuthatch, but they were not used.
“The Bahamas National Trust feels that research on endangered species, such as the Bahama Nuthatch, is really important,” said Shelley Cant-Woodside, Director of Science and Policy of the Bahamas National Trust, “especially in the face of a changing climate.”
“These recent observations confirm that the Bahama Nuthatch is not extinct; it is critical that we raise awareness about the precarious status of this unique species and do all we can to make sure it survives,” declared Lisa Sorenson, Executive Director, BirdsCaribbean.
Participants at BirdsCaribbean’s 18th International Conference in Grand Bahama in July 2011 were fortunate to observe this rare species on one of the mid-conference field trips to the pine forest. (photo by Erika Gates)
Its local name is “Little Devil.” But not much is known about this elusive bird, either on land or at sea. An intrepid group of conservationists go on an expedition in the mountains of the Dominican Republic to find out more about the Black-capped Petrel.
A Seabird in the Mountains
Map of study site in the Sierra de Bahoruco National Park, Dominican Republic (Map by Aly Ollivierre)
We park the pickup trucks at the park ranger’s hut and unload our gear and supplies. I climb the flimsy wooden stairs of the nearby fire tower, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sunset. We have arrived on the ridge of the Sierra de Bahoruco, the Dominican Republic’s southernmost relief and the eastern end of the De la Selle mountain range. This is the backbone of Hispaniola’s southern peninsula. Below me, the forest of Occidental pines unfurls in a deep green velvet. To the north, I can see the dark plains surrounding Lago Enriquillo, already in the shadow of the mountains. To the southwest, the glistening waters of the Caribbean Sea. Further to the west, below the setting sun, Haiti is already disappearing in the fog that has started to accumulate against the escarpment. From atop the fire tower, I try to imagine what might happen in a few hours. Not far from our camp, a small silhouette will pierce the night clouds, crashing through the trees before rushing to its burrow. It’s a Black-capped Petrel – the region’s only endemic seabird and one of the most endangered seabird species in the Atlantic Basin. The petrel is returning to feed its single chick after a week at sea.
For the next two weeks, we will stay in the mountains of the Sierra de Bahoruco National Park to try and gather more information about how this elusive bird behaves at sea. Our team consists of Ernst Rupp, senior researcher and project manager at Grupo Jaragua, the Dominican conservation NGO monitoring the petrel’s nesting sites in the country; Pirrín Jairo Matos, Gerson Feliz, José Luis Castillo and Ivan Terrero, indispensable field technicians with Grupo Jaragua; Patrick Jodice, lead scientist at USGS – South Carolina Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit (SC CRU); and myself, Yvan Satgé, early career biologist at the SC CRU – Clemson University. As the temperatures drop with dusk and the wind picks up, I join my colleagues huddled around the cooking fire. At 2,000m above sea level, even a mid-April evening in the Caribbean can get cold.
The team, still fresh and clean on the first day of fieldwork. Left to right: Pirrín Matos, Ivan Terrero, Yvan Satgé, Patrick Jodice, and José Luis Castillo – not pictured: Ernst Rupp and Gerson Feliz (Photo by Ernst Rupp)
The Mysterious “Little Devil” – What We Know
The Critically Endangered “Diablotin” or Black-capped Petrel in flight. (Photo by Doug-Gochfeld)
Black-capped Petrels (Pterodroma hasitata), like most gadfly petrels of the Pterodroma genus, are famously hard to study on land. As pelagic seabirds, they spend most of their lives at sea, only coming to land to nest from mid-January to mid-June. They were once more common in the Greater Antilles. They are locally known as Diablotin, the little devil. They are night birds and their eerie calls during the mating season give them their name. The bird’s breeding sites have been especially hard to find. They were only re-discovered in the 1960s in Haiti, and the 1980s in the Dominican Republic. As recently as last year, Ernst and his team found a new nesting area in the central mountain range of the Dominican Republic. There is hope that Black-capped Petrels might also be nesting in the Sierra Madre of Cuba (where they are known as brujas, the witches) and Dominica, but none have yet been found there.
Although better-studied than breeding sites, the marine habits of Black-capped Petrels also remain vague. Until recently, they were thought to fish the waters off the southeastern United States year-round. However, our 2014 satellite tracking study of three adults showed that they might in fact forage off the coasts of Colombia and Venezuela while raising chicks. During this expedition, we plan to track a dozen nesting petrels with lightweight GPS loggers and to study their diet. Once we know where they go and what they eat, we will better understand the secrets of their travels and the threats they face at sea.
“Como una aguja en un pajar” – The Proverbial Needle in a Haystack
Grupo Jaragua field technician Pirrín Matos walks among prime Black-capped Petrel nesting habitat in Loma Quemada, Sierra de Bahoruco, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Yvan Satgé)
Before we can study the petrels though, we need to catch them. This is where the knowledge of Grupo Jaragua’s field technicians comes into play. The expression “a needle in a haystack” translates well in Spanish, and applies particularly well to their mission. In a haystack of dense mountainous vegetation, they are experts in finding the petrels’ burrows—underground “needles” hidden among rocky screes or under thick layers of leaf litter. Pirrín’s skill is in locating the nest entrances among the rocks and vegetation. He confirms his findings with the presence of a fly that seems to favor active nest sites: “Pirrín’s fly”. José Luis is in charge of the borescope. Maneuvering the thick cable of optical fibers as far as 2 meters underground, he inspects every corner of the burrow for signs of recent activity: a well-defined nest cup, an adult incubating the pair’s single egg, or a sleeping chick. Gerson, the team’s memory, can remember every burrow Grupo Jaragua has ever monitored. Knowing how to use rock-climbing equipment, he is also the group’s de facto safety officer, were the terrain to become too abrupt and exposed. Ivan is still a trainee; but if he learns as fast as he walks through the thick vegetation or climbs up and down the steep ravines, he will be finding new nesting sites very soon.
Small but Helpful Gems Found in a Burrow
José Luis Castillo uses the borescope to look for signs of activity in a nest previously located by Pirrín Matos (right). (Photo by Yvan Satgé)
At each active burrow, I collect as many samples as I can. The first nest brings me beginner’s luck: just in front of the entrance a petrel dropping awaits. It is shiny and fresh from the previous night. My colleagues joke as I collect the dark part of the poop as if it were a golden nugget (the white part, urea, is useless for our testing). As insignificant as it looks, this little sample can tell us a lot. Thanks to my fellowship with the Dave Lee Fund, I will use DNA found in the sample and others like it to identify the species of prey eaten by Black-capped Petrels. Dave Lee himself had studied the petrel’s diet off the coast of North Carolina and showed that they favored squid. The technique available at the time, however, tended to put heavier focus on prey species that took a long time to digest (such as squid, whose beak fragments tend to build up in the digestive tract). With the molecular analysis of fecal DNA, I’m hoping to refine our knowledge of the diet of Black-capped petrels. This will help us better understand their life at sea.
José Luis hands me a few breast feathers left behind by adult petrels when they enter or exit the tunnel. Feathers can tell us about the broad diet of the bird through an analysis of stable isotopes. We can also use them to measure the bird’s exposure to mercury, which Black-capped Petrels are prone to bio-accumulate. Finally, if we are lucky, DNA left in the quill will inform us on the genetics of the local population. We are also interested in collecting remnants of eggs. If the egg has hatched, the remaining shell can be tested for contaminants. It can also provide clues to the diet of the female when she produced the egg. If the egg proved infertile, we will collect it with great care to bring it back to the Dominican National Museum of Natural History for their specimen collection.
More Finds for the Test Tube
Typical entrance of a Black-capped Petrel burrow in Loma del Toro, Sierra de Bahoruco, Dominican Republic. Note the chicken-wire of a trap shining inside the tunnel. (Photo by Patrick Jodice)
In an active burrow, I find an insect that seems to use the discarded feathers to make its cocoon, a black tube with protruding white barbs of the petrel’s feather. Could it be Pirrín’s fly? I plop the fly into a test tube; each sample joins our growing collection in a freezer, until we have enough funding to analyze them. Then Ivan comes back to me with good news. The team found a group of four nearby nests, with a chick in each burrow. To limit disturbance, we will be using GPS loggers that remotely send their tracking data to a base-station. Due to the dense vegetation and the steep surroundings, the range of the base-station is limited to a radius of about 300m. It is therefore crucial that we choose nest sites close to each other. Under Pirrín’s supervision, we set chicken-wire traps at the entrance of each tunnel to capture the adults as they return at night. After carefully concealing the traps’ openings under the rocks, sod, or pine needles surrounding the burrow, we take a deep breath and hike up to the nearest ridge. We are hoping for success when we come back at sunrise.
By Yvan Satge. Yvan is a Research Associate in the Lab of Dr. Pat Jodice, at the South Carolina Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, Clemson University. He has been studying various aspects of seabird ecology for the last few years.
Short-billed Dowitchers and Willets look a lot alike! (photos by Peter Hawrylyshyn, Macaulay Library ML82816481 & David Raynor).
I recently attended BirdsCaribbean’s week-long Caribbean Birding Trail Interpretive Guide Training Workshop on Union Island in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. I learned many things, including bird identification, guiding techniques and the importance of conveying a message on your tour. One of the highlights of the training for me, however, was learning to identify shorebirds.
Most shorebirds have long, skinny legs and long bills, allowing them to wade and feed on insects and other food in the shallow water and mud. Their long, pointed wings help them to fly quickly over long distances—many migrate each year from the Arctic to South America and the Caribbean. As an amateur birder, I am fascinated by the variety, similarities and subtle differences that exist between shorebirds.
During the training, we had the opportunity to visit Ashton Lagoon, Belmont Salt Pond and Richmond Bay on Union island, as well as the Salt Pond on the island of Mayreau. We observed a large variety of birds including plovers, turnstones, sandpipers, dowitchers, yellowlegs and Whimbrel and American Oystercatcher. The Willet, which belongs to the sandpiper family, and the Short Billed-Dowitcher initially posed the largest challenge for me to tell apart.
At first glance through my binoculars, I recognized the Willet as large and stocky with long legs and a thick, straight bill. The Short-billed Dowitcher bears a striking resemblance but is speckled which gives the appearance of nutmeg sprinkled along its back. The Short-billed Dowitcher also has a distinctive football-shaped tummy. Time and again, I had trouble with the ID. Once the Willet took flight, however, the black and white stripe along its wings became easily discernible and all confusion vanished from my mind!
Short-billed Dowitchers (above) and Willets (below) (photos by Jeff Gerbracht & Lisa Sorenson). Short-billed Dowitchers can be distinguished from Willets by their longer bill, which is yellowish at the base, white eyebrow stripe, “buffalo” hump when their head is down, yellowish-green legs, barring on flanks, and distinctive feeding method of probing up and down in the mud like a sewing machine.
The facilitators were very knowledge, insightful, and patient with the participants. They were willing to share and there were many opportunities to ask questions during coaching sessions in the field, as well as birding quizzes in the classroom. They motivated us by explaining that it was normal to make identification errors in the early stages of birding. They then highlighted subtle tricks that can be used to distinguish similar species such as the call, the way the bird moves, size and shape of the bill, and color patterns in the plumage.
As one of the leading nature-based personalized tour operators on the Island of Carriacou, I found immense value in this training workshop. My certification as a Caribbean Birding Trail Interpretive Guide provides me with a unique selling point and will significantly improve my ability to provide my guests with biologically and ecologically sound information on the birds we encounter.
Despite my significant improvement in shorebird identification, my biggest “take home” is the fact that I am a novice birder – and that I should not be afraid to tell a client that I cannot identify a bird we may encounter. I may be accompanying a very accomplished bird watcher, who would be able to identify the species and provide me the opportunity to learn from their experience. We can learn so much from each other—I am looking forward to this!
The Willet has a unique black and white pattern on its wings, which shows in flight and clinches ID of this species (photo by Andrew Dobson). The Short-billed Dowitcher has a white rump stripe extending part way up the back (no white on wings).
By Allison Caton. Allison is the Managing Director of Isle of Reef Tours in Carriacou, Grenada. She has worked as a guide for 4 years. Allison was one of 24 participants in BirdsCaribbean’s Caribbean Birding Trail Guide Training Workshop, held in Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, May 27 to June 1, 2018. The workshop was hosted and organized locally by Sustainable Grenadines Inc. Workshop topics were related to building a sustainable tourism market focused on birds, nature, and heritage, including bird identification and guiding, environmental interpretation, and marketing. With the training she has received, Allison is excited to start offering bird watching tours to her customers.
Editor’s Note
Allison Caton studies her bird ID cards to figure out a bird, along with fellow workshop participant Bryan Prince (left). Instructor and professional guide Beny Wilson (right) provides guidance. (photo by Aly DeGraff Ollivierre)
We thank Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) for sponsoring Allison’s participation in the workshop. EPIC notes the need for bird guides in the Grenadines: “The remote islands of the Grenadines archipelago are home to thousands of breeding seabirds, with some islands classified are regional or global Important Bird Areas. Unfortunately, these nesting sites suffer from poaching, introduced predators, and other threats. That’s where the Grenadines Volunteer Patrol comes in. This group of fishers, tour guides, and concerned citizens conducts seabird surveys to monitor populations and advocates on behalf of these crucial nesting areas.
One repeated request we receive from trainees during our workshops is to learn how to be a bird guide. This year EPIC was able to sponsor Volunteer Patrol members to attend a 5-day Caribbean Birding Trail Interpretive Guide Training Program hosted by Sustainable Grenadines and BirdsCaribbean. Participant Allison Caton noted that “the facilitators were top notch and the information was delivered in a serious, yet fun way.” She and others can now integrate this crucial knowledge, whether they currently run tours or plan to start a new business. Either way, it’s a win-win for the birds and the people who benefit financially from bird conservation.”
A big thank you to all of the sponsors of this workshop for their funding and/or in-kind donations:
Allison Caton receives her certificate of completion for the Caribbean Birding Trail Interpretive Guide Training Workshop in Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. (photo by Aly DeGraff Ollivierre)
Marshall Reynolds Foundation
KfW German Development Bank through Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC)
US Forest Service, International Programs
Optics for the Tropics
Palm Island Resort
Ministry of Climate Resilience, the Environment, Forestry, Fisheries, Disaster Management and Information
Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC)
Ridge to Reef Project Grenada
Carefree Birding
Private donors
Kings Landing Hotel
CBT Workshop Participants birding at Belmont Salt Pond, Union Island (good shorebird habitat, especially when a bit wetter!).
To read more about this workshop, check out entertaining blog posts by 2 other participants: Natalya Lawrence and Lloyd Joseph. See more photos in an album on our Flickr page.
Haitian students plant trees to help local birds. (Photo by Société Écologique d’Haïti)
“We’re so excited to have an event in Haiti this year!”
Ingrid Flores is delighted to add a new country to her map of events. She is the coordinator of the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF), organized every year by BirdsCaribbean. Partners across the region host events as part of the festival each spring. Its focus is on the types of birds that are unique to each island, or to the Caribbean itself. This year, events took place in at least 16 islands and involved over 2,000 people. Activities take place between April 22 (Earth Day) and International Biodiversity Day (May 22). This year, celebrations took place in at least 16 territories and involved more than 2,000 participants. Events ranged from lectures to bird walks, arts and crafts, tree plantings, exhibitions, and more.
For the first time, partners in Haiti joined the celebrations. The Société Écologique d’Haïti saw the CEBF as “the perfect opportunity” to boost nature education in Haitian schools. 290 students in Forêt des Pins and Les Cayes learned how hunting and caging birds is harmful. They also enjoyed planting trees and learning how trees help birds and people.
Ready to enjoy and help the birds in Puerto Rico!!! Activity by Fundación Ecológica Educativa, Inc.
In neighboring Dominican Republic, The Peregrine Fund led activities in five places during Ridgway’s Hawk Week. This beautiful hawk lives only on the island of Hispaniola. Listed as “Critically Endangered,” its numbers are falling. Over 300 schoolchildren and residents went on bird walks. They were thrilled to see a live hawk at one event.
On Jamaica’s south coast, the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation visited children from toddlers to age 11 years at four local schools. At one school, teachers hung bird art made by the children from classroom ceilings. To the east, 50 members of BirdLife Jamaica visited the Source Farm Foundation and Ecovillage. They joined residents for guided bird walks in the nearby hills.
On the island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten, groups worked to restore wild spaces. The island still shows damage from Hurricane Irma. Les Fruits de Mer launched a new nursery to provide native tree seedlings at their Endemic Animal Festival. Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) hosted visits to the Little Bay Pond bird watching hut, which was rebuilt by with hurricane relief funds raised by BirdsCaribbean.
A glamorous “Barbuda Warbler” (Shanna Challenger) and youth pose for a pic at the CEBF Bird Fair in Antigua.
Many BirdsCaribbean partners in Puerto Rico were busy in 16 locations, including schools. Here they spread the word about endemic birds. Students at a science high school in San Juan were full of questions. They expressed a wish to conduct their own bird counts next year.
In Antigua, the Environmental Awareness Group, Dept. of Environment and Ministry of Education hosted a Bird Fair for 3 primary schools. Shanna Challenger, dressed as a colorful Barbuda Warbler, shared information with the students about the country’s only endemic bird. Through arts and crafts, birding, and other fun activities, the students also learned why birds are important in our environment. “The students were really into it!” commented organizer Natalya Lawrence.
Some endemic birds are iconic on particular islands. One of these is the splendid Guadeloupe Woodpecker, the island’s only endemic bird. It was among many other birds spotted during a CEBF bird walk in Guadeloupe – the location of BirdsCaribbean’s 22ndInternational Conference in July, 2019.
“As many islands still recover from hurricane damage, we were excited to share local birds and nature with people,” said Lisa Sorenson, Executive Director of BirdsCaribbean. “For the 17th year, the festival has reached thousands of people across the Caribbean.”
Hover over each photo to see the caption; click on photos to see larger images and a slide show.
Gorgeous Ruddy Quail Dove on the Caribbean Endemica Bird Festival promotional poster in Guadeloupe. (Photo by Franz Delcroix.)
Bird walk in Guadeloupe for the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival
Adrianne Tossas giving a talk on Puerto Rico’s endemic birds at a girls Science Summer Camp.
Getting ready for a bird walk and survey at a girls Science Summer camp in Puerto Rico.
Introduction to bird watching in Haiti with Societe Ecologique d’Haiti.
Students in Haiti celebrate CEBF
Birding in St. Martin/ Sint Maarten with Binkie van Es.
The Wildlife Art Station was busy Les Fruit de Mer’s Endemic Animal Festival in St. Martin.
Boy Scouts in Puerto Rico learn all about Puerto Rico’s endemics birds.
Celebration of CEBF at Turabo University.
Arts and crafts for one of the bird festival events in Puerto Rico by Fundación Ecológica Educativa, Inc.
A fun celebration of CEBF in Puerto Rico with Fundación Ecológica Educativa, Inc.
A student compares her size to the size of various birds at an event in Puerto Rico with Fundación Ecológica Educativa, Inc. (Photo by Ingrid Flores)
Eliezer Nieves-Rodriguez and the San Juan Bay Estuary Program celebrating GLOBAL BIG DAY in the Piñones State Forest (Puerto Rico) as part of their CEBF.
Sharing information on the fascinating and beautiful endemic birds of Puerto Rico at the Ecoexploratorio (Science Museum).
Birding field trip at Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (JOBANERR), Puerto Rico
Youth in Cuba enjoyed learning about endemic birds
Ridgway’s Hawk art activity in the Dominican Republic, organized by the Peregrine Fund and local partners.
Ridgeway’s Hawk Week in the Dominican Republic was a fantastic opportunity to learn about this critically endangered bird.
Birding from the observation tower for Ridgeway’s Hawk Week CEBF Celebration.
Birding Group poses for Global Big Day and CEBF 2018 in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Youth spotting birds for Global Big Day, Puerto Rico.
Display at CEBF celebration in Trinidad organized by Lester Doodnath.
Learning how to use binoculars at the CEBF Bird Fair in Antigua.
Students participating in the CEBF Bird Fair in Antigua.
Learning how to set up a bird feeder at Roseau Primary School in Dominica (bird feeder donated by BirdsCaribbean).
Barbuda Warbler Shanna Challenger leads a flock of students for a short flight at the CEBF Bird Fair in Antigua.
A student shows off her bird art at the CEBF Bird Fair in Antigua.
Learning about Caribbean endemic birds and why birds matter at the CEBF Bird Fair in Antigua.
Junior Prosper shows youth in Antigua how to use a spotting scope
Students from St. Martin Primary School in Dominica planted native plants for CEBF 2018.
Youth birding in Dominica for CEBF 2018.
BirdLife Jamaica members and guests take a bird walk at Source Farm. (Photo by Source Farm)
Sociedad Ornitologica Puerto Rico shares information about birds for CEBF 2018.
High school students in the Dominican Republic planting Hamelia patens shrub a native plant good for birds, organized by Simón Guerrero.
Birding activity with special education group in Puerto Rico by Yogani Govender
Youth learn about birds in Jamaica at C-CAM’s headquarters in Jamaica.
Young students celebrate CEBF in Jamaica with C-CAM (Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation)
At Earth Day and the CEBF 2018 start date, Asociación Puertorriqueña de Interpretación y Educación, Inc. (APIE) celebrated our endemic birds as part of their Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival. This activity was carried out with the co-host of the U.S. Forest Service and BIRDING PUERTO RICO.
CEBF Educational display @ Portalito HUB: Palmer of The U.S. Forest Service – El Yunque National Forest. (photo by Ingrid Flores)
Presentations on Puerto Rico’s endemic birds at Josefina Marrero Febus Elementary School. (photo by Glenda Lozada)
CEBF activity in PR at Centro Criollo de Ciencias y Tecnología del Caribe (C3Tec)
Endemic birds of PR poster – Centro Criollo de Ciencias y Tecnología del Caribe (C3Tec)
Presentation to children CEBF celebration Puerto Rico: Centro Criollo de Ciencias y Tecnología del Caribe (C3Tec)
Recording data for a habitat assessment activity in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Urban Green Lab. (photo by Laura Hidalgo)
Learning about endemic birds of Puerto Rico, Urban Green Lab activity (photo by Laura Hidalgo).
Materials to learn about the endemic birds of Puerto Rico, Urban Green Lab activity (photo by Laura Hidalgo).
Learning about endemic birds in Puerto Rico with Laura Fidalgo, Urban Green Lab
Enjoying Cuban endemic bird art for CEBF 2018 in Cuba.
An Inventory of Breeding Seabirds of the Caribbean. Hardcover book edited by Patricia Bradley and Robert Norton, is recommended for anyone with an interest in Caribbean seabird ecology, conservation and management.
The most recent, comprehensive look at Caribbean breeding seabirds is now available at an extremely reduced cost!
This island-by-island inventory of Caribbean seabirds includes colony locations and estimates of the numbers of breeding pairs, the severe threats that seabirds face, and proposals for research and conservation measures.
In the past two decades, global populations of seabirds have declined faster than any other group of birds, yet few conservation resources are expended to counteract this trend, especially among tropical seabirds. This volume includes twenty-five national accounts, written by professional and amateur ornithologists, and illustrated by maps specially prepared by William Mackin and The Nature Conservancy. This inventory brings together the best and most complete set of data on breeding seabirds that nest on the islands throughout the Caribbean, making it invaluable for anyone interested in sustaining seabird populations.
“Represents a major undertaking that is indeed original, significant, and an important contribution toward better understanding and ultimately conserving this extraordinary resource”. – Herbert A. Raffaele, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
“The Caribbean is biologically rich and varied. This book on seabirds ably demonstrates that the Caribbean is much more than just a holiday destination of sun, sea, and sand. I highly recommend it.” – John Chardine, Canadian Wildlife Service”
Originally distributed by University Press of Florida (for US$75), this book is now out of print. BirdsCaribbean has purchased remaining inventory, and is making this valuable book available for US$24.95 (members), $US29.95 (non-members) plus shipping ($4.00 US, $35.00 International).
Patricia E. Bradley, author of Birds of the Cayman Islands, The British Ornithologists’ Union Checklist and contributor to Birdlife’s Caribbean Important Birds Areas, is involved in bird conservation in the Cayman Islands.
Robert L. Norton, a contributor to Ecology and Conservation of Neotropical Migrant Landbirds, and The Birds of North America No. 649, has written about and studied seabirds in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands for the past 35 years.
Jennifer Wheeler shares “postcards” from her recent volunteer vacation in the Bahamas, where she sailed the ocean blue with a crew of dedicated conservationists. She shares stories from a week spent in the beautiful northern Exumas, surveying and banding shorebirds and seabirds, and removing invasive plants.
Dear folks,
I’m recently back from my “volunteer vacation” in the Bahamas. I’m a bit burned, battered and bruised, but that’s the nature of the work we were doing to find and protect some special birds! Similar to last year, Conservian, a non-profit in Florida, invited BirdsCaribbean to share in the chartering of a sleep-aboard sailboat to take us from island to island. This photo was taken on a sunny afternoon, but much of the trip was overcast … too bad clouds don’t keep you from getting sunburned! (Photo by Dawn Rasmussen)
As you know, the Bahamas is made up of a lot of islands (about 700!) and during my week on the boat, the route focused on the Exuma Cays, which begin about 35 miles east-southeast of Nassau and stretch southeast in a gently curving arc for about 90 miles. Over a week, we visited the stretch between Allen Cay and Warderick Wells cay, which includes the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.
So what were we looking for? Our primary targets were breeding populations of Wilson’s Plover, White-tailed Tropicbird and Audubon’s Shearwater. We deployed in teams to various cays to search the beaches and cliffs, walking many hours during the day (and sometimes night). We took note of other birds, as well, including American Oystercatchers, Laughing Gulls, and Least Terns. (Photo by Dawn Rasmussen)
Wilson’s Plover is a medium size (about 8” tall) shorebird that forages on the sand and wrack; pairs of plovers set up breeding territories widely separated along beach habitats. To find Wilson’s Plover, teams visited cays with suitable habitat and carefully walked the beach looking for adult birds to call out in warning. One or two adults chirping and/or pretending injury was a good sign that a nest was nearby. (Photo Bella Rooney)
Actually finding the plovers’ simple nest is not easy. The spotted eggs blend perfectly into their surroundings. Careful where you walk! (Photo by Dawn Rasmussen)
The White-tailed Tropicbird is a striking white bird, 14-16” long, not counting its long streaming tail feathers. To find these birds, one must do a lot of stooping and peering, as these beautiful birds nest in the holes and crevices formed in the wind and wave-carved limestone made of ancient corals (very, very sharp, by the way). We found most tropicbirds on a single egg or new chick; the males and females take turns in the burrow, waiting on average nine days until their turn to fly far out to sea to forage for squid, flying fish, and other prey. (Photo by Dawn Rasmussen)
In all, we found about 150 tropicbird nests on three different islands in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. We banded 60 new birds and recaptured more than 10 that were banded in previous years. Though graceful in the air, in the hand these birds are fighters. The White-tailed Tropicbirds were none too pleased to be pulled from their nest holes and each came out screaming and biting. We took care to minimize the stress on the birds when handling and worked quickly to band them. (Photo by Lisa Ferguson)
Audubon’s Shearwater is another bird of the open ocean, which returns to land only in darkness and nests in natural cavities, under rocks, or in burrows it creates; it is a stocky, black and white bird, 12” from bill to tail. Surveying for shearwaters requires working at night. Being smaller, drabber, and more deeply tucked in than tropicbirds, shearwaters usually can’t be seen from the surface. Instead, a recording of courtship calls (or rather, screeches- listen below!) is played to prompt the birds to call out, sometimes from right beneath your feet. (Photo by Lisa Ferguson)
With a sleeping mat to cushion against sharp rock and vegetation, one can reach in to pull out struggling shearwaters, which fortunately are not able to bite nearly as hard as tropicbirds. We banded several, but it seemed as if shearwaters were taking a year off from breeding, something that is not uncommon when spring weather is bad (as it was this year). The good news is that the rodent traps that we set out for a week on Allen Cay yielded no mice! It would appear that the mouse eradication conducted in 2012 was successful. Mice did not directly harm the Audubon’s Shearwaters there, but their presence encouraged Barn Owls to settle on the island, which indiscriminately killed shearwaters. Also, a careful survey in daylight hours revealed very few fresh bird corpses – yay! (Photo by Jennifer Wheeler)
Keeping an eye on bird populations is important to conservation, but our project also involved taking action to help the birds. Caribbean bird populations today are just a remnant of the masses that once called the region home – historically reduced by human harvest, introduction of predators, and development and conversion of habitat to human uses. The small, uninhabitable cays and those in the Park are protected from development, but still threatened by alien species, and some cays are inhabited. In addition to bird sightings, teams recorded the state of the habitat and signs of threats, such as tire prints and footprints indicating human disturbance or predators. (Photo by Dawn Rasmussen)
Introduced mammals are a big problem for island birds. The Warderick Wells tropicbird colony is still recovering from its decimation by dogs several years ago. On this trip, we encountered dogs on Shroud Cay. They were very friendly, and you know I love dogs, but it was definitely not good to see them there! Dogs running free pose a threat to the birds, not to mention iguanas, hutias (native rodents), and other native species. (Photo by Dawn Rasmussen)
Introduced plants can also be a big problem. A prime example is Casuarina, or Australian Pine (Casuarina equisetifolia). The plant was originally brought to the region for landscaping and is now a scourge. Its fast growth and prolific seeding has distributed it to almost every island in the Bahamas, where its thick litter smothers native vegetation and increases beach erosion. We spent a full day killing casuarina on Shroud Cay, using axes to hack girdles and spraying an herbicide into the cuts. The “hack and squirt” method is quite effective, but hundreds of trees in, gets very tiring. Plus, the necessary gloves, glasses, long sleeves and pants makes for very hot work! (Photo by Lisa Ferguson)
All and all a great trip for me – the birds were awesome, my team members were great, the sailboat crew superb, the weather decent and no sea-sickness! It felt good to contribute to our knowledge of Bahamas birdlife and conservation efforts. I’m grateful to Margo Zdravkovic, Director of Conservian, for organizing the trip, Will Mackin, Co-chair of BirdsCaribbean’s Seabird Working Group, for leading the seabird monitoring work, the many volunteers who assisted with the work, and the fantastic captain and crew of the sailboat Avalon (charter them at Lost Island Voyages)! (Photo by Lisa Ferguson)
Love,
Jennifer
Jennifer Wheeler is an avid adventurer and loves volunteering her time to help conservation causes. She was the coordinator of the Waterbird Council for 10 years and is currently a member of the Board and Treasurer of BirdsCaribbean.
This trip was supported by BirdsCaribbean, Conservian, and many partners and donors. For more information about multi-week excursions that Conservian organizes to the Bahamas and the trip sponsors and partners, see the full trip description and visit Conservian’s Facebook page
The beautiful Bahama Parrot, one of three subspecies of the Cuban Parrot .(photo by Lynn Gape)
Scott Johnson shares with us his recent experience conducting surveys of Bahama Parrots in the wilds of Great Abaco with Dr. Frank Rivera-Milan— read on to find out more about the challenges these birds face and the results of their work.
The chilly 52 degree breeze stung my face as I headed to our champagne coloured SUV. As the vehicle started and warmed up, I waited patiently for Frank to leave our residence and jump into the jeep. We were staying at the Research Center of Friends of the Environment, a non-governmental organization in Marsh Harbour on the island of Great Abaco, The Bahamas. Once Frank got settled in the vehicle, we began our hour-long drive south to the home of the Bahama Parrots.
The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) is a non-governmental organization that manages the national park system of The Bahamas. It currently protects over 2 million acres of marine and terrestrial ecosystems in its 32 national parks across the Bahamian Archipelago. Great Abaco is the second largest island in The Bahamas, with no less than six national parks. Abaco National Park is the southernmost, consisting of a 22,500 acre terrestrial park and including the habitat of the second largest population of Bahama Parrots.
The Bahama Parrot, which is currently listed as a sub-species of the Cuban Parrot, has three populations on three islands in The Bahamas: Great Abaco, Great Inagua and New Providence. Population monitoring and assessments are important for the management and conservation of these charismatic birds.
Irma’s Impact
Classic pine forest habitat in Abaco—prime habitat for the Bahama Parrot.(photo by Frank Rivera)
In the destructive fall of 2017, Hurricane Irma passed over the southern Bahamas. devastating the Ragged Island chain. Irma also severely impacted the island of Great Inagua, home of the largest population of Bahama Parrots. After Irma had passed, there was great concern for both the parrot and the American Flamingo populations. How were they doing, and how had they been affected? The BNT decided to conduct post-hurricane assessments. Based on information from BNT park wardens on Great Inagua, most of the flamingos flew to other islands prior to the storm. The status of the parrots remained unknown. Because of logistical challenges, the BNT had to postpone the Bahama Parrot surveys on Great Inagua to late summer. They were anxious, however, to determine the status of the Great Abaco parrots, last surveyed in 2016. The BNT enlisted the help of population ecologist Frank Rivera-Milán, who helped me with the search for these lively birds. With financial support from Birds Caribbean and BNT, we travelled to Abaco on March 23rdand spent 10 days surveying the parrot population in the central and southern parts of the island.
Parrots Disturbing the Peace
The dynamic duo in the field – Dr. Frank Rivera-Milan (aka “Crazy Frank”) and Scott Johnson. (photo by Scott Johnson)
As we approached Abaco National Park, the cool, calm morning was interrupted by the vociferous squawking of dozens of parrots conversing with each other in the pine trees. I was super excited to see them, particularly because I had never seen Bahama Parrots on Abaco, let alone in the pinelands. As my mind began drift away from reality due to the sheer joy of hearing the birds, the survey point was just 200 meters away.
We stopped and parked the car at the point. We quickly got out, binoculars, range finders, and datasheets in hand (and around our necks) and listened and observed attentively. We were conducting point count surveys. Once a parrot was seen or heard, the information (such as the number of birds heard and seen, the distance from the point, food availability and habitat type) was recorded in our datasheet. We counted parrots at each point for 6 minutes.
Parrots – in Holes?
As we were continued counting, a pair of parrots flew into our survey area. “This pair is looking for a nest site,” Frank said. “The female is on the ground inspecting holes and the male keeps watch.” We watched as the female disappeared in the scrubby understory vegetation as the male remained perched on a pine branch just a few feet above her. Bahama Parrots are devoted couples; they tend to mate for life.
There is something very special about the Bahama Parrots on Abaco. They are the only parrots that habitually nest in solution holes underground – that is, holes or crevices created by rainwater dissolving limestone rock. This is an adaptation to the fire-dependent pineland ecosystem. In their holes, the birds can avoid the heat. No other New World parrot engages in such behaviour. Bahama Parrots feed on a variety of plants, such as West Indian Mahogany, Lignum Vitae, Cinnecord, White Torch, Gum-elemi aka Gumbo Limbo, and False-Mastic.
Dangers Lurk
Fire is one of several threats that Bahama Parrots face; too many fires (often set by humans) in the pine forest damage the habitat for parrots and other wildlife. (photo by Frank Rivera)
As we were driving to a survey point, we saw some rustling in the vegetation on the side of the road. It was a feral cat. These creatures are the biggest threats to parrots. Hurricanes are seasonal and of course, do not always hit Abaco. Cats present a different kind of danger – an everyday threat. They kill both chicks and incubating females. During the survey, we saw seven cats – three in areas where Bahama Parrots were known to nest. These cats gone wild have been a major conservation problem for the Bahama Parrot on Abaco. However, BNT Park Warden Marcus Davis and colleagues have been making tremendous efforts to remove this invasive species from the park. As a result, the numbers of parrots have increased from an estimated average of about 5,100 in 2008 to about 8,800 in 2016 – an impressive gain of nearly 60% .
Another regular threat is fire. One morning, as we were driving south to our study site, we noticed smoke in the distance, near the area where we had survey points. As we continued driving, the smoke increased and we saw fire in the pinelands and near the road. This fire had just been lit that morning. People often light fires to clear the understory so that they can hunt wild hogs, another invasive animal found in the pinelands.
Although fire plays its part in rejuvenating the pinelands, too many fires can cause great harm to the pine forest ecosystem. Frequent blazes can kill young pine trees and change the composition of the understory vegetation. Often, after pine fires, invasive bracken ferns move into the newly vacant space, blanketing the entire area. These invasive plants can quickly turn a once diverse understory, teeming with fruit-bearing shrubs that the parrots love, into a monoculture of ferns. Bahama Parrots will avoid these fern-dominated areas, which means that there is less suitable breeding and foraging habitat for them. For the Bahama Parrots, this is not good news.
A Healthy Population
Bahama Parrot feeding in a favorite tree – the Gumbo Limbo tree. (photo by Frank Rivera)
One evening, as we were driving along an old logging road in the pinelands, a flock of parrots flew into view and settled in the canopy of pine trees. Being the “somewhat” impulsive person that I am, I quickly jumped out of the vehicle and ran to the location where I saw the parrots. There they were, dozens of them squawking, their green plumage blending perfectly with the green vegetation, their white faces betraying their presence. The parrots then flew off in unison and headed to what appeared to be their roosting site. As I was observing and thoroughly enjoying the sight of these spectacular birds flying by in a huge flock, the ever-astute Frank was diligently counting. Ninety-three parrots!
After eight days of surveys, we analysed the data, using the program DISTANCE and other statistical software. Based on the survey data collected, we estimated that approximately 8,832 parrots dwell in central and southern Abaco. This suggests that the population appears to be stable and doing well – thanks to the management efforts of BNT’s park wardens. I take my hat off to them!
Conservation Partnerships Are Key
Upside down parrots! Bahama Parrots are partners for life. (photo by Scott Johnson)
The Bahamas National Trust, BirdsCaribbean and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service continue their partnership to accomplish the mission of managing and conserving wildlife and ecosystems in The Bahamian Archipelago and the Caribbean region. The Caribbean is home to a variety of important species, from endangered Rock Iguanas to American Flamingos. Wildlife management and conservation can be very challenging. It is not just about the animals and birds. It involves people, policy and laws, and the search for the right balance between the needs of humans and the needs of wildlife. As wildlife conservationists, we understand that our work illustrates the importance of biodiversity. We recognize that weare the active voices speaking up for the native and endemic plants and animals that may go extinct if no conservation action is taken.
It is always a joy to see our beautiful parrots flying wild and free. Let’s continue to work together to ensure that our future includes the amazing creatures that also call the Caribbean…home.
By Scott Johnson (Bahamas National Trust) and Frank F. Rivera-Milán (United States Fish and Wildlife Service). Scott is a Science Officer with the BNT; his work focuses on terrestrial fauna in the national parks and he loves Bahamian birds and reptiles. Frank is a Population Ecologist with US Fish and Wildlife Service. He frequently conducts field studies of doves and pigeons. He especially enjoys studying parrots.
Click on the photos below to see a larger version and slide show.
Devoted couple – Bahama Parrots pair up for life. (photo by Frank Rivera)
Lookout! Only in Abaco do you find a parrot crossing sign! (photo by Scott Johnson)
Bahama Parrot surveying his domain. (photo by Scott Johnson)
93 is the count for a huge flock of parrots that flew by. (photo by Frank Rivera)
Scott Johnson getting ready for the next count. (photo by Frank Rivera)
Bahama Parrots perched on a bare tree. (photo by Frank Rivera)
Pine Forest habitat with bracken form understory following fire passing through the area. (photo by Frank Rivera)
Scarlet Tanager in full breeding plumage glory, observed on Grand Bahama, May 5th, 2018 (Erika Gates/ Macauley Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
Every year, Global Big Day is an all-out effort to get the “big picture” on birds across the planet. This year, it hit a new world record. In one single day (May 5, 2018) 29,866 people ventured outside in 170 countries, finding 6,963 species, These numbers equate to approximately two thirds of the world’s bird species in just 24 hours! 1.6 million bird sightings by citizen scientists and avid birders worldwide were recorded on eBird.
This year was a particularly important one for the Caribbean, since many islands are still in recovery mode after the passage of two hurricanes in 2017, and it was important to check in on how the bird populations are doing several months later. BirdsCaribbean members and partners made significant contributions to the global total from the Caribbean*, with 453 species reported. The weather was not kind on May 5, with stormy and rainy weather across several islands. Nevertheless, 254 participants braved the elements to count birds. They spotted an impressive 102 endemic birds on May 5. A much higher number of checklists was submitted this year: 926, nearly doubling the previous number of 567.
Which Caribbean islands came out on top? Trinidad and Tobago had 178 species (woo hoo!), but of course this is not a level playing field with the rest of the region! The Bahamas and Puerto Rico ended up “neck and neck”, with 136 and 135 species each – some way ahead of third-place Guadeloupe with 83. Cuba and the Cayman Islands rounded out the top five.
A rare Eurasian Spoonbill was included in Barbado’s Global Big Day checklist (Julian Moore/ Macauley Library at the Cornell Lab or Ornithology)
Top eBirders Eric Torres-Rivera and Julio Salgado from Puerto Rico spotted 104 species each; Puerto Rican birders submitted a remarkable total of 249 checklists. This was an encouraging result from the island that suffered such destruction from 2017 hurricanes. BirdsCaribbean is also happy to note that Dominica, which was ravaged by Hurricane Maria, recorded 32 species, thanks to Forestry Officer Stephen Durand.
Bermuda Petrel (Cahow) chick receiving a health check on Global Bird Day, Nonsuch Island, Bermuda (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
There were some rare and unexpected finds, noted Jeff Gerbracht, eBird’s Lead Application Developer at Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “Eurasian Spoonbill and Pacific Golden Plover were both seen at the same site in Barbados. It is most unusual for these species to be seen together, especially in the Western Hemisphere.” View the checklist here.
“The Black Kite, a European species rarely seen on this side of the Atlantic, was reported and photographed on the island of Inagua in the Bahamas,” said Gerbracht. “Also, Lisa Sorenson (BC Executive Director) and her husband Mike were on Bermuda with BC President Andrew Dobson, seeing all the local birds, including a robust Bermuda Petrel (Cahow) chick.
We hope everyone enjoyed the day and we thank you for your participation and commitment to our region’s beautiful birds. Next year will be even more fun!
How did your country do on Global Big Day? Find out here.
An overall report for Global Big Day is available here, with nice summaries for each region. The total species list for the West Indies (Bahamas, Greater and Lesser Antilles) is here.
*NOTE: The Global Big Day summary statistics in this article include the islands of the West Indies (Bahamas and Greater and Lesser Antilles), plus Bermuda, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, and Trinidad and Tobago. These islands comprise the region where BirdsCaribbean carries out its mission.
Plenty of migrants were seen on Global Big Day, like this Blackpoll Warbler spotted in the Cayman Islands (Peter Davey/Macauley Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
eBird is the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed each year by eBirders around the world. A collaborative enterprise with hundreds of partner organizations, thousands of regional experts, and hundreds of thousands of users, eBird is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.Submit your birding checklists and join the eBird family! You will find more details on registering and recording your sightings here.
If you bird in the Caribbean, be sure to use our portal—eBird Caribbean. This will give you access to our special protocols for the region (e.g., Caribbean Waterbird Census) and our latest news and updates on birding in the islands.
By Emma Lewis (@petchary), blogger and birder in Jamaica
Black-crowned Palm Tanager, endemic to Hispaniola. (photo by Dax Román E.)
Your contributions to the past three Global Big Days have set back-to-back-to-back world records for the most bird species seen in a single day. Thank you. On 5 May, we’re looking for another world record, and we need your help. With over 170 endemic species and many regional specialities, the Caribbean is a great place to get outside and look for birds this Saturday.
Just like past years, you just have to go out and enjoy birds. Here’s our two-step guide:
Watch birds on 5 May: You don’t need to be a bird expert, or go out all day long. Even 10 minutes in your backyard will help. Global Big Day runs from midnight to midnight in your local time zone. You can report birds from anywhere in the world.
Enter what you see and hear on eBird Caribbean: You can enter your sightings via the website or—even easier—use the free eBird Mobile app. You can enter and submit lists while you’re still out birding, and the app will even keep track of how far you’ve walked, so you can just focus on watching birds. While you’re downloading free apps, try out the Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID app for help with identification.
Go birding for 10 minutes around your home, or for 10 hours across your entire county, state, province or country–and submit your sightings to eBird Caribbean. Every Bird Counts. Global Big Day is also a great way to celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival, ongoing now!
No matter what you do, have fun, enjoy the birds you find, and share your sightings on eBird Caribbean and our Facebook page. Because in our world, every bird counts.
#BirdYourWorld #CEBF2018 #GlobalBig Day #YearOfTheBird
p.s. Don’t forget to enter your Caribbean bird counts into eBird Caribbean – our own portal. All the data goes to the same place (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) but we have some of our own protocols (Step 2 of data submission), for example, counts conducted at wetlands, ponds, mud flats and beaches can be entered as Caribbean Waterbird Census counts.
The critically endangered Diablotin (Black-capped Petrel) in flight; the Diablotin will be studied with David S. Lee award funding. (photo by Doug-Gochfeld)
BirdsCaribbean is excited to announce 2018 awards for the David S. Lee Fund for the Conservation of Caribbean Birds. Five young scholars will carry out important research that will increase our knowledge of Caribbean birds and the actions needed to conserve them. The 2018 award recipients are Yvan Satge, Janine Antalffy, Juan Carlos Fernandez-Odoñez, Eduardo Manuel Llegus-Santiago, and Holly Garrod.
The David S. Lee Fund was established in 2016 to recognize the scientific and conservation efforts of David S. Lee, a biologist and naturalist dedicated to Caribbean biodiversity. The award funds innovative avian conservation research in the Caribbean. All projects demonstrate a commitment to engaging with local scientists, government officials, organizations and communities, as appropriate, to involve them in the research, share results, and build interest in local birds and their conservation. The projects are described below.
Thanks to support for the fund from a number of generous donors, BirdsCaribbean is able to provide a grant of $1,000 to each of the 2018 recipients. Congratulations to these dedicated and hard-working scholars, who we are confident will make important discoveries that will lead to enhanced conservation efforts and awareness of our amazing birds. Several students (Holly Garrod, Spencer Shubert, Maya Wilson, Paige Byerly) that received support last year have written blog articles sharing their exciting findings. We wish this new flock of Dave Lee award recipients all the best in their upcoming field seasons and look forward to hearing about their results in future articles and publications.
Foraging choices of the Diablotin Black-capped Petrel: using spatial ecology and diet to inform conservation
Yvan Satge, Clemson University
Yvan Satge will study the diet of Black-capped Petrels using DNA analysis of fecal samples.
The Diablotin (Black-capped petrel; Pterodroma hasitata) is one of the most endangered seabirds in the western north Atlantic and one of only two extant seabird species endemic to the Caribbean. Although loss of terrestrial breeding habitat is a primary threat to the species, disturbances affecting the marine environment, which have been under-studied, are also likely to impact the survival of the population. Yvan Satge will study the diets of adult and juvenile Diablotin through novel DNA analysis of fecal samples collected at nest sites in the Dominican Republic. Data will inform conservation efforts by the Black-capped Petrel Working Group regarding use of marine resources by breeding Diablotin. The success of this project will be measured by evaluating diet composition and comparing those results to at-sea habitat use by tracked birds to assess the distribution of prey in the marine environment.
Conservation biology of the Bahama Oriole, a critically endangered island endemic
Janine Antalffy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Bahama Oriole adult on Andros. It could be a male or a female, as both sexes have this striking black and yellow coloration. (photo Daniel Stonko, UMBC)
The Bahama Oriole (Icterus northrop) is a critically endangered songbird restricted to the Andros island complex in The Bahamas. Having disappeared from the neighboring island of Abaco in the 1990s, a 2011 study suggested that fewer than 300 individuals remained on Andros. Little is known about life history traits and causes of population decline of this species. Janine’s research will contribute knowledge to inform conservation strategies for the species through addressing three questions about the Oriole, including assessing genetic diversity and connectivity between populations in the Andros Islands, assessing the response of this species to logging (to estimate population size during wholesale clearcutting in the mid 1900s), and distribution modelling to look at past populations on Andros and for the extinct Abaco population. These data will be useful for The Bahamas government to determine if the species should be managed as one or several populations, and to guide the reintroduction of the Bahama Oriole to Abaco.
Updating information about Audubon’s Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri loyemilleri) at Los Roques archipelago (Venezuela)
Juan-Carlos Fernandez Ordoñez, Fundación Científica ARA MACAO
An Audubon’s Shearwater feeds along the surface of the water.
Audubon’s Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri) is a small seabird that inhabits warm waters, mostly in the tropics. It breeds in colonies on islands and offshore cays. Once common, it’s status is now vulnerable due to disturbance and loss of breeding habitats. Audubon’s Shearwater is known to breed in the islands of the Los Roques archipelago off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. Thanks to its strategic geographical location, the 314 islands, cays and islets of this archipelago provide important stopover and breeding sites for migratory and endemic birds. Juan-Carlos will revisit the remote and unspoiled Los Roques Archipelago to locate and survey nesting populations of Audubon’s Shearwater. JC will also identify and describe threats at the breeding sites. These colonies have not been visited in many decades, thus JC’s work will fill in major gaps in our understanding of of the status of these nesting populations. In his analysis, JC will test occupancy models as a much faster way of monitoring remote populations. He will share his results with local managers to aid conservation efforts in the archipelago.
Restoration and Monitoring of Nesting Areas of Shorebirds in the Punta Cucharas Natural Reserve, Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Eduardo Llegus (seated with blue plaid shirt) with Punta Cucharas Team. Left to right: Miguel García, Nashalie Aponte, Pier Le Compte, Israel Jr. Rivera, Ian Maldonado, Gilmarie Rivera, Karla Oquendo, Hommy Pacheco.
Eduardo Manuel Llegus-Santiago, University of Puerto Rico at Ponce
Eduardo will work to restore and monitor beach-nesting bird habitat in Punta Cucharas Natural Reserve, an estuary ecosystem located at southern Puerto Rico, in the City of Ponce . This community-centered project will rebuild fences that were created to protect birds from invasive dogs, cats, and vehicles during their nesting. The project includes the restoration of the fence and monitoring of the birds with volunteers and an educational program to teach local communities about shorebirds with the production of a bird guide for the area to stimulate bird-friendly tourism. Eduardo will also monitor survival rates of shorebirds in the restored area and compare them with other colonies within the natural reserve.
A tale of two todies: understanding how vocalizations mediate hybridization between two sympatric species
Holly Garrod with a tody in the hand at her field site in the Dominican Republic.
Holly Garrod, Villanova University
Climate change and other human disturbances are causing range shifts in bird populations around the world. In some cases, species that were previously separated may come into contact and hybridize, which ultimately can result in long-term losses of biodiversity. In the Dominican Republic, Broad-billed and Narrow-billed Todies separate on an elevational gradient, with the Broad-billed Tody (Todus subulatus) in lowland wet forests and the Narrow-billed Tody (Todus angustirostris) in montane cloud forest. Climate change may push Broad-billed Todies upslope, increasing the overlap (sympatry) in the two species’ ranges at mid-elevation. Increased competition and hybridization could disproportionately harm one of the species, most likely the Narrow-billed Tody, because the high-elevation tody has “nowhere to go.” Holly will use playback experiments to investigate the extent to which the two species recognize and respond to each as competitive threats (e.g., for males defending territories) and as potential mates. If species recognition mechanisms are imperfect, this could lead to hybridization. To date, one such hybrid has been documented. Holly’s research will likely yield important insights about different ways in which behavior mechanisms influence hybridization. Holly’s research in 2017 (supported with David Lee funds) examined nesting success of todies in different habitats – read about her exciting results here.
To learn more about the David S. Lee Fund for the Conservation of Caribbean Birds, click here. If you would like to contribute to the fund and help support future projects, click here. You can choose to designate your gift to the David S. Lee Fund.
BirdsCaribbean thanks the scientists that provided thoughtful and constructive reviews of the proposals. We are very grateful to all that have donated to the David S. Lee Fund. We are pleased and proud to honor Dave’s legacy with the funding of these exciting projects that will advance the development of young Caribbean scientists and contribute to the conservation of Caribbean birds.
BirdsCaribbean, its members and partners note the controversy surrounding the export of two Sisserou (Imperial Parrots Amazona imperialis) and ten Jaco (Red-necked Parrots Amazona arausiaca) from Dominica to a facility in Germany on March 17th, 2018. Both species are endemic to Dominica, both are globally threatened, and the habitats of both were badly damaged by the passage of Hurricane Maria in September 2017. The Sisserou is Dominica’s iconic national bird, appearing on its flag, coat-of-arms, Parliamentary Mace and other national symbols and instruments. The Sisserou has long represented a unique flagship of national pride for Dominicans.
The Parrots Were in Good Condition
Rescued and rehabilitated Imperial Parrot (Sisserou) on the right; 18 year old Sisserou female on the left. Also a rescue (having fallen from the nest), this female successfully reproduced in captivity in 2010. (photo by Stephen Durand)
While there is no doubt that disastrous events like hurricanes pose a serious threat to the persistence of endangered species, there is evidence that both species are resilient and recovery in the wild is possible. Dominica’s parrot populations were greatly affected but recovered after Hurricane David in 1979. Their survival has been aided by multiple conservation measures taken in Dominica including parks and protective legislation, community outreach and education events, programs to reduce agricultural conflicts, complemented by research and monitoring.
Despite the confidence of local and international experts (who have been working in Dominica with the parrots since 1981) that on-island efforts to support the recovery of local populations would be successful, some politically-appointed individuals within the Government of Dominica, apparently decided to facilitate the export of these parrots as an “emergency measure” to support the establishment of a captive breeding population in Germany by the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP).
Conservation Issues for Threatened Bird Species
This action raises many issues concerning the conservation of threatened bird species. BirdsCaribbean has engaged with local partners in the region for 30 years, and we support the position of most threatened species specialists that:
Conservation programmes for threatened species should be guided by recovery action planning based on sound science, engagement by all stakeholders, and international laws and guidance.
Conservation programmes for threatened species should focus firstly on recovery of wild populations in the wild, with captive breeding as a last resort.
There are many risks associated with captive breeding, including risks in transport, transmission or exposure to new diseases, acclimation to a new environment, and loss of genetic diversity and natural behaviors. These programs must be carried out in an extremely careful manner and risks increase if the program is in another country.
Captive breeding programs can be an effective and important conservation tool (e.g., as shown for the Puerto Rican Parrot), but they must be based on sound science, be proposed and vetted transparently to the conservation community, and wherever possible, be in the country of origin.
Threatened species programs must involve and empower to the maximum extent possible the local organizations and communities who are ultimately the stewards for the species.
Red-necked Parrots (aka Jaco) in aviary on Dominica, recovering and doing well following Hurricane Maria. (photo by Stephen Durand)
BirdsCaribbean suggests that there are legal, scientific and ethical reasons to question the export of Sisserou and Jaco parrots from Dominica.
The export of globally threatened species is controlled under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to which Dominica and Germany are both signatories. Export permits are granted through the local CITES management authority, which may only license export of threatened (Appendix 1) species under very strict conditions. In Dominica, this is the Environmental Coordinating Unit (ECU). BirdsCaribbean has been reliably informed that the permit for the export of these parrots to Germany was not granted by the ECU and the ECU was not consulted. (see https://goo.gl/dB9SF2). Additionally, Dominica was under suspension of all trade under CITES since January 2018 for failure to file annual reports for three consecutive years. Therefore, no CITES Appendix I species should have been permitted for export.
The Situation Was Not an “Emergency”
Any argument that the export was justified as an “emergency” action is contradicted by the following:
All of the exported animals survived the hurricane;
The female Sisserou at the aviary had lived there for 18 years and successfully reproduced at the aviary in 2010;
Ongoing parrot surveys reveal that both species’ wild populations also survived the hurricane, with the ecologically common Jaco parrot now widely distributed and some sightings of wild Sisserous; known to be shy and difficult to survey in the wild;
The aviaries were in the process of being refurbished, with new enclosures, wire and supplies already sent to Forestry;
The aviary birds were examined and attended to with multiple animal-care teams from IFAW;
The exported Jaco parrots were being prepared for release into the wild;
No proposal for emergency action was presented to Forestry, the personnel responsible for animal-care at the aviary, nor ECU.
BirdCaribbean is surprised that a permit would be granted by any authority, because it would appear that the export is detrimental to on-going local conservation efforts. We are especially concerned about the export of the Sisserou, partly because their local breeding populations are smaller, and partly because two individuals are not sufficient to establish a breeding programme. This calls into question the scientific justification for this export and whether there may be additional requests for exports in the future.
BirdsCaribbean Supports Dominican Experts, Local Partners
Imperial Parrot feeding on palm fruits in the wild. (photo by Bertrand Jno Baptiste)
In addition, the scientific authority for CITES in Dominica, the Forestry, Wildlife and Parks Division, was also not consulted about the export—no proposal, conservation plan or agreement was shared with the team in charge of parrot conservation on the island. Instead the arrangements were apparently made in secret and the birds taken without the knowledge or permission of either CITES authority on the island.
Our Dominican partners remain committed to the on-island conservation programs and the protective measures it has developed for its parrots over many years. Thanks to generous donors, BirdsCaribbean has assisted in Hurricane Maria recovery by shipping more than US$12,000 worth of supplies to aid recovery of Dominica’s parrots, including bird feeders, bird seed, tools and field equipment. We have long supported outreach, education and surveys conducted by Dominica’s own experts, who have decades of experience and knowledge. We believe that the conservation of Dominica’s parrots is best done in Dominica by Dominicans, – supported, but not undercut, by foreign entities.
We know that the people of Dominica are resilient and proud of their beautiful birds and in particular, their National Bird, the Sisserou. For this reason alone, the recent removal of these birds from the island calls for far more explanation and justification than has been made public.
What You Can do to Help
Rescued and rehabilitated Jaco parrots at the aviary in Dominica. (photo by Stephen Durand)
BirdsCaribbean is one of thirteen signatory organizations expressing concern over the recent export of endemic parrots from Dominica to Germany. We include here a joint communication shared today, April 5, 2018, with the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as well as representatives within CITES, the government of Dominica, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the European Union. Read the UNEP letter.
It is a pleasure to announce the publication of the first issue of the Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Cuba by Nils Navarro Pacheco and Ernesto Reyes Mouriño (No 1, 2017). This publication will serve as an official list and platform for work in the field of ornithology within the Cuban archipelago, as well as keeping the ornithological community updated on changes in taxonomy, systematics and new additions to the bird list of Cuba.
Earlier lists or volumes describing the birdlife of Cuba (Garrido and Montana, Catalogo de las Aves de Cuba 1975; Garrido and Kirkconnell, Field Guide to the Birds of Cuba, 2000; and Endemic Birds of Cuba, Navarro 2015) provide ample details on species behavior, habitat and range. This new checklist condenses and provides updated and new information on conservation status, endemism, abundance, breeding, and seasonality for 398 naturally occurring species and 15 exotics.
The checklist is beautifully illustrated with color photographs of Cuba’s 28 endemics on the back cover. The authors intend to update the list on an annual basis as verifiable information becomes available. With increased numbers of homegrown birders and professional ornithologists as well as foreign contributions, a “living” checklist under the careful stewardship of Navarro and Reyes makes perfect sense.
Cuba is the largest island in the West Indies and boasts 28 endemics as well as some of the most important habitats found in the region. Cubans, with support from abroad, have responded to the need to protect these habitats especially for endemic birds by developing many national parks and reserves, conducting ornithogical research, delivering outreach and education programs, and monitoring birds, for example, through the Caribbean Waterbird Census. While these efforts may have limited resources, the Cuban people and the conservationists they support are very proud of their birds and significant achievements. That passion bares fruit in this checklist when you look through the references and supporting documentation.
As one who is particularly interested in the ever-evolving state of West Indian avian biogeography, I appreciate the inclusion of a short communications section with articles on recent sightings and banding records and photographs of documented (with citations) recent rarities. I have no doubt that at least two factors—climate change and the increase in knowledgeable observers—are contributing to requisite checklist updates which the authors also recognize. The authors in fact encourage reporting of bird sightings through eBird Caribbean (Cornell Lab of Ornithological Database). Reports are vetted by local experts and contribute greatly to our knowledge of the status and trends of migratory and resident trends and status of species in Cuba as well as the West Indies. Many of you already understand that neotropical migrants, for example, spend only a few months (May-August) raising young on the North American continent before returning to the tropics. As you may have sensed, checklists of birds anywhere are outdated by the time they go to press.
So, in the tradition of James Bond’s Supplements to the Checklist of the Birds of the West Indies (1956-et seq.), this checklist is expected to provide intermittent updates founded by substantiating evidence and hopefully commentary by two of the leading field biologists in Cuba. I have worked with both Nils and Ernesto on reviving Christmas Bird Counts in Cuba since 2012 and can attest to their depth of knowledge and commitment to preserving the natural patrimony of Cuba. This and subsequent updates to the checklist should be a part of any West Indian ornithological library, both private and public, as a resource to measure changes in status of both resident and migratory Cuban birdlife in this hemisphere.
The checklist, published by Ediciones Nuevos Mundos, is a 40 page booklet, 8.0 x 11.5 inches in size, illustrated, with saddle stitch binding. The first print run is in English. The checklist can be purchased from the publisher for $12.00 (plus $3 shipping) at this link. A downloadable version is available here.
Robert Norton is a founding member of BirdsCaribbean (then the Society of Caribbean Ornithology); initiating author of the West Indies Region report (1980- ) North American Birds, American Birding Association; West Indies regional editor Christmas Bird Counts, National Audubon Society; eBird reviewer, Virgin Islands, Cornell Lab of Ornithology; coauthor w/ Patricia Bradley, Inventory of Breeding Seabirds of the Caribbean, 2009.
Caleb Spiegel, Beth MacDonald, Jen Rock, and Elise Elliott-Smith Searching for Piping Plovers (Photo by Eric Salamanca)
We have heard the painful stories of the 2017 hurricanes, which had devastating effects on humans and birds on some islands. How did our shorebirds weather the storm—especially those we are most concerned about from a conservation viewpoint? Elise Elliott-Smith shares her story of post-hurricane surveys in the Turks and Caicos Islands in February 2018.
For the past three years, I have been privileged to work with an international team of scientists led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center. Working with local partners and other international partners we have conducted surveys for Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) and other shorebird species of conservation concern in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Charming Piping Plover
The Piping Plover is a small, round-bodied shorebird, with a charming, big-eyed look. It breeds on beaches in the interior and Atlantic Coast of the U.S. and Canada, migrating to beaches in the southern Atlantic U.S., the northern West Indies, and across the Gulf Coast into northern Mexico. There are three discrete breeding populations, all of which are listed as endangered in Canada, and threatened or endangered in the U.S.
Piping Plovers (Photo by Eric Salamanca)
Fifteen years ago, no one knew that large numbers of Piping Plover winter in the Bahamas and northern Caribbean. But there was a surprise in store. During the 2011 International Piping Plover Census, it was discovered that around 1,000 birds wintered in the Bahamas. So, searching the Turks and Caicos Islands became a priority for the next Census in 2016 (read about 2016 International Piping Plover Census here). Our 2016 search yielded almost 100 Piping Plover and we counted 174 during an expanded search in January 2017. During this search, we also tallied about 20 other shorebird species, many of which are declining in numbers, or are focal species of the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative. These species included the Red Knot (Calidris canutus), which is also listed as threatened/special concern in the U.S. and Canada.
The Onslaught of Hurricanes Irma and Maria
Destroyed House on South Caicos (Photo by Elise Elliott-Smith)
On September 7, 2017, Hurricane Irma hit the Turks and Caicos Islands as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 175 miles per hour. Two weeks later, Hurricane Maria arrived, packing 125 mph winds and torrential rain. My thoughts were with my colleagues and friends in the Turks and Caicos Islands as the storms passed. Despite extensive damage, and a heavy blow to the islands’ infrastructure, everyone was safe; miraculously, there were no deaths in the Turks and Caicos Islands. And after hearing this, I started wondering about the birds.
Far from the storm, I saw images on my computer screen of the destruction to human property and then the video of injured and dead flamingos in Cuba. I reasoned that given the small size of the Piping Plover, they could likely hunker down in strong winds. Perhaps some were still on their southerly migration and had not yet arrived. But a Piping Plover is not large, nor is it pink. The plovers’ small sand-colored carcasses would surely wash away unnoticed. The truth was, I really did not know how the storms had affected shorebirds or their habitat. But we had collected comprehensive survey data on all shorebird species for two prior winters at many remote sites in the Turks and Caicos Islands. I was eager get back there and see what had changed.
Post-hurricane Surveys Show Drop in Piping Plover Populations
Planning and preparing for these excursions is always exciting and a bit stressful. Our colleagues at the Turks and Caicos Department of the Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) wanted to conduct surveys but they needed assistance. Partners at the USFWS and Canadian Wildlife Service – Environment and Climate Change Canada (CWS-ECCC) were also interested in helping but there were a lot of details to work out and questions to answer. Would we get funding? Would we get government permissions? Would we have enough cash to pay for the boats? Would the weather cooperate during the surveys? And would the birds themselves cooperate? This year, however, there was one very big question constantly looming in my mind as I was trying to secure funding for surveys and plan for the trip. How had the hurricanes affected the birds and their habitat? Would they even be there this year?
Surveying Piping Plovers (Photo by Eric Salamanca)
Post-hurricane surveys finally became possible with the support of BirdsCaribbean, the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund, DECR, SWA Environmental, USFWS, CWS-ECCC and USGS. We had an excellent International team of surveyors, with the support needed for surveying remote cays. So I found myself flying into Providenciales, TCI on the evening of 30 January 2018. Under the cover of night, I did not get to see the turquoise waters or the tarped and patched roofs of houses damaged by the storms. But looking out the window the next morning I saw evidence of the hurricanes that reminded me the Turks and Caicos Islands are still recovering.
Over the next 10 days our teams conducted surveys on over 15 islands and cays in the Turks and Caicos Islands. We revisited every site where Piping Plover had been seen the prior year and surveyed a few new sites. In total, we saw just 62 Piping Plover. This was a far lower total than had been seen in 2017 or 2016. Counts of Piping Plovers were actually down at all of the sites surveyed in prior years, and they were completely absent from several sites.
Landscapes and Habitats Reshaped by the Storms
Mixed species flock including Red Knot, Short-billed Dowitchers, Black-bellied Plovers (Photo by Eric Salamanca)
The extent of damage to human structures varied from island to island. Similarly, some Piping Plover sites appeared largely unaffected by the storms, while other sites had been substantially altered. Little Ambergris Cay was one of the sites hardest hit by the storms. The habitat had changed drastically. Multiple sandbars were breached or washed away entirely, interior mudflats were flooded, beaches were over-washed, and the island was literally split in two. Piping Plover had been seen at multiple locations on this island in 2016 and 2017. Despite the habitat changes, there appeared to be quite a bit of suitable habitat remaining in 2018. However, when we conducted a very thorough survey, no Piping Plover were seen. Shorebird numbers in general were down.
Caleb Spiegel (USFWS) and Jen Rock (CWS-EEEC) wading out to survey the high tide roost at remote sandbars south of Middle Caicos (Photo by Elise Elliott-Smith)
Some of the most important sites seemed relatively unchanged. However, storm erosion can be insidious, leaving sites looking deceptively undamaged at first glance. One of the most important shorebird sites in the Turks and Caicos Islands consists of a handful of very remote, tidally exposed sand flats and a tiny island, south of Middle Caicos. At this site, there is only a single small rocky area exposed during high tides. Birds tend to roost in this spot until neighboring sand flats are exposed for feeding. In 2017 we had seen about 3,000 shorebirds of at least 12 species at this site, including about 400 Red Knot. It is hard to identify and count 3,000 shorebirds, especially when they are spread out and moving around, so we planned our surveys for high tide, when birds concentrate. The area appeared to be largely unchanged. However, there were only about 1,000 shorebirds, far fewer than the prior year. We stayed in the area for nearly an entire tide cycle, but much of the sandflats remained shallowly flooded, even at low tide, indicating sand was likely lost during the hurricanes.
The Fate of Missing Birds Largely Unknown
Casaurina uprooted by the storms at Dickish Cay (Photo by Elise Elliott-Smith)
Our early observations add to mounting evidence that there may be immediate negative effects of hurricanes on local wintering Piping Plover and other shorebird populations. However, questions remain. As in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Piping Plover numbers were greatly reduced in the Bahamas after Hurricane Matthew, particularly in areas hardest hit by the storm (Matt Jeffrey and Walker Golder (National Audubon), pers. comm). However, it is not known if shorebirds are dying in hurricanes or leaving in advance of the storm and wintering elsewhere. Spotting marked birds again may be the key to understanding this question of mortality. During our surveys in the Turks and Caicos Islands we observed Piping Plover that had been marked on their Atlantic Coast breeding grounds in the U.S. and Canada. Piping Plover tend to be faithful to their winter sites. However, some marked birds seen in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2017 were “missing” on 2018 surveys. We will be looking for these individuals on migration and breeding grounds this summer. Re-sighting them would indicate they survived the storm. We also hope to return to the Turks and Caicos again in early 2019 to see if these missing birds have returned.
So what of the birds’ uncertain future? How resilient are Piping Plovers to hurricanes over the long term? And how resilient are the ecosystems on which they depend? Will sand be deposited again where it was lost? And how are the invertebrates (aka shorebird food) affected by hurricanes? These questions need further study, especially considering that with changing climates, storms may become more frequent and intense. In addition to searching for marked birds, the next step in answering these question is seeing shorebirds return to their favorite haunts in the Turks and Caicos Islands in higher numbers next winter. If birds survived the storm, we might expect to see a rebound in numbers next year.
Caribbean Waterbird Census – An Important Tool
Tagged Piping Plover (Photo by Eric Salamanca)
We were fortunate to have baseline data before the storm from our previous surveys to assess how well Piping Plovers had survived the 2017 devastating hurricane season. Our results highlight the importance of the Caribbean Waterbird Census (which we have contributed to during our surveys of the Turks and Caicos) and other surveys that provide critical information on bird species abundance and distribution. This helps us gauge avian response to hurricanes and our changing climate and suggests actions that we can take to help birds survive. We cannot prevent the hurricanes from coming. But there is a lot that can be done to protect the birds remote habitats from development and minimize human disturbance.
As I returned home, I felt relief that at least some birds survived the storm and very encouraged by the incredible international support for our work. As an international species of concern, the Piping Plover requires collaboration to conserve their habitats across the different phases of their life cycle. I am optimistic that with the help of many, we can come together again to answer remaining questions and take steps to protect this beautiful little bird.
You can help too! We are still learning about this species’ distribution throughout the Caribbean – so learn how to distinguish them from similar species (like Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, Wilson’s Plover, and Snowy Plovers) and help conduct surveys. Be on the lookout on sandy beaches and tidal mudflats, look for bands and flags, take pictures of the birds you see, and report all your observations on eBird Caribbean (and any Piping Plovers to me as well please! Contact Elise Elliott-Smith).
Aerial view of some of the best Piping Plover habitat in the Turks and Caicos Islands including “Piping Plover Cay” (Photo by Elise Elliott-Smith)
Notes from the Field
Searching for Birds on Dickish Cay (Photo by Eric Salamanca)
Day 1: A very rainy adventure to cays between Providenciales and North Caicos with Caleb Spiegel (USFWS), Eric Salamanca and an intrepid boat crew from the Turks and Caicos Department of the Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR). Few birds are seen and no Piping Plover are seen on either of the cays where they were documented in 2016 and 2017. This could be due to tour boat disturbance seen at one of the sites, but it is easy to miss birds when it is windy and wet. Need to return for a re-survey in better conditions.
Day 2: After a morning flight to South Caicos, Caleb, Eric and I kayak to what had been the most important Piping Plover site during our surveys the prior two years, a small uninhabited unnamed cay that we’ve affectionately dubbed “Piping Plover Cay”. Looking out the window while the plane landed and driving to the end of the road to put our boats in the water, it appears that South Caicos was hit harder than Providenciales by Hurricane Irma, and lacks the resources of the more popular tourist destinations to make a speedy recovery. Many houses are still missing roofs, some are missing walls, and at least a couple have been leveled by the storm.
Power Line Damage on South Caicos (Photo by Elise Elliott-Smith)
More power lines are askew or knocked down than remain upright. And the salt ponds are too deeply flooded to support small shorebirds. Surprisingly, “Piping Plover Cay” looks good and largely unchanged. However, conditions are windy with some rain and although we see some shorebirds, there are no Piping Plovers in the flocks.
Day 3: Jen Rock and Beth MacDonald, our Canadian colleagues (ECCC), arrived last night. The weather has cleared, and we finally find some Piping Plover!! Seven birds are seen on Dickish Cay, a small uninhabited cay where we had seen them during both of the prior survey years. In 2016, we had accessed the site by swimming across a channel from the end of the road in Middle Caicos and had found 11 Piping Plover on interior mud flats. In 2017 we accessed the island by boat, surveying it twice, and the high count had been 24 Piping Plover, including two marked birds seen on the sandy beach. Piping Plover tend to be loyal to their winter sites, so we look for the marked birds seen in 2017. They are not in our small flock but we do see two newly marked Piping Plover: one marked as a chick in Newfoundland the prior summer and the other marked a few weeks before Hurricane Irma while on a migration stop-over in North Carolina. Although the number of birds is lower than prior years, if anything the hurricanes seems to have had a positive effect on the Piping Plover habitat. Invasive Casuarina has been uprooted and sand has been deposited on the east side of the island, widening the beach.
Caleb Spiegel and Elise Elliott-Smith scanning potential habitat in the windward channel between Middle and East Caicos (Photo by Eric Salamanca)
Day 4: Our team is joined by Kathleen Wood (SWA Environmental) and we head out in the DECR boat to survey Little Ambergris. We split into three teams of two and are dropped off at different locations on the islands so that we can efficiently cover all the habitat. Two sandbars on the south side of the island have been entirely washed away, creating inflows and flooding. We realize that the inflow on the southwest side has broken all the way through to the north side of the island, splitting the island into two. One beach was totally over-washed, widening it by leveling the short vegetation. Twenty-five Piping Plover were seen on this island in 2016 and 29 were seen in 2017. None are seen on this survey and overall shorebird numbers are lower than previous counts. There still appears to be a lot of reasonable shorebird habitat, but much of the habitat is greatly changed. On our way back we stop at Big Ambergris Cay. It is our first Piping Plover survey on this island; we did not survey it previously because the habitat on aerial images did not look ideal. Hurricane damage is very apparent here as well as erosion of beach habitat and cliffs backing the beach. Many structures are seriously damaged. We see no plovers and few shorebirds on the mostly exposed, windswept beaches.
Tagged Piping Plover (Photo by Eric Salamanca)
Day 5: Jen, Beth and Kathleen return to “Piping Plover Cay”. The conditions are good and they see 45 Piping Plover – including two birds that Beth banded in Nova Scotia the previous summer! Caleb, Eric and I do not have as much luck. We return to Dickish Cay but do not see any Piping Plover (they also may use neighboring Joe Grant Cay or Wild Cow Run beach but we do not have time to check there). Our expert boat operator, Tim Hamilton, shows us some habitat in Lorrimer’s channels on Middle Caicos that we had not explored in prior years. It looks like good shorebird habitat but we see few birds.
Day 6: Sandbars south of Middle Caicos. This is the site where we saw about 3,000 shorebirds last year, including Red Knot. We arrive close to high tide and go to the roost spot. The area around the roost is very shallow so we need to get off the boat and wade in waist-deep water a few hundred meters to survey. Caleb and Jen start surveying while Beth, Eric and I stay in the boat to check the other sandbars, which are all inundated. We return to the roost spot and help count. There are only about 1,000 shorebirds this year and around 40 Red Knot. We discuss why we are seeing such reduced numbers and whether some birds could be roosting in an unknown location. We decide to wait for the tide to fall and see if more birds arrive. The sun is setting with the falling tide so we leave just before low tide. Although it is a pretty extreme low tide, the multiple finger-like sand flats all seem to still be inundated. The habitat looked unchanged when we first arrived at the site that morning but it is likely that some of the sand has eroded. As we return to South Caicos the sun is setting with a squall in the distance and a rainbow over the turquoise waters.
Piping Plovers roosting just north of South Caicos on “Piping Plover Cay”, including a bird banded as an adult in 2017 on breeding grounds in Nova Scotia (Photo by Jen Rock)
Days 7-10: Caleb, Jen and Eric return to Providenciales and then to North Caicos where they survey with Naqqi and Flash (DECR). No Piping Plover are seen at the Northwest Point National Marine Park, where one Piping Plover was seen in 2017. Later, they return to re-survey islands between Provo and North Caicos in better weather than day 1, but still do not see any Piping Plover, and few shorebirds. However, they have luck on East Bay Island, seeing 10 Piping Plover where 16 were seen in 2017, including four tagged birds: two that were marked on breeding grounds in Canada and two at breeding sites in the U.S.
Beth and I split off from the rest of the group and travel to Grand Turk where we explore habitat and survey with Katharine Hart (DECR). I had not been to Grand Turk previously and while we see many waterbirds on this island, the habitat is not ideal for Piping Plover. On our second day, we take a very rough and wet boat ride to explore two nearby uninhabited islands, Cotton and Gibb’s Cay. Gibb’s Cay has some good habitat but it is frequented by cruise ships and we only see a couple shorebirds. The next day we take a bigger boat to Big Sand Cay. Katharine has been to the island before for turtle work (it is a National Sanctuary and the most important hawksbill turtle nesting site in the islands) and reports that it has been affected by the hurricane. A tidal surge likely washed out vegetation so that now the east and west side of the island are connected by sand flats in a couple of spots. The habitat looks very good on this island. We do see turtle nests but we don’t see any Piping Plover.
Many thanks to Caleb Spiegel, Beth MacDonald, Naqqi Manco, Kathleen Wood, Emma Lewis, and Lisa Sorenson for input on this article. And special thanks to DECR, BirdsCaribbean, American Bird Conservancy, Turks & Caicos Reef Fund, SWA Environmental, USFWS, CWS-EEEC, USGS, and Big Blue Unlimited for providing financial and other support for this research.
East Bay Island Survey Crew: Cardinal Arthur (boat captain), Jen Rock (ECCC), Eric Salamanca (DECR), Junel “Flash” Blaise (DECR), and Brian Naqqi Manco (DECR). (Photo by Caleb Spiegel)
A rare Common Merganser (female) was spotted in the 2018 CWC in Bermuda. (photo by Andrew Dobson)
Midwinter in the Caribbean is not as chilly as it sounds – and it is a good time of year to count the region’s waterbirds, as most of them are not on the move somewhere else at this time. There is also the opportunity to do an annual health check of the wetlands that support this varied and fascinating group of birds. This year was very much a mixed picture. Reports from the islands brought some discouraging news, but also some exciting sightings.
Every year, intrepid BirdsCaribbean partners and volunteer citizen scientists put on their water boots and go out to count those birds that frequent our rivers, coastlines and wetlands. 2018 marked the 9th annual Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC), the region-wide waterbird and wetland monitoring program. The CWC forms part of the International Waterbird Census (IWC) – the largest volunteer waterbird count in the world, organized by Wetlands International and now in its 52nd year. This year’s three-week counting period began on January 14 and ended on February 3 – including World Wetlands Day, February 2. The collected data is recorded on the newly designed eBird Caribbean online platform.
The results of the 2018 CWC have not been altogether encouraging. We might have expected this in light of the devastating hurricanes that tore through numerous islands last year, damaging fragile wetland habitats already threatened in recent years by human activities. For example, the island of St. Eustatius (Statia) reported a “very poor count,” with a small number of tropicbirds, one Osprey and one Belted Kingfisher noted. Our friends on the Turks and Caicos Islands, which were impacted by Hurricane Irma, also counted fewer shorebirds in general; numbers of Piping Plovers were notably lower than in previous years, according to a survey supported by BirdsCaribbean’s Hurricane Relief Funds.
Normally common, only a few White-cheeked Pintails have been spotted on Sint Maarten since Hurricane Irma hit in the fall of 2017. (photo by Binkie van Es)
Binkie van Es is very worried about the bird populations on Sint Maarten following the devastating impacts of Hurricane Irma. In the period shortly after the storm he found lots of shorebirds all over the Island but lately they are almost completely absent. Also missing are big parts of the local population, there are only small numbers of White Cheeked Pintails (normally a few hundred), almost no Black-Necked Stilts (normally about 300), half the population of the Brown Pelican (the national bird) was lost, and only a few pairs of migratory ducks are present. He commented, “There is food and water for the birds but habitat is destroyed so no shelter. Also some of the ponds have unusually high water levels making it difficult for waders.”
Antigua’s CWC team, led by Andrea Otto and including some up-and-coming youngsters, surveyed several wetland areas. Their observations at McKinnon’s Pond were encouraging, with good numbers of Brown Pelicans, Magnificent Frigatebirds, Cattle and Snowy Egrets, and Herons (Little Blue, Great Blue, Tricolored and Green, all present). The less common Yellow-Crowned and Black-Crowned Night Herons were accompanied by a family of White-cheeked Pintail ducks. At Christian Cove, among other species, the birders reported “over 250 Black-necked Stilts entertained us with their comical gait and amusing, knobbly pink legs.” At the Bethesda and Potworks Dams, more ducks and grebes were observed in numbers, among them Blue-winged Teals, Ruddy Ducks and Pied-billed Grebes, feeding and diving alongside herons and Common Gallinules. Several Ospreys also delighted the CWC team as they fished.
Black-crowned Night Heron spotted at McKinnon’s Pond, Antigua. (photo by Shanna Challenger)
Sadly, however, the team did not see any West Indian Whistling-Ducks at all. This Caribbean endemic species, a resident on some islands and a vagrant on others, is listed as Vulnerable largely because of deterioration of habitat, predators and hunting. Antigua and Barbuda are normally a stronghold for this species so it is concerning that the duck has not been sighted in recent months. It is hoped that the 2017 hurricanes did not reduce the population of this beautiful bird any further across the region.
On Guadeloupe, the picture was not a cheerful one. In the previous two years, around 300 Semipalmated Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers were present on the shoreline of Anse-Bertrand. This year, a solitary Semipalmated Plover was counted. There have been fewer ducks in the past two years even before the storms, and the Guadeloupe National Park reported generally low numbers of waterbirds on Fajou Islet.
Rare bird for the Caribbean: a Whistling Heron, native to South America, has been spending the winter in Curacao. (photo by Michelle da Costa Gomez)
However, the picture was not all “gloom and doom.” There was no cause for disappointment in Bermuda. Unusually, three goose species were counted (Snow Goose, Brant Goose, and Canada Goose). Amongst 17 duck species, the highlights were the White-winged Scoter (only the sixth record for Bermuda), Black Scoter and Common Merganser. However, the headlines were stolen by the first ever record of a Northern Fulmar on 8th Jan and the arrival of about 1,000 Killdeer in the first week of January, as a result of Storm Grayson in the northeast US.
Spectacular sightings included the continued appearance of the rare Whistling Heron (first spotted on Curacao on December 13 2017). On January 17 at Blue Bay Curacao Golf & Beach Resort, a Willet, several Stilt Sandpipers and Short-billed Dowitchers, and 238 American Flamingos were seen at St. Michiel, a Ramsar site on February 3, displaying courtship behavior.
Participants in BirdsCaribbean’s January Bird Tour to Cuba conducted CWC counts at Las Salinas in Zapata Swamp and other wetland areas in Cuba. White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbills, White Pelicans, and numerous species of herons, egrets, seabirds, marsh birds, and shorebirds were recorded at different locations in the swamp. A special treat was a boat ride in Santo Tomas, a sawgrass marsh deep within the swamp, to find the endemic Zapata Wren and Zapata Sparrow – a few individuals of both species were seen and heard.
Several islands, including Jamaica and Bonaire, organized birdwatching trips as part of their recognition of World Wetlands Day. The Anguilla National Trust conducted its CWC activities on February 1, the day before, with a bird count at East End Pond Conservation Area and Mimi Bay Pond. At East Pond, despite a somewhat gloomy afternoon, the Anguilla team spotted a number of waterbirds, including the Great Blue Heron, Greater Yellowlegs and Black-bellied Plover.
Zapata Wren, endemic to the Zapata Swamp in Cuba, singing its heart out. (photo by Ernesto Reyes)
Since 2010, the CWC has provided critical insights into waterbirds’ stopover and wintering sites – large, small and sometimes unexpected – helping us to build a picture that informs conservation efforts and planning for future programs. We hope that counts later in the year and into 2019 can provide us with more fascinating discoveries that will help us to understand our changing habitats and the behavior of our endlessly intriguing waterbirds.
By Emma Lewis, Blogger, Writer, Online Activist, and member of BirdsCaribbean’s Media Working Group, based in Kingston, Jamaica. Follow Emma at Petchary’s Blog—Cries from Jamaica.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to our fantastic network of dedicated CWC participants! Your observations are adding to our knowledge of bird distribution and abundance in the Caribbean, especially important this year because of the hurricanes which impacted so many islands in the fall of 2017. Everyone, including visitors and residents, is encouraged to continue doing counts and entering your observations in eBird Caribbean. Participation is easy – learn more at this link.
American Flamingos courting in St. Michiel, a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance, in Curacao (photo by Michelle da Costa Gomez)The International Waterbird Census enters its 52nd year as one of the largest citizen science programmes in the world. Up to today, the census has counted 1.5 billion waterbirds in 50,000 sites in about 180 countries. Every blue dot on the map shows where volunteers have taken part in the International Waterbird Census in the years since 1967.
Additional photos from CWC activities are featured in the gallery below. Hover over each photo to see the caption; click on photos to see larger images and a slide show.
Birding expert Junior Prosper (Environmental Awareness Group) teaches his son how to use the spotting scope to view wetland birds in Antigua. (photo by Shanna Challenger)
1,000 Killdeer showed up in Bermuda after winter storm Grayson in the Northeastern U.S., January 2017. (photo by Andrew Dobson)
Sunset at Potworks Dam Reservoir – very low water levels this year (photo by Shanna Challenger)
A young birder, Jordan Lawrence, helping spot birds for the CWC count in Antigua (photo by Natalya Lawrence)
Boat ride in Santo Tomas, Zapata Swamp, Cuba to look for the endemic Zapata Wren and Zapata Sparrow. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
CWC participants in Antigua at McKinnon’s Pond. (photo by Shanna Challenger)
A rare wintering sea duck in Bermuda: White-winged Scoter. (photo by Andrew Dobson)
Half the population of Brown Pelicans disappeared in St. Maarten after Hurricane Irma. (photo by Sipke Stapert)
A flock of Willets and Short-billed Dowitchers take flight in Las Salinas mangroves, Zapata Swamp, Cuba (photo by Ernesto Reyes)
Yellow-throated Warbler—one of many migratory birds that has benefitted from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. (photo by Bill Hebner)
What year is it? Well, last time we checked, 2018 was already well under way. So, is there anything special about it?
Yes, for bird enthusiasts there is. The National Geographic magazine has declared 2018 the Year of the Bird, recognizing the centenary of the historic Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Over the years, this Act has extended its influence across the Americas, helping to save the lives of literally billions of birds.
Encompassing twelve months of storytelling, science research and conservation efforts, the Year of the Bird is a partnership between the National Audubon Society, National Geographic, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BirdLife International and dozens of other partners. Participants will examine how our changing environment is driving dramatic losses among bird species around the globe and highlight what we can do to help bring birds back.
Participating organizations include nonprofit and conservation groups, state and federal agencies, zoos, nature centers, and ornithological societies that are working together to raise the visibility of birds and inspire action (don’t forget the hashtags #BirdYourWorld and #YearoftheBird) throughout 2018. And BirdsCaribbean is a part of the project, too.
So, how do we in the region go about “birding our world” in 2018? What should we be doing to celebrate this special year?
Firstly, if you have not already done so, sign up at www.birdyourworld.org – not only for monthly updates, but for a Call to Action. For example, February was the month for the Great Backyard Bird Count – four days of tallying our bird observations and recording them on eBird, to give scientists a picture of what’s happening globally.
The month of March will focus on a topic that is dear to our hearts in the Caribbean: Native Plants for Birds.
Download a copy of our free eBook in English or Spanish to help you create a bird-friendly yard.
In post-hurricane islands in particular, this theme is especially appropriate. Our environment is changing, with particular challenges for our birds. By making sure that we grow native plants in our gardens and backyards, in containers and on verandahs, we are providing birds with the food and shelter they need – and helping them to adapt and survive. We can create a natural sanctuary for our birds.
BirdsCaribbean has already produced materials that will definitely help you to focus on native plants and birds during the month of March. Some visits to your local plant nursery may be necessary, or you may be able to propagate plants and trees that are in your neighborhood.
A very useful guide is our free eBook, Heritage Plants: Native Trees and Plants for Birds and People in the Caribbean. You can download this in English here, and it is also available in Spanish. This beautifully illustrated book focuses on both native and migratory birds in the Caribbean, and the plants and trees that attract them. For example, did you know that the slow-growing Lignum Vitae tree is a favorite of orioles, mockingbirds, tanagers, grackles and more; and that hummingbirds, bananaquits, and orioles are particularly fond of cactus flowers?
Another online resource is our free webinar, co-hosted in 2015 with the Bahamas National Trust, on bird-friendly gardening: Native Plants for a Bird-Friendly Yard. You can tune in here.
A Bee Hummingbird in Cubs perches in Firebush (Hamelia patens)—a beautiful native plant. The nectar and fruit are a favorite of hummingbirds, bananaquits, thrashers, tanagers and finches. (photo by Jessica Rozek)
“Birds and native plants are made for each other thanks to millions of years of evolution,” says Dr. John Rowden, Director of Community Conservation for the National Audubon Society, which has its own Plants for Birds online public database.
“With our changing climate and rising temperatures, there is an even greater need to nurture our beautiful birds,” commented BirdsCaribbean President Andrew Dobson. “Across the Caribbean, birds face many threats, including spreading urbanization, which is eating into bird habitats. So, let’s make the effort to focus on our native plants and trees – for the sake of the birds. They will feel right at home.”
By growing native plants, you can help protect birds while turning your home into a private wildlife paradise. It’s a “win-win,” for you and the birds.
By Emma Lewis, Blogger, Writer, Online Activist, and member of BirdsCaribbean’s Media Working Group, based in Kingston, Jamaica. Follow Emma at Petchary’s Blog—Cries from Jamaica.
It is a pleasure to announce the publication of the first issue of the Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Cuba by Nils Navarro Pacheco and Ernesto Reyes Mouriño (No 1, 2017). This publication will serve as an official list and platform for work in the field of ornithology within the Cuban archipelago, as well as keeping the ornithological community updated on changes in taxonomy, systematics and new additions to the bird list of Cuba.
