Despite the challenges of the year 2020, JCO’s Volume 33 includes 16 publications, 3 book reviews, and a review of the recent ornithological literature from the Caribbean. The volume includes articles on a diversity of topics and taxa from 11 island territories and one Caribbean basin continental site. The content is a credit to all of the authors, reviewers, and JCO staff who overcame the pandemic challenges to contribute to the publication effort in a timely fashion. We thank all involved in this effort for their contributions, which have advanced our knowledge of Caribbean birds in 2020.
Please take some time to enjoy all of Volume 33. We should all take pride in this work and make the time to congratulate each other on all of these accomplishments, especially during this challenging year. If you enjoyed reading a publication, please send the authors a quick email letting them know. That is what makes Caribbean ornithology special—a sense of community and comradery unlike anywhere else.
— Joseph M. Wunderle, Jr., JCO Editor-in-Chief, and Justin Proctor, JCO Managing Editor
P.S. More good news: we have a lot of great manuscripts at various stages in the pipeline right now, which means that V34 is already off to a strong start!
Map depicting research locations of the studies published in Volume 33.
Cristina Sainz-Borgo, Jhonathan Miranda, and Miguel Lentino
In Henri Pittier National Park, Venezuela, the low-lying Portachuelo Pass provides essential habitat for both resident and migratory bird species. Despite this, information about the composition of the bird community is scarce. In this study, Sainz-Borgo et al. survey and describe the species inhabiting Portachuelo Pass, highlighting key characteristics of the avifauna in this important ecosystem.
On 13 October, 2016, Hurricane Nicole made landfall over Bermuda. Mejias and Meijas acted quickly, utilizing the hurricane as an opportunity to document a species fallout event. Here, they present the results of their post-hurricane songbird surveys, documenting a significant fallout of Blackpoll Warblers and underscoring the importance of remote oceanic island refuges for fallout migrants.
While historically, Bermuda was home to lush, native, evergreen forests, human colonization in 1612 led to progressive habitat fragmentation and introduction of exotic trees. In this study, Mejías and Nol explore the impact of woodland size and vegetation features on species richness and bird abundance, specifically emphasizing the effects on White-eyed Vireos. Critically, they show that larger, less-fragmented woodlands are essential for supporting abundant and diverse bird communities.
Early accounts from the Bermuda Islands suggest the presence of myriad nesting tern species on the islands; however, only the Common Tern survived into the 20th century. Here, Wingate and Nisbet review both the historic and recent records of terns on Bermuda, shedding light on the prospect of restoration and species recolonization using modern conservation techniques.
Louise M. Soanes, Judy Pierce, Daniel Nellis, Susan Zaluski, and Lewis G. Halsey
Due to a severe decline in the North Atlantic Roseate Tern populations in the 1900s, countries worldwide initiated conservation plans. However, few studies have focused on the Caribbean population of Roseate Terns. Using three decades of survey data, Soanes et al. detail the abundance and distribution of Roseate Terns in the Virgin Islands, identifying key breeding sites, reporting a gradual population decline, and calling for further conservation and research efforts.
Though the Antillean Nighthawk is a relatively common species in the Caribbean, its migration routes and non-breeding location remain a mystery. In an effort to identify these locations, Perlut and Levesque attach a geolocator to a female Antillean Nighthawk, tracking and documenting her movements throughout a one-year period.
Antonio García-Quintas, Laritza González Leiva, and Ariandy González González
The second breeding record of Audubon’s Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri) and the fourth breeding record of Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), were detected in the Felipe de Sotavento and Barlovento cays of northern Ciego de Ávila, Cuba. These seabirds are uncommon in the country; so, new records of nests with eggs and chicks indicate the need for increased sampling in northern cays of the country. The studied cays are among the most important nesting sites for seabird colonies in Cuba in terms of number of species and breeding pairs.
An error was found in the García-Quintas et al. manuscript published earlier in this volume, in which the photographs of an egg and chick in Figure 2 represent Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii), not Common Tern (S. hirundo).
Adrianne G. Tossas, Osvaldo Rullán, Robert J. Mayer, and Jean P. González
Throughout the 20th century, Finca Nolla, a wetland on the northwestern coast of Puerto Rico, was severely disturbed by agricultural and industrial practices. However, in 2011, the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources purchased the land, designated it as a protected area, and began restoration activities. By thoroughly documenting the avifauna within Finca Nolla, Tossas et al. establish a baseline for future avian assessments and propose an upgrade of the conservation status to nature reserve.
Wayne A. Smart, Natalia Collier, and Virginie Rolland
Historically, overexploitation has contributed significantly to seabird population declines. Though protective laws have since been enacted, the extent of continued, illegal seabird harvest is unclear. Through their survey of the fishers and recreationists at the Fisheries Division office in Sauters, Grenada, Smart et al. shine a light on the persistence of seabird harvest in Grenada, highlight the sociodemographic factors that are associated with seabird harvest, and propose a possible community-based monitoring program. Photo
Fernando Simal, Adriana Vallarino, Elsmarie Beukenboom, Rutsel Paula, Henry Beaumont, George Zaragoza, Esther Wolfs, Patrick Holian, and Elisabeth Albers
After anecdotal reports suggested that the seabirds roosting on the northwestern coast of Bonaire had been reduced to less than 60 individuals, Simal et al. began to investigate. From 2008–2010, they conducted roost counts at seven sites in Washington-Slagbaai National Park. Here, they document substantially higher seabird counts than previously suggested, with a maximum of 240 Brown Boobies in July 2009.
Juliana Coffey, Natalia Collier, Vaughn Thomas, and Romould Compton
Though historically considered very rare in the West Indies, Lesser Black-backed Gulls have become fairly common non-breeding visitors to many Carribean islands, including most of the larger Lesser Antilles. Continuing this trend, here, Coffey et al. document the first records of Lesser Black-backed Gulls on both Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada.
Despite the rarity of Burrowing Owls on Abaco, The Bahamas, today, many Pleistocene Burrowing Owl fossils have been recovered from the island. Using skeletal measurements, Patel and Steadman compare these fossils to modern specimens from western North America, South America, and Florida. Their results shed light on possible morphological adaptations of the Abaco owls to the island’s biogeography.
Briana M. Yancy, Janine M. Antalffy, Michael G. Rowley, Cierra N. McKoy, Daniel C. Stonko, Lebron E. Rolle, Jennifer L. Christhilf, Scott B. Johnson, Shelley Cant-Woodside, and Kevin E. Omland
Building on the first documentation of Bahama Orioles nesting in pine forests on Abaco, The Bahamas, in this study, Yancy et al. further characterize these nest sites. By identifying specific habitat characteristics that are important for pine forest nests, this work not only enhances our understanding of Bahama Oriole nesting ecology, but also helps inform critical conservation efforts.
Ruby Bagwyn, Kylen Bao, Zuzana Burivalova, and David S. Wilcove
The widespread use of the citizen-science database eBird offers a unique opportunity to analyze trends in bird populations. Here, Bagwyn et al. use eight years of eBird sightings toidentify Bahamian bird populations that have recently gone unrecorded. Through this, they find 43 populations, representing 25 species, that are potentially declining or extinct, suggesting areas that should be of key conservation concern.
Qwahn D. Kent, Maia Edwards, Tim Wu, and André A. Dhondt
While other communal-nesting species show clear nest tree preferences, little is known about whether Palmchats prefer to nest in certain palm species over others. To investigate this gap, Kent et al. characterized Palmchat nest trees in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Overall, Palmchats nested more frequently in royal palms and Hispaniolan silver thatch palms compared with cana and coconut palms and in taller, thicker trees, regardless of tree species.
The author sets out to bring attention to an ongoing misidentification problem between Roseate Terns (Sterna dougallii) and Common Terns (S. hirundo) on their breeding grounds in the West Indies and Bahamas. Observers should pay special attention to: adult bill color and breeding plumage, clutch size, and characteristics of nestling down feathers as well as leg color.
Article by (1) Simon Campo – Editor for the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology and a Graduate Student at the University of California, Berkeley; Connect with Simon via LinkedIn or email; (2) Justin Proctor – Managing Editor for the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology; and (3) Joe Wunderle –Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology.
Journal of Caribbean Ornithology relies on donations to keep all of our publications free and open-access. If you’re interested in supporting our mission and the broader goal of giving a voice to Caribbean ornithologists and their work, please consider becoming a supporter of JCO. Thank you in advance!
Sales of music and merchandise by Shika Shika have raised just over U$30,000 so far
Since the launch of their “A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America, & the Caribbean” album Shika Shika have raised an amazing $30, 000 USD for bird conservation! The digital album and single tracks are available online as well as limited numbers of the vinyl album, posters, prints and t-shirts. Profits go to BirdsCaribbean and three other conservation organizations in Mexica, Central and South America.
It’s musical activism! Listen to the call of the endemic (and elusive) Jamaican Blackbird with a hypnotic beat. The Zapata Wren of Cuba sings sweetly, accompanied by delicate electronic notes. The Keel-billed Motmot of Central America emerges from behind gentle rhythms. The cries of Mexico’s Thick-billed Parrot blend with a finger snapping background.
These are some of the exciting tracks on the album, A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Released online in June by Shika Shika, sales of the music and merchandise have raised just over U$30,000 to date, the non-profit label announced. Profits will go to BirdsCaribbean as well as three other bird conservation organizations in Mexica, Central and South America.
A limited number of these vinyl records are available from Shika Shika
A unique fusion of music and birdsong with a purpose, the ten-track electronic music album, incorporating the songs and calls of endangered birds, is still available, along with vibrant and attractive merchandise. Single tracks, the full digital album, limited numbers of the vinyl edition as well as limited edition posters, prints and T-shirts with the album’s colourful artwork, can be purchased on the Shika Shika website and Shika-Shika’s Bandcamp website.
In celebration of this fund-raising milestone, Shika Shika has produced a podcast in English and Spanish, The podcast includes interviews with the directors of the four non-profit organizations it has partnered with to produce this musical gem. BirdsCaribbean Executive Directer, Lisa Sorenson, and the others explain how the funds will help in their conservation efforts.
“We are delighted to learn that the album is such a success, and we are extremely grateful for the partnership with Shika Shika and the funds raised so far. We encourage music lovers and bird lovers to continue to purchase this wonderful music for gifts or for themselves, in support of our birds,” said BirdsCaribbean’s Executive Director Lisa Sorenson. “All these bird species, many of them forest dwellers, are threatened by development and the destruction of their habitats. BirdsCaribbean is committed to working with local partners for the conservation of habitats for birds such as the highly endangered Bay-breasted Cuckoo of Hispaniola, one of the birds featured on this album.”
Zapata Wren and Jamaican Blackbird designs
The project is the brainchild of Robin Perkins, also known as El Búho (“The Owl”) , a UK-born musician music producer, and environmental campaigner. It is a follow-up to A Guide to the Birdsong of South America, released in 2015. Perkins first researched the most endangered birds in various countries and then invited locally based electronic DJs and composers to produce one track each featuring the song of a particular bird. The contributors include some who are passionate birders themselves, like the Belizean guitarist and manager of the well-known indigenous group Garifuna Collective, whose song features the Black Catbird.
Listen to the album, learn more about the project and artists, and shop here and Here. You can also listen and buy using the links below.
T-shirts with the album artwork are available for sale.
Radio spots about the album on various BBC World Service programmes. Here are the links to listen:
BirdsCaribbean is deeply concerned about the proposed changes to the United States Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). The rule changes will significantly increase the hazard levels for our migratory birds. We are asking you to please take action by signing and sharing the petitions below as soon as possible & by December the 27th at the latest!
Prairie Warbler numbers have declined in recent years due to loss of their preferred habitats. Along with many other migratory birds, they also face threats such as collisions with glass and predation from free-roaming cats. (Photo by Beth Hamel)
BirdsCaribbean, the largest non-governmental conservation organization in the Caribbean, is registering its strong opposition to proposed changes to rules governing the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). In its Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Regulations Governing the Take of Migratory Birds dated November 2020, the U.S. Department of the Interior claims that the new regulation “would provide legal certainty for the public regarding what actions are prohibited under the MBTA.” In effect, however, it would reduce liability for the accidental “take” of migratory birds by corporate entities such as oil and gas companies, construction firms and the like.
“We are deeply concerned by the persistent efforts to undermine the MBTA, which has protected our birds for well for over a century,” said Executive Director of BirdsCaribbean, Lisa Sorenson. “Many of the 350 migratory bird species that breed in North America and winter further south are already endangered. This proposed action is another setback for the many international conservation organizations such as ours that are working diligently together to protect these species. Scientists, researchers, and governments across the region have been collaborating to create networks such as the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network that are critical to the birds’ survival.”
Red Knots breed in the far north, in the Arctic & can spend the winter as far south as the southern most tip of South America. This means they make some amazing migratory journeys of tens of thousands of miles overall. Red Knots gather in large groups in some places during autumn and winter; this makes them vulnerable to threats like sea-level rise and hunting, their population is currently declining. (Photo by Matt Grube)
BirdsCaribbean believes that these rule changes will significantly increase the hazard levels for the birds themselves. Migratory birds already have to contend with numerous obstacles, including the growing impacts of climate change and a spectrum of human activities that damage their habitats and cause their deaths, such as oil spills and collisions with infrastructure. They must be protected throughout their annual cycles, including where they breed, overwinter, and stop to refuel during their remarkable journeys.
“Migratory birds are the life and soul of the Americas,” noted Sorenson. “Not only do migratory birds bring diversity and an irreplaceable balance to our ecosystems, they bring happiness to individuals and communities across the region, who look forward to their arrival each year. Whether tiny warblers, birds of prey, or shorebirds, migratory birds are embedded in the cultures—and oftentimes livelihoods—of all the countries they visit. Every year on World Migratory Bird Day we celebrate their unique qualities and recognize the amazing natural phenomenon which is migration, about which there is still so much to learn.”
This is not the first attempt that the U.S. Department of the Interior has attempted to weaken the MBTA rule. The proposed efforts have already been rejected by a federal district court back in December of 2017. However, if successful this time, this change will add to more than 125 environmental policies that have been undermined by the Trump administration, causing untold harm to the environment and bird habitats.
How You Can Help
The Bicknell’s Thrush population is small and numbers are declining. Classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, it is considered one of North America’s most at-risk breeding songbirds. They migrate through North America and spend the winter on only four Greater Antillean islands – Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. (Photo by Dax Roman)
Please sign and share the action alerts/ petitions below, which will let your state representatives know that you do not agree with weakening the MBTA. (note – you need to be a US resident to participate in the action alerts).
Osprey catching a fish. This species was endangered by the effects of pesticides in the mid-20th century. It relies on wetlands for it food during migration, as well as its breeding habitat. (Photo by Bernie Duhamel)
Join Adam Brown as he takes us on a trip to Haiti, to the remote mountain village of Boukan Chat. This village and the people who live there are the focus of conservation efforts to save the elusive and endangered Black-capped Petrel. Find out more about village life and how sustainable agriculture has been helping both the people and the petrels.
The village of Boukan Chat, Haiti is a one-dirt road, dusty small village on the frontier of the Haitian border with the Dominican Republic. To get there from the capital city of Port au Prince is a 6-hour driving adventure that takes you from paved roads, to dirt roads, to riverbeds, and finally up a steep climb to the remote mountain outpost.
EPIC research team driving from Port au Prince to Boukan Chat, Haiti (Photo by SoulCraft)
Life in the Village of Boukan Chat
With an average income of around $5/day, the residents of Boukan Chat all live in small and simple houses, constructed of concrete blocks with sheet metal roofing that is weighted down on the structure with assorted rocks. There is no power in the village, however, there is a single solar powered streetlight, which is a popular hangout for people after dark.
Everybody in the village is a farmer, from the moms and dads, to the grandparents, to the kids, to the babies on their parents’ (or siblings!) back. The food the people of Boukan Chat eat, is the food they grow. Farm plots range from backyard gardens at residents’ houses in the village to expansive multi-acre farms up in the hills behind town. The local farmers market is on Tuesdays, and as you can imagine, the whole village turns out for the weekly event.
Farmers market day in Boukan Chat, Haiti (Photo by EPIC)
There is no running water in or around the village. During the rainy season, residents capture and store water in cisterns, but in the dry season, they must travel up to 10 miles by foot, horse, or motorbike to collect their water from a community pump.
Petrel team member Jose Luis, painting a Black-capped Petrel mural on a cistern in Boukan Chat, Haiti (Photo by EPIC)
There are schools in the village, all of which are private. Often, what this means is that a single teacher in a one-classroom building teaches a mixed-age class of youth, ranging from kindergarten to high school. The classes meet for a couple hours each day, except in the summer – unless the weather is too severe, or a large farm harvest is taking place.
The village is represented in the regional men’s soccer league by an incredibly competitive group of local young men. Games on the weekend are highlights for the whole village and hundreds of people show up to the soccer field, one of the only flat spots in the whole village, to cheer the local squad on.
Two members of the Boukan Chat soccer team (Photo by SoulCraft)
The Search for the Black-capped Petrel Begins
The Black-capped Petrel is an endangered seabird that nests in the Caribbean region. Its local name is Diablotín, which means ‘little devil’, a name likely arising from supernatural beliefs associated with the species’ habit of calling in the dark of night. Currently, the only known nesting colonies are on the island of Hispaniola, although recent evidence suggests that there might also be a small colony on the island of Dominica. With an estimated global population of between 1,000-2,000 nesting pairs, the species is endangered due to habitat loss, threats by introduced predators, and collision hazards along its flight pathways.
Adult Black-capped Petrel sitting on its nest near Boukan Chat, Haiti (Photo by SoulCraft)
In 2011, the team from EPIC’s partner foundation, Grupo Jaragua, led by Ernst Rupp and consisting of an intrepid group of young field assistants, crossed the border from the Dominican Republic into Haiti and began searching for nesting endangered Black-capped Petrels on the slopes just above Boukan Chat. The team knew little of the village of Boukan Chat but were driven to search these hills, known as Morne Vincent, as they contained some of the last forested areas in Haiti and therefore were likely home to nesting petrels. That year, on that first mission to this area, the team discovered the first known active Black-capped Petrel nests ever recorded.
Petrel team member Perrin using a camera to investigate a Black-capped Petrel nest near Boukan Chat, Haiti (Photo by SoulCraft)
The Forests and the Farmers
The nesting colony on the forested slopes of Morne Vincent are immediately adjacent to the farming areas of Boukan Chat. These forests and slopes serve as a natural water catchment for the agricultural areas. While surveying on Morne Vincent, the petrel team made introductions with the farmers in the village. Realizing that preserving the forests of this area was crucial to conserving petrel habitat, the team from Grupo Jaragua, along with its partners from EPIC, JACSEH, SoulCraft, and Plant with Purpose endeavored to work alongside these farmers to conserve petrel habitat through sustainable agriculture, increased youth environmental education programming, and improved community savings programs that increase economic resiliency in the face of natural disasters (or a global pandemic!)
The evolution of our Black-capped Petrel conservation initiatives in Boukan Chat and the immediate impact they made on preserving local populations of the petrel, have made it the flagship program of the overall effort to preserve the petrel. With the idea of conserving the petrel through poverty alleviation, our initiatives penetrated most aspects of the Boukan Chat community.
Sustainable Agriculture in Action in Boukan Chat
As part of our sustainable agriculture program in Boukan Chat, we supported the creation of 22 Village Savings Farm Groups, made up of 2,600 people from 409 family farms. Within this program, we do classroom lessons that explain the theory behind sustainable agriculture. Specifically, farmers learned how improved human land use and crop management leads to higher yields, less soil erosion, and increased family incomes. In the field with the farmers, we have together created 520 compost piles, controlled 1,200 linear meters of gullies, installed 6,750 linear meters of anti-erosive barriers, and replaced 96 gallons of chemical pesticides with natural pesticides. Annually, the farm groups together save about $56,280. What do all these numbers mean for the Black-capped Petrel? Less stress on the human communities and reduced encroachment into the last remaining forested nesting habitat of the petrel.
Farmers in Boukan Chat, Haiti working together to build a soil erosion barrier (Photo by Plant with Purpose)
As part of our youth environmental education program, we annually reach 3,600 students in Boukan Chat. Our programs focus on basic environmental themes such as soil and water conservation, the role of plants in the environment, and environmental stewardship in the community. With an eye towards the future, realizing that the youth of the community today will be the farmers of the community tomorrow, we are setting the foundation towards continued sustainable agricultural practices moving forward.
Petrel team members Jose Luis, Rene Jene, and Anderson Jean teaching a class on petrel biology to a school in Boukan Chat, Haiti (Photo by EPIC)
The Black-capped Petrel: A Village Icon
Along with the community, we celebrate the collaboration and commitment that we have made together to improve lives of both humans and petrels. We do this through sponsoring the local soccer team, who in turn wear a patch of the petrel on their soccer jerseys. We hire local artists to paint iconic images of the petrel on cisterns in the village. Annually, as part of the Black-capped Petrel Festival, we march together through the village, led by the Black-capped Petrel mascot and the local carnival band, and celebrate our successes together.
Black-capped Petrel mascot leading the parade for the Diablotin Festival in Boukan Chat, Haiti (Photo by EPIC)
The conservation of the imperiled Black-capped Petrel is about the long game. While we measure our success in short term impacts, true lasting success and firm conservation of the Black-capped Petrel will take decades to implement. Its about buy in with human communities that live among nesting petrels and supporting the improvement of those human lives so that those humans, in turn, are able to make the choice to both support their families at the same time as preserving the petrel. While we have had great success since the first nest was found in 2011, we look forward to the challenges that lay ahead.
This project is funded in part by the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund (BirdsCaribbean), the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the American Bird Conservancy, and numerous individual donors.
ADAM BROWN is a Senior Biologist with Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC). Adam oversees EPIC’s Black-capped Petrel Conservation Program and has been an active member of the International Black-capped Petrel Conservation Group since 2011. Adam has pioneered the use of radar to track Black-capped Petrels to their nesting colonies on Hispaniola, has led expeditions to locate petrels on islands throughout the Caribbean, and is a strong advocate of collaboration among petrel conservation organizations within the Caribbean region.
find out more about this project and the Black-capped petrel working group here & Here and in the wonderful Videos and articles below!
Rhiannon and Yvan from our Seabird Working Group recently had the chance to catch up with Juliana Coffey, one of the main seabird biologists working with the seabird populations and local communities in St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada, to hear about her recent seabird-related activities!
Juliana Coffey is leading EPIC’s seabird program in the Grenadines.
BC: How did you get involved with seabirds in general, and what is your experience with seabirds?
Juliana: I am originally from the island of Newfoundland, off of northeastern Canada. Newfoundland and its surrounding areas are home to millions of breeding seabirds, and our offshore waters are known as a “busy marine bird highway”. So, seabirds are a core part of our natural and cultural heritage: our fisherfolk have their own local names, folklore, superstitions, and knowledge of seabirds acquired over generations at sea.
I first became involved with seabirds when I was 16 through a summer internship at the local university. I was working as a field assistant for a well-known marine ornithologist who exposed me to seabird research and conservation. This was my first taste of field work, and first experience working directly with fisherfolk and indigenous communities on seabird issues. Over the next 20 years, I built up a significant amount of sea-time, including pelagic trips in the Atlantic, Arctic, Indian and Southern Oceans, and have lived at sea or in a tent for months at a time. I have been involved in various types of seabird research, including studies on satellite telemetry, marine debris, nest shelter construction, traditional knowledge collection, as well as outreach activities. Most of these activities have focused on seabirds in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
BC: Can you tell us about the Grenadines and how you ended up working with seabirds there?
Juliana: The Grenadines Island chain consists of about 80 islands, islets and cays spanning approximately 100 kilometers. We refer to this region as “transboundary” since these islands are politically divided between the nations of Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Despite there being numerous islands, only nine are inhabited.
The Grenadines archipelago consists of more than 80 islands, islets and cays which host globally and regionally significant seabird populations (Photo by J. James)
I first came to the Grenadines in 2011 through an internship at the Sustainable Grenadines organization on Union Island, where my work involved conducting bird surveys for the Caribbean Waterbird Census. Through this role, I started to become more familiar with Caribbean seabirds, as well as migrant species from North America. It was interesting to see the same species I recognised from my work further north, and to realize how far they travel on a yearly basis!
BC: You co-authored a book on Grenadines’ birds. Can you describe that project and explain how you incorporated local knowledge?
Birds of the Transboundary Grenadines Book (Coffey and Ollivierre 2019)
Juliana: In most of my prior work elsewhere, I always had a field guide to consult when I was challenged with identifying a bird, or wanted to know its habitat or range. Nothing of that sort existed at the time specifically for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines or Grenada. Because I had no idea what a mammoth task writing a field guide would be, I naïvely decided to initiate what ended up being quite a consuming project. Luckily, my co-author Aly Ollivierre (BirdsCaribbean) got involved very early on, and we were able to motivate each other through the process. We finally released the book last year.
Collecting local ecological knowledge of birds from residents of the Grenadines (Photo by A. Ollivierre)
I had spent many years working in the Canadian north on Inuit lands, where traditional knowledge and experience is valued, especially with regards to resource management issues, and I had worked on many projects that utilised this undocumented knowledge. When I began the bird book for the Grenadines, I wanted to gather as much information as possible. I was keen to gather local knowledge, local names, folklore and cultural appreciation of birds in the Grenadines and to include it in the book. The aim was to create a final product that would be of interest to the local communities and build a bridge between culture and conservation. The most rewarding part of this project was returning to the Grenadines with printed copies and showing individuals how their knowledge had been represented. This was an opportunity to preserve and promote this piece of heritage for future generations.
BC: You are now working as a Project Coordinator for Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC). Can you tell us how you became involved with EPIC and more about your role?
Brown Boobies at Lee Rock, Grenada (Photo by J. Coffey)
Juliana: I first became interested in EPIC when I learned of their monumental efforts to survey all the seabird breeding colonies throughout the Lesser Antilles between 2009-2010. These surveys documented three sites of global importance and 18 of regional significance, on remote and inaccessible islands in the Grenadines island chain. Prior to this, little was known about breeding seabirds on these islands. EPIC’s surveys put this archipelago on the map as one of the top breeding seabird hotspots in the region! Twelve seabird species breed on these islands and over thirty more species have been recorded. However, many of these populations are threatened by human activities such as illegal harvesting, the presence of rats, cats and goats, periodic vegetation control fires in colonies, and coastal development.
Magnificent Frigatebird colony on Battowia (Photo by J. Coffey)
I first became involved with EPIC as an Associate in 2017, and have been working as their Project Coordinator for the Grenadines program for the past two years. My role with EPIC includes a wide range of tasks, including fieldwork, training, and coordinating local citizen scientists, grant and report writing, and advocacy and outreach. My work involves enhancing awareness of threatened seabirds in the region in general, and promoting their protection locally and internationally. I work closely with the project team, including Natalia Collier (Program Director), Lystra Culzac (Lead Educator), and Quincy Augustine (Project Assistant).
BC: EPIC recently compiled a conservation plan for seabirds of the Grenadines. Please tell us more about this and how it developed?
Grenadines Seabird Management Plan
Juliana: The community-based conservation management plan was developed through stakeholder consultation throughout both nations. It draws together all available information on seabirds from these remote islands. The twelve breeding species were each given a profile including information on population size, their breeding distribution, and the timing of their annual cycles. The document also includes an overview of what threats exist on particular islands and throughout the region; the legal context for protection; human values for seabirds; information on what other endangered and endemic species are found on the islands; and finally, recommendations for future research and management. This is the first time much of this information has been presented side-by-side, and we hope that it can be used as a planning document for seabirds and island conservation in the Grenadines going forward.
Community consultations on Mustique (Photo by V. Thomas)
BC: Can you tell us more about your involvement in the training of citizen scientists?
Grenadines Seabird Guardians surveying seabirds at Grenadines’ islands (Photo by A. Ollivierre)
Juliana: Many of the breeding colonies in the Grenadines are remote and difficult to access. As there are over 80 islands and cays in the Grenadines, enforcement and monitoring is incredibly complicated and often not feasible due to the high costs and human input required. Nevertheless, many of these uninhabited islands are visited regularly by fisherfolk, tour operators and recreationists from nearby inhabited islands. We wanted to develop a program that could address the challenges of research and monitoring while increasing local awareness and involvement.
Grenadines Seabird Guardians surveying seabirds at Grenadines’ islands (Photo by J. Coffey)
Over the course of several years, through group and one-on-one trainings, we have formed a dedicated team of citizen scientists called the “Grenadines Seabird Guardians”. Members of this group visit seabird colonies and collect population estimates, as well as information on threats. I provide ongoing support to the Guardians on seabird identification and maintain a central database of observations. Communication within the group is primarily through WhatsApp where members can share their observations and provide support to one another. Some of the Guardians were recently involved in cleanups at offshore islands which host nesting seabirds, but which have not previously been the focus on conservation efforts.
BC: What kind of specific information are the Guardians reporting?
Juliana: Despite all the complications that Covid-19 restrictions have caused in 2020, this has actually been our best year for receiving reports from the Guardians. Anyone involved with seabird research would probably agree that studying seabirds is a great way to self-isolate! This year, we have received reports of seabird egg and chick harvesting, a threat previously identified by EPIC as one of the most pressing for seabirds in this region. We are also receiving reports of introduced mammal sightings, marine litter, vegetation control fires and human disturbance. Through this program, we have also documented rare sightings of seabirds such as Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The work is therefore enhancing our knowledge of how the region is used by non-breeding resident and migratory seabirds. In 2019, we also documented a thriving Magnificent Frigatebird colony on one of the islands. This turned out to be one of only four in the Lesser Antilles, and the only one known from the southern islands!
Threats in the Grenadines: Disturbance (Photo by J. Coffey)
Threats in the Grenadines: Harvesting (Anonymous)
Threats in the Grenadines: Introduced species (Photo by J. Coffey)
BC: There seem to be many human-induced threats in the Grenadines. What work is being done in terms of outreach and education?
Community outreach (Photo by L. Culzac)
Juliana: Because many of the threats are related to human activities, we are strategically making efforts to show people how important seabirds are to their culture and livelihoods in the Grenadines. Fisherfolk for example use seabirds to find fish, navigate and understand weather patterns. They have superstitions concerning certain species. For example, storm petrels are believed to indicate that bad weather is coming! Seabird guano fertilizes coral reefs and nearshore habitats adjacent to their colonies, which in turn benefits fisheries and tourism. Seabirds in many other areas have actually become viable ecotourism attractions, which is something we want to promote as an option for supplemental or alternative livelihoods in this heavily tourism-dependent region.
Wildlife Reserve sign installation (Photo by J. Coffey)
To reach the various groups involved in management, including the general public, we have designed a multi-faceted education program, targeting various age groups and sectors. Lystra Culzac, our Lead Educator, conducts school and community presentations and has recently drafted a school curriculum that we are aiming to integrate into the school systems in both nations. We have also recently launched a Waste-to-Art contest open to residents of Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Earlier in 2020 we released a mini-documentary which is intended to reach a wide audience, and we also issue monthly press releases to local and regional media. We have also designed and distributed posters and brochures concerning seabirds. We conducted an updated “harvest study” to determine the extent that seabird chick and egg consumption is still practiced. We also installed “Wildlife Reserve” signs on two major colonies with the help of several fisherfolk from Carriacou and Bequia. This was a nice transboundary collaboration between fisherfolk coming together for seabird protection.
School seabird presentations (Photo by L. Culzac)
Unfortunately, many islands in the Grenadines are privately owned, and listed on the international Real Estate market. A major hotel and resort development was recently announced for one of the regionally important colonies. Education and awareness can help to mitigate threats from human activity, but if the island is sold to a developer the seabird colonies can quickly disappear. We are working hard to ensure that this doesn’t happen.
BC: What other activities is EPIC hoping to undertake going forward?
EPIC and local partners have targeted islands with seabird colonies for marine litter removal (Photo D. Baker)
We are using the recent Conservation Plan as a guide for the activities that we undertake. We have recently added several other types of data collection to our citizen science program, which can easily be undertaken by the seabird guardians with minimal training. These include enhanced invasive species surveys using camera traps and tracking tunnels, assessments of the quantity of plastics in seabird nests and feather collection from seabird carcasses for heavy metal analysis. We are hoping to train others in the use of drones and other remote monitoring tools, given that the area is incredibly difficult and expensive to access. It is now over ten years since the last population census, so we are planning to conduct new surveys to allow a better idea of population trends. We also plan to do some telemetry work in the near future, in order to gauge the at-sea movements of some species while away from their colonies, and assess how much seabirds move back and forth between nations when searching for food. This work will hopefully promote the reality that seabirds are a shared resource. To successfully preserve them in areas such as the Lesser Antilles requires management cooperation from multiple nations.
EPIC and local partners have targeted islands with seabird colonies for marine litter removal (Photo by D. Baker)
One of the core items in the Conservation Plan is the formation of a transboundary wildlife working group, focused on seabirds, who met virtually for the first time in early November. This group consists of various stakeholders from both nations, such as fisherfolk, forestry officers, NGOs, tour operators and biologists. This group was put together to begin implementing priorities from the Conservation Plan, and to continue the momentum of participatory management.
We also recently undertook several beach clean-ups at known seabird colonies; this is the first time that these islands have received any attention for litter removal. We hope that these activities will ensure that seabirds have a safe place to nest and rear their young. As litter keeps arriving on these shores from both local and distant sources, we hope to continue these clean-ups during our regular seabird surveys.
BC: What is your favorite part of your work in the region?
Project Assistant Quincy Augustine and Wildlife Biologist Wayne Smart lead a team of Grenadian biologists conducting seabird surveys at Diamond Rock (Photo by Q. Augustine)
Juliana: Just as seabirds unite air, land and sea, we have been able to unite people in both nations (and beyond), through seabirds. With our Seabird Guardians program, it has been wonderful to see individuals take leadership roles, and also to deploy multi-disciplinary teams that are able to learn from each other. This has enabled us to discover much along the way, such as the Magnificent Frigatebird colony on Battowia. Such discoveries highlight the need to take swift conservation action in the region.
The small and seemingly insignificant moments are really the most memorable. For example, during a fisherfolk consultation last year, one younger fisherman expressed a lot of interest in learning more about seabirds, as he was aware that it could make him a more successful fisherman. Cases such as this provide positive feedback that our discussions with community members are having an impact, and that individuals are able to find links to their own livelihoods about why seabirds matter. I suppose my favorite part overall is that, despite populations in the Grenadines being highly threatened, the seabird colonies are still quite remarkable. This is really at the core of why we do that we do, and to speak up for these seabirds who cannot advocate for themselves.
We thank Juliana and the team at EPIC for their efforts on seabird conservation in the Grenadines, and look forward to hearing more about EPIC’s activities in the future. For more information on the work that EPIC does, please visit the organization’s website at www.epicislands.org or follow its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/epicislands
Grenadines Seabird Guardian Vaughn Thomas conducting a seabird survey (Photo by J. Coffey)
Brown Noddy and chick in the Tobago Cays Marine Park (Photo by J. Coffey)
Brown Noddies incorporating marine litter into nest construction (Photo by J. Coffey)
International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) at Mabouya Island with local partners Ocean Spirits and Kipaji Inc. (Photo by V. Thomas)
Veterinarian Dr. Kenrith Carter (Grenada) generously assists with injured seabird rehabilitation (Photo by K. Charles)
Petit Canouan (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) hosts more than 40,000 pairs of Sooty Terns (J. Coffey)
Goat presence at globally and regionally important seabird colonies (Photo by J. Coffey)
Project Assistant Quincy Augustine and Wildlife Biologist Wayne Smart lead a team of Grenadian biologists conducting seabird surveys at Diamond Rock (Photo by Q. Augustine)
Grenadian biologists conducting a seabird survey at Diamond Rock (Photo by A. Mitchell)
“Birds of the Transboundary Grenadines” authors presenting a book to Mayreau fisherman Philman Ollivierre (Photo by V. Ollivierre)
Brown Noddies incorporating marine litter into nest construction (Photo by J. Coffey)
Kate Charles (Ocean Spirits) coordinating a clean up at a seabird colony (Sandy Island), Grenada (Photo by K. Drew)
School presentation on Petite Martinique (Photo by V. Thomas)
Wildlife Reserve sign installed on Battowia, a globally important seabird nesting island (Photo by V. Thomas)
Laughing Gull and Grenadines Pink Rhino Iguana endemic subspecies (Photo by J. Coffey)
Lystra Culzac conducting community outreach on Grenadines’ seabirds (Photo by EPIC)
Lystra Culzac conducting a school presentation on seabirds (Photo by EPIC)
Magnificent Frigatebirds nesting at Battowia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Photo by J. Coffey)
Brown Pelicans are present in the Grenadines in abundance during non-breeding season (Photo by J. Coffey)
Dr. Kenrith Carter conducting a necropsy on a Laughing Gull, assisted by Kate Charles (Ocean Spirits) and Vaughn Francis (Tropical Adventures) (Photo by V. Thomas)
Marine litter at seabird colonies (Photo J. Coffey)
Red-billed Tropicbird on nest (Photo by J. Coffey)
Red-billed Tropicbird chick (Photo by J. Coffey)
Red-footed Boobies nest in globally important numbers at sites in the Grenadines (Photo by J. Coffey)
Grenadines Seabird Guardian conducting a seabird survey (Photo by J. Coffey)
Grenadines Seabird Guardian citizen scientists (Photo by A. Ollivierre)
The Grenadines archipelago provides important habitat for non-resident and migratory seabirds (Photo by J. Coffey)
Field training trip with Grenadines Seabird Guardians (Photo J. Coffey)
EPIC and local partners have targeted islands with seabird colonies for marine litter removal (Photo by D. Baker)
EPIC and local partners have targeted islands with seabird colonies for marine litter removal (Photo D. Baker)
Lystra Culzac and team conducting community outreach on Saint Vincent (Photo by EPIC)
Local field team member preparing to climb into a Ridgway’s Hawk nest (Photo by Eladio Fernandez)
For almost everyone 2020 has been a year of challenges and unexpected changes. The onset of COVID-19 has required all of us to adapt in unforeseen ways. For those working on the Ridgway’s Hawk Conservation Project in Dominican Republic, it has been a year full of surprises, compromises and hope. Find out from Marta Curti what has happened with Ridgway’s Hawk and efforts to promote its conservation in the DR since COVID hit.
Over the past ten years, The Peregrine Fund has invested heavily in recruiting, hiring and training a local team of dedicated, hard-working and passionate parabiologists – local community members who assist conservationists working in the field. We believe our conservation projects can only be successful when they have the support, cooperation and involvement of local people. We believe in this so strongly that a major goal is to build sustainability by eventually having it managed entirely by locals. In a normal year we rely a great deal on our in-country staff, but 2020 put them to the test. They took up the challenge. Even though neither our project manager, Thomas Hayes, nor I were able to travel to Dominican Republic during 2020, our teams on the ground kept working despite the pandemic. Remarkably, they have achieved most of the project objectives to date.
The Most Successful Breeding Year
In 2009, we began a Ridgway’s Hawk reintroduction program in Punta Cana. Prior to that, hawks had not been documented in the area for decades. Thanks to this program, we observed the first successful breeding attempt in 2013, when a young male hatched and fledged from a wild nest. Each year thereafter, the population has been growing steadily. We are very happy to report that 2020 has been the most successful nesting season in Punta Cana to date! During this breeding season, our team monitored 18 pairs of Ridgway’s Hawks, 17 of which made nesting attempts. A whopping 21 nestlings successfully fledged, and our crew was able to band 18 of them. Placing bands on young birds is a way for us to monitor the survival of the fledglings and their dispersal patterns.
Some Hitches and Delays
While our field work continued quite smoothly, we had to postpone a few important activities due to COVID-19. First, we postponed releasing any additional young hawks at our second reintroduction site (Aniana Vargas National Park) until 2021. Despite this setback, our team continued to monitor the hawks we had released there in 2019. While it did not observe any successful breeding attempts this season, a few bonded pairs and some nest building activity were reported!
Adapting to the Pandemic with Online Education
Ridgway’s Hawk adult (photo by John Hannan)
Our education and community outreach programs were negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We were unable to conduct face-to-face education outreach for most of 2020, and we had to postpone our pilot education campaign which had been scheduled for June.
This is disappointing after such great success in 2019 where, in October alone, we had reached 1,600 adults and children through our environmental outreach program. We were also unable to build on 2019’s outreach momentum. We had distributed 10 chicken coops, held 3 workshops (reaching 34 people, 19 of which were teachers) and visited 18 communities and 4 schools. However, islanders and conservationists are always willing and able to adapt to adverse situations. Although we could not engage in any live Ridgway’s Hawk Day activities this year, we hosted an online presentation followed by a question and answer session with members of our field teams in Los Limones and Punta Cana. We had 17 participants for this event.
An Exciting New Education Guide Goes Bilingual
Children from Santo Domingo spent a morning learning about birds of prey and engaging in art activities related to the Critically Endangered Ridgway’s Hawk (Photo by ZOODOM)
We designed and printed new bilingual education materials (in Spanish and Haitian Creole). We provided some of these materials to our counterparts in Haiti for their community education activities. We continue to work on the text and design of our raptor-based environmental education guide, which we originally planned to distribute only in the Dominican Republic. The scope of the guide has now grown, and it will be made available to educators throughout the Caribbean, available in English, Haitian, and Creole Spanish.
Happily, last month, we were able to begin face-to-face educational programs on a limited basis. Partnering with the local platform ZOODOM, we worked with 12 children and 8 adults. They saw a live Red-tailed Hawk and Ashy-faced Owl and then received a short presentation on the Ridgway’s Hawk. Afterwards, the children colored a picture of the Ridgway’s Hawk.
The COVID Experience Has Taught Resilience
As we look to 2021, a great deal of uncertainty remains regarding travel and our ability to carry out face-to-face programs. Our main concern is the safety of our teams and the people in the communities where we work. However, what 2020 has taught us is that we are resilient and so is the Ridgway’s Hawk. Despite the pandemic, this year’s results and the efforts of our team truly give us hope that our project’s sustainability goals are achievable. The long-term protection of this Critically Endangered raptor is also making progress, before our very eyes. We want to thank the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund and all its supporters for making this work possible. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, please rest assured that we will carry on the work and the dream of community-based conservation.
Children from Santo Domingo spent a morning learning about birds of prey and engaging in art activities related to the Critically Endangered Ridgway’s Hawk (Photo by ZOODOM)
Gabriela Diaz, a biologist and environmental education with the The Peregrine Fund, works with children from Santo Domingo to teach them about birds of prey and the Critically Endangered Ridgway’s Hawk (Photo ZOODOM).
Coloring in a Ridgway’s Hawk (Photo by ZOODOM)
Find out more about the work of The Peregrine Fund to save this critically endangered raptor and read past updates from the project here:
The White-breasted Thrasher (Ramphocinclus brachyurus) is an Endangered songbird with an extremely small and increasingly fragmented range. Over 80% of the global population is found in Saint Lucia, most of it within the Mandelé range, which is considered the stronghold for the species at about 1,000 adults. (the remaining 20% is in Martinique). Bela Barata, Field Programme Officer with Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, takes us into the field to find and study this elusive bird.
A pair of White-breasted Thrashers in the wild (Photo by Robert Curry, 2007)
On a sunny February morning, beneath the canopy of dry scrub forest along the central East Coast of Saint Lucia, staff of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Saint Lucia National Trust and the Division of Forestry prepared to complete the day’s task: checking camera traps in White-breasted Thrasher territory. One factor that limits reproductive success of this bird is nest predation by native predators such as the Saint Lucia boa constrictor and non-native predators such as rats, cats, and mongoose. The team had recently installed a network of camera traps, which take photos when trigged by motion, across the Mandelé range to get an indication of potential predator abundance in the area. These cameras were being monitored on a regular basis by Durrell and our partners.
Saphira Prepares to Meet the Thrasher
This assignment would turn out to be a great occasion for Saphira Hunt, Conservation Assistant at the Saint Lucia National Trust and Durrell’s Project Officer. Saphira has been working to raise people’s awareness to conserve this endangered bird for a number of years. Surprisingly, she has never seen a thrasher in the bush. On that day, however, while checking the cameras, she would come across the Endangered White-breasted Thrasher for the very first time in her life.
Saphira was thrilled with the opportunity and she vividly recalls her excitement: ‘We were trekking into Fer de Lance (Saint Lucia pit viper) territory with two tasks at hand. One was to check on the camera traps placed in the thrashers’ nesting sites and the second task was to see a White-breasted Thrasher live in its habitat—a first for me. Adorned with knee high snake gators, rubber boots, machetes, and snake hooks, we set off on the first trail ever, vigilant for any Fer de Lance along the way. The first camera trap was 5 meters ahead. Guided by a GPS unit, we walked single file; I strategically placed myself between two Forestry Officers each wielding a machete. I figured this positioning would decrease my chances of encountering the venomous Fer de Lance. As much as I was excited to see the White-breasted Thrasher in the wild, it would also be my first time seeing the Fer de Lance in the wild.’
Saphira Hunt, Conservation Assistant at Saint Lucia National Trust and Durrell’s Project Officer, ready for work and moments before spotting a White-breasted Thrasher in the wild. (photo by Durrell Wildlife)
The Sound of Silence (and the Thrasher’s Call)
As we trotted on, we kept our ears and eyes peeled, looking to the ground in hope of seeing the bird thrashing in the leaf litter or calling out to a mate. The lead Forest Officer spotted the first camera trap, while our team got ready to check the SD card for photos of potential predators. The area was scanned for any presence of Fer de Lance. We checked the first camera, and then another one. While we were on the move, a member of our team spotted the thrasher. Everyone stopped to admire, and then silence ruled: we heard nothing but the thrasher’s call.
Saphira describes her first sighting: ‘Onward, forward we went, checking two more camera traps along the trail. Suddenly, we heard the distinctive call of the White-breasted Thrasher. Pius Haynes (Senior Wildlife Conservation Officer of the Forestry Division) moved slowly forward, trying to spot the pair. There they were, perched on a low hanging branch. Everyone moved aside to allow me to quietly walk up to meet Pius where he pointed out the White-breasted Thrasher to me. Oh, what a sight! With their dark topcoats and blinding white under bellies, they were a stunning pair. I stood there in total silence letting the sounds of the forest fill my senses as I watched in awe.’
Pius Haynes sets up a camera trap at the correct height to take photos of our target mammal species. The camera is triggered by motion and will take a photo when an animal passes by (Photo by Jennifer Mortensen)The team getting prepared to check camera traps in White-breasted Thrasher territory. (photo by Durrell Wildlife)
An Action Plan Took Shape in 2014
Saphira experienced a unique moment; the view of a rare and magnificent bird is something hard to forget. The White-breasted Thrasher was once more widespread in Saint Lucia, but the population is thought to be declining due to fragmentation of dry forest, the thrasher’s habitat, and increased depredation by non-native invasive species, such as rats, domestic cats, and mongoose. Our collaborator, Jennifer Mortensen from the University of Arkansas has been studying the ecology of the White-breasted Thrasher since 2006 and co-wrote the Species Action Plan (produced in 2014). Jennifer describes with great satisfaction how it feels to see a conservation plan being put forward for this species:
“I remember the day. It was 2014. A beautiful February afternoon. This was my 8th trip to Saint Lucia, but the first time visiting during the “winter.” Clear skies, slight breeze, low humidity, few mosquitos. Why had I always come during the “summer” rainy season? Well, for one, the mangoes. But more importantly, I suppose, the rainy season is the breeding season for the White-breasted Thrasher. And I love that bird. They are kings of the dry forest. They are spunky. Some say they have an understated elegance that is unrivalled across the Caribbean. And they are Endangered, which is why we met that afternoon in Dennery in February of 2014 to hash out the species’ first conservation plan. This plan, called the Gòj Blan Plan after the thrasher’s local Kwéyòl name, leads directly to the work we are doing now, six years later. To see those discussions and all that planning turning into conservation action is really exciting.”
Jennifer Mortensen, from the University of Arkansas, retrieving camera trap data with a team of conservationists from the Saint Lucia Forestry Department, including Stephen Lesmond, Therence Eugene, Jeannette Victor, and Jonathan Cornibert (from right to left). (photo by Durrell Wildlife)
Jennifer recently returned to Saint Lucia to support implementation of our White-breasted Thrasher project. She was a little nervous to return to Saint Lucia after six years away. She recalled, “While I’d kept in touch with friends and colleagues, and often thought about thrashers (still analysing field data), I didn’t know what to expect. However, seeing the Pitons as we approached the island, the colourful roofs of Vieux Fort, the faces of friends at airport arrivals, and then finally, being back in the bush with the thrashers—it felt, at once, like no time and all the time had passed. Birds we banded in 2012, now 8 years older, were still thrashing about in the leaf litter only 60m from where we last encountered them.”
Betty Petersen Grant Supports Predator Study
We are working with a wide range of collaborators, partners, and funders to save and protect this endangered bird. With the support of BirdsCaribbean’s Betty Petersen Conservation Fund, our current work is looking into nest predation and investigating the abundance and activities of invasive predators like the mongoose. Predation is considered the primary cause of White-breasted Thrasher nest failure. It is also suspected to be the most important cause of juvenile mortality. Data we collect on non-native predator abundance and locations via our camera trap network will serve as a baseline and will assist us in the design of a non-native predator control programme, which is the next step of the project.
Non-native mammal predators caught on our network of camera traps. Starting bottom left and moving clockwise: mongoose, opossum, rats, cat. (photo by Durrell Wildlife)
These activities are based on the Gòj Blan Species Action Plan and will help determine if directed non-native predator control is a viable management strategy to improve nesting success of the White-breasted Thrasher or whether efforts should be focused on other management strategies. We have a dedicated team comprised of wildlife officers, naturalists, and conservationists from the Saint Lucia Forestry Department, Saint Lucia National Trust, and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Together, and with BirdsCaribbean support, we are ready to promote the conservation of the White-breasted Thrasher in Saint Lucia. We look forward to reporting back after our next field season!
COVID-19 UPDATE
First case of Covid-19 in Saint Lucia was recorded in March 2020, followed by the government announcement of restricted rules to contain the spread of the virus: international flights were prohibited, a curfew was imposed, only essential shops remained opened, and schools were closed.
Our 2020 project goals of beginning the non-native predator control program and schools-based outreach activities could clearly not go on as planned. With schools closed, awareness activities will be postponed until the next academic year. Given the major disruption in international shipping, the equipment needed to implement the invasive species control program could not be delivered, causing us to shift this activity to next year as well. However, all was not put off… Ahead of us was the challenging task of completing another season of White-breasted Thrasher nest monitoring, initially proposed to start shortly after the predator control program in May 2020.
A Safe and Successful Nest Monitoring Season
Field activities were on-hold until July 2020, which is when the government granted permission to start reopening businesses and offices, following specific guidance and safety measures. Since outdoor activities such as fieldwork were considered safe, our team could proceed with nest monitoring. Bela Barata, Programme Officer for Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, said ‘of primary concern was the health and safety of our local staff, who are essential in delivering fieldwork and collecting all the data that underlie our efforts to save and protect the White-breasted Thrasher’.
In Saint Lucia, White-breasted Thrashers may breed between April and September, so we had to act quickly if we wanted to get a good sample of nests to monitor this year: ‘we had to adapt to the current scenario, make appropriate changes to deploy a reasonable survey effort and also ensure this could be done in the safest way possible’, said Bela. To safely deliver this activity, we reduced the field team to two people to ensure social distancing and used trail cameras to ‘watch’ nests. The cameras allowed us to reduce site visits to only once per week where we simply retrieved camera data, limiting contact between team members.
Camera traps were successfully installed in July 2020 and deployed for 1½ months. We recorded a total of 19 White-breasted Thrasher nests during this period, with nests occurring across each of our four field sites. Most importantly, by the end of the monitoring season, our team was well and healthy. We are now working to share the dataset, which contains thousands of photos. With this data our team will be able to calculate nest success, stages of nest failure, nest visitation by potential predators, and depredation events.
The success of this season survey under a global pandemic scenario was only made possible due to a well-coordinated response and the support of multiple partners. Saint Lucia National Trust and Durrell Project Officer, Saphira Hunt, was able to put together all equipment needed for field work in a noticeably short time. Saint Lucia Forestry Department staff was on stand-by, ready to install the cameras at any moment. Our White-Breasted Thrasher expert, Jennifer Mortensen from the University of Arkansas, worked quickly to provide a revised and updated monitoring protocol, setting a step-by-step guide that supported our field team without in-person supervision. From all lessons learnt, the delivery of the nest monitoring this year proved that we have a terrific in-country capacity, which is the bedrock of a relationship of trust and crucial for the long-term sustainability of this project. Together, we are working to achieve one shared goal: saving the White-breasted Thrasher from extinction.
By Bela Barata. Bela is Project Officer with Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. She coordinates this project, providing logistic support to the team in the field to deliver project activities, and she provides regular updates on the activity plan.
Close-up of the White-breasted Thrasher (Photo by Hank Tseng and Adams Toussaint)
BirdsCaribbean approves of Dominica’s plans to launch new efforts to protect the Sisserou and Jaco parrots. Both species are rare and live nowhere else in the world. A recent letter from the Ministry of Environment, Rural Modernization and Kalinago Upliftment, attached here, reaffirms Government’s pledge to help these birds locally, with the help of long-term international and local partners. This includes the return of parrots secretly taken to Germany in March 2018. Other measures include parrot surveys, further repair of the Parrot Centre, and more.
The Sisserou, or Imperial Parrot, is a national symbol found only on Dominica and is classified as Endangered by the IUCN. This bird was photographed in the wild feeding after Hurricane Maria. (Photo by Stephen Durand)
On March 18th, 2018, a few months after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island, the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP) took rare parrots from Dominica. This included two Sisserou (Imperial Parrots, Amazona imperialis) and ten Jaco (Red-necked Parrots, Amazona arausiaca), all hatched in the wild. Claiming this was an “emergency measure,” ACTP took the parrots to a private facility in Germany. All the parrots had survived Maria and had been rehabilitated.
The export was not approved by Dominica’s management or scientific authorities for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Dominica’s Forestry, Wildlife and Parks Division was not consulted or warned. BirdsCaribbean expressed its deep concern and was among thirteen groups that wrote a letter to the United Nations.
On May 1, 2018, over forty well-known scientists from around the world wrote to Dominican and German authorities. They urged the return of the birds and an investigation into ACTP. ACTP was the subject of two investigative reports in the Australian Guardian later that year. They were also featured in an in-depth article in Audubon Magazine’s Summer 2020 issue, among others. These revealed that the group also had removed hundreds of rare parrots from Australia and Brazil, and rare parrots from St. Lucia and St. Vincent. The articles also revealed that ACTP’s director was convicted of kidnapping, extortion and other crimes, and has no scientific credentials.
Rescued and rehabilitated Jaco (Red-necked Parrots) at the aviary in Dominica in 2018. (photo by Stephen Durand)
BirdsCaribbean stands ready to support its members and partners across the region, who work hard to protect and support threatened species such as the iconic Sisserou – nurturing them within their own native ecosystems. We continue to urge the immediate return of Dominica’s parrots (as well as any offspring) to the Parrot Conservation and Research Centre in Roseau, Dominica after first transferring them to a reputable zoological facility to ensure the birds are disease-free. We welcome plans to renovate the Centre in Roseau to enable it to continue its work in wildlife rehabilitation and research under a parrot monitoring program and for increased capacity-building and training for Forestry staff and other scientists on the island.
Building on partnerships, this kind of empowerment of local expertise will provide for a hopeful future for these birds. BirdsCaribbean supports the government’s Wildlife Conservation Partnership plan. We look forward to hearing more about these positive developments, a welcome ray of light in these hard times.
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in our virtual “Birds Connect Our World” edition! Have fun learning about a new migratory bird every day. We have colouring pages, puzzles, activities, and more. Download for free and enjoy nature with your family at home.
Migratory Bird of the Day: Bicknell’s Thrush
Bicknell’s Thrushes can be a challenge to encounter at any time of year because they live in remote mountain forest habitats and are shy. They are brownish-olive above with whitish underparts that are heavily spotted on the breast and sides. Their distinctive song, most often heard at dawn and dusk on the breeding grounds, descends in a nasal, gyrating spiral. Their call, given year-round, is a penetrating, downward slurred whistle peeert or beeer.
Bicknell’s Thrush breeds only in a few high-elevation coniferous forests of the northeastern US and southeastern Canada. They spend the winter on only four Greater Antillean islands – Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Here they inhabit dense, moist broadleaf forests from sea level to over 2,000m. Most birds are restricted to remote mountainous areas. About 80-90% of the total population winters on Hispaniola, especially in the Dominican Republic. This makes Bicknell’s Thrush a range-restricted habitat specialist at both ends of its migration.
The Bicknell’s Thrush population is small and numbers are declining. Classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, it is considered one of North America’s most at-risk breeding songbirds. Its forest breeding habitat is under siege from pollution, ski development, telecommunications tower and wind turbine construction, and global climate change. In the Caribbean, loss of the species’ preferred dense, humid broadleaf forests is occurring at unsustainable rates.
Habitat conservation is the key to ensuring the long-term survival of the Bicknell’s Thrush. In the Caribbean, especially on Hispaniola, this means conservation of moist forest habitats. We need to stop cutting down forests and restore them instead. We also need to strengthen enforcement of Protected Areas and employ sustainable agricultural practices. Despite daunting challenges, local conservation efforts are making progress. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Bicknell’s Thrush!
Download the page from Migratory Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book. Use the photos below as your guide, or you can look up pictures of the bird online or in a bird field guide if you have one. Share your coloured-in page with us by posting it online and tagging us @BirdsCaribbean #WMBD2020Carib
Listen to the call of the Bicknell’s Thrush
The calls of the Bicknell’s Thrush their wintering grounds is a downward slurred “peeert” whistle
Puzzle of the Day
Click on the images below to do the puzzles. You can make the puzzle as easy or as hard as you like – for example, 6, 8, or 12 pieces for young children, all the way up to 1,024 pieces for those that are up for a challenge!
Bicknell’s Thrush calling or singing in the Dominican Republic, its main wintering grounds. (Photo by Dax Roman)Bicknell’s Thrush perched in its montane wintering habitat in the Dominican Republic. . (Photo by Dax Roman)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: How much do you know about Bicknell’s Thrush? Test your knowledge with our crossword puzzle. You can find the information to answer the clues the text above, in the coloring book page or by looking at the pictures of Bicknell’s Thrush. And you can see the answers here.
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS:
Take a walk and see if you can spot any migratory birds. Use a bird field guide or the FREE Merlin bird ID app to help you identify the birds you are seeing.
Enjoy the videos below of a Bicknell’s Thrush in the wild! In the first video, shot in Blackcap Mountain in Maine, the bird is perched in a tree and you will hear it making its down-slurred peeeert whistle call. In the second video, shot in Vermont, a parent is returning to its nest to deliver insect food items to young chicks.
Visit MigratoryBirdDay.org for many more free activities and resources to learn about migratory birds, their threats and conservation actions you can take.
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in our virtual “Birds Connect Our World” edition! Have fun learning about a new migratory bird every day. We have colouring pages, puzzles, activities, and more. Download for free and enjoy nature with your family at home.
Migratory Bird of the Day: Kirtland’s Warbler
The Kirtland’s Warbler is a very rare warbler that almost became extinct 50 years ago. It is blue-gray above, lemon-yellow below, has black streaks on its sides, and white crescents above and below the eye. Males have black from the base of the bill to the eye. Females are similar but with no black on the face, and less brightly colored than males. Kirtland’s Warblers can be seen ‘pumping’ their tails as they look for food.
Kirtland’s Warblers breed only in a very small area in the US. They nest in Jack Pine forests in Michigan, Wisconsin and lower Ontario. This species winters mainly in the Bahamas, on the islands of Eleuthera, Cat Island, Long Island and San Salvador. Its migration has been tracked using tiny light sensitive tags called geolocators. Learn more here.
The Kirtland’s Warbler feeds on insects and fruit. In the winter, they are microhabitat specialists. They can be found in coppice and scrub habitats with large amounts of Black Torch, Wild Sage and Snowberry shrubs. These are some of their favorite fruits to eat. Kirkland’s Warblers can be hard to spot during the winter, they tend to hide in dense vegetation.
Kirtland’s Warbler was one of the first species to be placed on the North American Endangered Species list. In 1974 there were only 170 pairs. The decline of this bird was caused by loss of breeding habitat and nest parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds. Extensive conservation work is ongoing to provide nesting habitat and control cowbird numbers. Thanks to this effort there are now over 2,300 pairs, and in 2019, the species was delisted. Research on Kirkland’s Warbler in The Bahamas has helped boost both local and international conservation. The Kirtland’s Warbler Research and Training Project trained Bahamian students in field research, ecology, and conservation. Many of these students have gone on to become conservationists in The Bahamas. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Kirtland’s Warbler!
Download the page from Migratory Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book. Use the photos below as your guide, or you can look up pictures of the bird online or in a bird field guide if you have one. Share your coloured-in page with us by posting it online and tagging us @BirdsCaribbean #WMBD2020Carib
Listen to the call of the Kirtland’s Warbler
The calls of the Kirtland’s Warbler are a repeated short “Chip”
Puzzle of the Day
Click on the images below to do the puzzles. You can make the puzzle as easy or as hard as you like – for example, 6, 8, or 12 pieces for young children, all the way up to 1,024 pieces for those that are up for a challenge!
Male Kirtland’s Warbler. He is blue-gray above, lemon-yellow below, with some black in front of his eye. (Photo by Hemant Kishan)Female Kirtland’s Warbler, she is very similar to the male but less brightly colored. Both males and females have a white ‘broken’ eye-ring. These Warblers specialise in breeding in jack pines. (Photo by Hemant Kishan)
Take a walk and see if you can spot a migratory warblers. Unless you are in the Bahamas you might not see a Kirtland’s Warbler but see what other migratory birds you can find. Use a bird field guide or the FREE Merlin bird ID app to help you identify the birds you are seeing.
Enjoy the video of the handsome male Kirtland’s Warbler. He is in his jack pine habitat on the breeding grounds. In the video you can hear him singing!
Visit MigratoryBirdDay.org for many more free activities and resources to learn about migratory birds, their threats and conservation actions you can take.
The bird world holds quite a few unsolved mysteries—in the Caribbean, too. One of these is the intriguing story of the Jamaican Petrel, which unfolded at a webinar on September 17th. Dr. Leo Douglas, Past President of both BirdsCaribbean and BirdLife Jamaica, and now Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University (NYU), led the conversation with Adam Brown, Senior Biologist at Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC). Participants were treated to some fascinating stories from the field about petrels, that led towards a glimmer of hope for the bird.
Study skin of the Jamaican Petrel from the American Museum of Natural History. The species was last seen and collected in 1879, however, nocturnal petrels are notoriously difficult to find, so it could still survive in remote areas of the Blue and John Crow Mountains of Jamaica. (Photo by Leo Douglas)
The question is this: Is the Jamaican Petrel, long considered extinct, still alive? As Dr. Douglas pointed out, so many Caribbean endemic birds are “languishing in the drawers of museums around the world,” including at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Dr. Douglas admits that, like Adam Brown, he has “a bit of an obsession” with petrels.
The Jamaican Petrel (Pterodroma caribbaea) was said to have nested in the Blue Mountains, where specimens were collected up to 1879.
Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (UNESCO World Heritage Site preservation zone shown in red)
Finding the bird on land has proved to be a tremendous challenge, since like other petrels it nests in burrows at five to six thousand feet up. The burrows go three feet or so into the ground. Adam explained that petrels fly out to sea at dusk, foraging for food, returning home before dawn. They appear to use gullies and river valleys to fly from the sea to the mountains. It is thought that the Jamaican Petrel would feed far out at sea on crustaceans, shrimps and the like, which come to the surface at night.
Park Ranger Jermy Schroeter at Cinchona in the Blue Mountains with radar equipment used to detect petrels flying at night. (Photo by Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust)
Adam Brown explained that predators were—and remain—a threat. In Dominica as well as in Jamaica, the last sightings of petrels coincided with the introduction of mongoose onto the islands, which happened in Jamaica in 1872. However, Adam Brown revealed that the Black-capped Petrel (Pterodroma hasitata) was rediscovered in Dominica, through thermal imaging and radar, in 2015. Again, in January 2020 hundreds of birds were tracked, flying overhead. No nests have been found, but adult birds have been found on the ground, usually disoriented or injured.
Adam Brown takes a GPS measurement on a ridge in Dominica overlooking a valley where radar detected petrel movements in and out of the nearby peaks (Photo by Jennifer Wheeler)
On Hispaniola, where Adam Brown, EPIC and local partners at Grupo Jaragua have conducted a great deal of field work, Black-capped Petrels’ nests were found during an expedition in the hilly region of the Haiti-Dominican Republic border, in 2007. Mongoose, rats, and feral cats are always around, but the birds exist. So predators may not be the whole story. Over-hunting during the nineteenth century may also have been a factor in the birds’ decline.
Cat investigating Black-capped Petrel nesting burrow in Haiti. (Photo by Adam Brown)
So, where was the Jamaican Petrel last seen? Back in the nineteenth century, it was spotted in the slopes above Nanny Town and near Cinchona (the last known nest was found when the ground was being dug for the Cinchona Gardens, established in 1868) in the Blue and John Crow Mountains. These areas appear to be a good starting point for a search; it is possible that the birds would use the Rio Grande Valley in Portland as a flight path.
Adam Brown took his radar equipment up to the Cinchona area, and on March 22, 2016, he detected six petrel-like “targets” flying at approximately 65 km per hour, with two circling for a while before retreating out to sea (perhaps looking for future nesting sites). Could they have been Black-capped Petrels, or Jamaican Petrels? Petrels are known to be fast flyers, clocked at over 50 kilometers per hour on radar in Hispaniola.
Prior to Adam’s work, Dr. Douglas and a colleague, Herlitz Davis, had spotted a Black-capped Petrel off Jamaica’s south-east coast. Now Adam is interested in investigating the waters south east of Jamaica for this elusive bird.
The mystery of the Jamaican Petrel has not been solved—not by any means. However, there is hope. Nocturnal creatures can, of course, more easily escape notice. There may well be small colonies of the mystery bird, way up there in the Blue Mountains.
Dr. Susan Otuokon, Executive Director of the Jamaica Conservation Development Trust (JCDT), is firmly convinced that the Jamaican Petrel exists. She pointed out that the Jamaican Hutia (Coney), which is found in the Blue Mountains, and the Jamaican Iguana were once considered extinct; however, they were “rediscovered.” Dr. Otuokon added that the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that the non-profit organization manages, is home to an extraordinary number of rare and endemic species of flora and fauna. Although JCDT is not a research institute, trained park rangers, tour and field guides are available to assist visiting scientists.
The webinar ended on a hopeful note. If you are up in the Blue and John Crow Mountains at night, and you hear an eerie cry in the valleys…
You never know. The lost Jamaican Petrel may be found again.
A young man in a Black-capped Petrel costume leads the parade during the Festival Diablotin (local name for the Black-capped Petrel) held in Boucan Chat, Haiti. The festival also includes a soccer game and film screening, and is designed to instill interest and pride in the rare bird nesting in nearby forest (Photo by Anderson Jean)
Blue and John Crow Mountains (Photo by
Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust)
Blue and John Crow Mountains-view from Cinchona (Photo by
Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust)
Cell phone tower in Hispaniola – call phone towers are now everywhere. For birds traveling at night, they are attracted to the tower and may strike it and fall to the ground. If they are stunned or injured, they could be taken by a predator. (Photo by Adam Brown)
Collecting Caribbean pine for cooking in Haiti (Photo by Adam Brown)
Jamaican Gleaner article about an Audubon’s Shearwater found in Jamaica – it is rare to find this bird on land.
Cover of the New Coloring Book: Color and Protect the Snowy Plover, illustrations by Josmar Marquez, text by Josmar et al. Produced by BirdsCaribbean for World Shorebirds Day, September 3 to 9, 2020
We’re excited to share with you a new coloring book: Color and Protect the Snowy Plover. The coloring book was created by talented artist and naturalist, Josmar Esteban-Márquez, in honor of this year’s World Shorebirds Day celebration (3 to 9 September).
Josmar created this coloring book to provide a fun resource for kids to learn about Snowy Plovers—small gray-brown and white shorebirds that live on Caribbean beaches and salt flats. The coloring book highlights how vulnerable these birds are to disturbance and predation, and how each of us must take care not to step on or trample their nests or disturb them when they are breeding.
Josmar studies and monitors shorebirds on offshore islands and cays of Venezuela. He bands migratory and resident shorebirds to learn more about their movements, habitat use, survival, and population size.
Josmar is also a passionate conservationist. He is well aware of the many threats to shorebirds and is doing all he can to raise awareness about how special these birds are and how everyone can help to protect them. Josmar takes youth of all ages birding, creates amazing bird art murals with kids, and holds community festivals to celebrate shorebirds.
A newly marked Snowy Plover. (Photo by Antonio Ros)
The Coloring book is available for free download in English and Spanish. We anticipate having a French version available soon. Enjoy the coloring book story and illustrations with your kids and download pages or the whole book for your child to color in. Learn more about Snowy Plovers here.
It was a bit of a gamble. The speakers were all ready to speak. The agenda was set.
But…would anyone show up?
Well, they did, in the thousands. The North American Ornithological Conference (NAOC) 2020, originally scheduled to take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico from August 10 to 15, had switched gears. It took the brave decision to go virtual in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a tremendous, complex undertaking – and the organizers pulled it off, in style. Hundreds of live, oral presentations took place in general sessions and in symposia, while 80 “lightning talks” and 3 minute poster presentations added excitement. Round tables, workshops and networking opportunities were all well attended by participants from far and wide, under the appropriate theme: “Flight paths addressing global challenges.”
The Caribbean Presence: Island Treasures
NAOC 2020 commented on its website: “The virtual format of the conference attracted particularly high attendance from students and colleagues in Mexico, Central and South America, and Caribbean countries.” In total, nearly 3,000 attended the conference from countries as far-flung as Australia and China.
BirdsCaribbean hosted a symposium called “Island Treasures: Lessons learned from 30 years of avian research, education, and conservation,” which drew a substantial audience from the region and beyond. Sixteen outstanding presentations showcased the exciting conservation work being carried out across the islands, ranging from restoration of key habitats to saving endangered species to wildlife trafficking (see list of talks and presenters in the image gallery below). We had a stimulating panel discussion at the end of the symposia where presenters answered questions from the audience and shared their opinions and expertise on a range of challenging conservation issues.
Island Treasures Symposium Panel discussion on Zoom at the end of the Symposium where presenters answered questions from the audience and shared their opinions on conservation challenges facing the Caribbean region.
An additional symposium organized by Dr. Joseph M. Wunderle, Jr. (the new Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology) focused on the impact of hurricanes on birds called “Birds and hurricanes: effects, responses, resilience, and conservation.”
If you missed the conference or wish to view any of the talks in the above symposia, stay tuned, we will be posting the presentations on our YouTube channel!
The Socializing Side: Virtual Cocktails or a Cup of Tea
The “Caribbean Meet and Greet” session on August 12 was a resounding success. Around sixty guests gathered, cocktails in hand (or in some cases a cup of tea), to chat and get to know each other. It was a time to reconnect with old friends and to make new ones. We answered fun trivia questions about Caribbean birds and gathered in smaller chat rooms for 10 minutes at a time for more intimate chats.
BirdsCaribbean Meet and Greet – some of the folks that stopped by for our Zoom cocktail hour. It was great fun to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones!
Of course, there was no final banquet – and was it really necessary, one participant wondered, when one could just go to the kitchen and fix oneself a peanut butter sandwich? Perhaps virtual banquet menus could be submitted next time, she suggested.
Could Virtual Conferencing be the Way of the Future?
Conference goers, including BirdsCaribbean members and partners, were impressed not only by the quality of the presentations, but also by the fact that the technology smoothly facilitated them. For some, like conservation ecologist Ann Sutton Haynes in Jamaica, it was a new experience:
“This was my first experience of an online conference and I was surprised how well it went. The good things were the low cost, the flexibility to attend when it was convenient and even the online questions and responses went well. There was even a weird pleasure in attending real time sessions…If it’s affordable I think it would be great if all our conferences in future could be both in person and virtual.”
Science Officer at the Bahamas National Trust Scott Johnson was also enthusiastic about the benefits of virtual conferencing:
“My experience participating in the NAOC online symposium was most enjoyable. I had the opportunity to meet up with old friends and some of my mentors as well as listen to some amazing talks including bird smuggling, hurricanes and its effects on birds, and more. I think this is a great alternative to expensive travelling and the logistics associated with it and would like for an online conference like this to continue moving forward.”
Scott Johnson (bottom), Science Officer at the Bahamas National Trust, talking with 2 fellow panelists, Stephen Durand (left), Forestry Officer, Dominica, and Dr. Ancilleno Davis (right), Science and Perspective, at the BirdsCaribbean Island Treasures Symposium.
Biologist Quincy Augustine, staff at the Windward Islands Research & Education Foundation (WINDREF), St. George’s University in Grenada was also pleased with his experience:
“Despite the unforeseen challenges we are currently experiencing, I must commend the organizers for putting together such a great conference – hats off to you! It was one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended with a twist and additional perks – could you imagine what it would have been like if this conference was face to face! The topics, presentations, and the opportunity to build a network are so needed, especially for researchers like myself.”
A Key Focus on Diversity and Inclusion
Colombian ornithologist and Professor Andres Cuervo stressed the significance of the conference, enthusing on the conference Slack channel: “I want to highlight the diversity, quality, and great composition of the keynote plenary speakers of NAOC 2020. I’ve loved every single one of them, and they have been so different in approaches and people. Thank you for that. Today’s Daniel Cadena’s plenary was truly outstanding. His closing remarks are important messages for ornithology and for this meeting.”
Diversity and inclusion was a particularly important aspect of the conference for BirdsCaribbean. The Diversity and Inclusion Committee – including BirdsCaribbean’s Jessica Cañizares and Environment of the Americas’ Sheylda DÍaz-Méndez – worked hard to help “increase the awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion in ornithology and to help cultivate an ornithological community that is committed to the recruitment, retention, and support of all of its members at and beyond NAOC 2020.”
Participants also expressed appreciation for the English and Spanish translations and subtitles in presentations. The organizers were pleased to note: “Many people who would not otherwise have been able to attend were able to do so, due to a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation and sponsorships from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and other partnering organizations, through generous underwriting for free registration for students and greatly reduced registration fees for everyone else.” BirdsCaribbean thanks the US Forest Service International Programs for providing scholarships for Caribbean nationals to attend the conference.
Hope for the Future…and Trinidad?
Social media and our @BirdsCaribbean twitter feed were hoppin’ during the 5 days of the conference as people shared what they were learning. #NAOC2020
BirdsCaribbean Executive Director Lisa Sorenson concluded that the online event filled her with optimism.
“We were thrilled to make such a substantial contribution to what is one of the largest ornithological conferences in the world,” she noted. “We were happy with the positive feedback we have received; this encourages us and our partners, who are doing really worthwhile and inspiring work in the region.”
“Yes, challenges and threats are unrelenting, but we have many more active projects, with people and partners working on research, monitoring, engaging with the public to change the culture, and carrying out successful conservation initiatives to save and restore species and habitats.”
Registered attendees will have access to all recorded presentations through the EventPilot app through Wednesday, September 9.
Meanwhile, we are keeping our fingers crossed for our planned International Conference in Trinidad. We hope to see all our friends and collaborators, old and new, in late July 2021! If you are a new friend of BirdsCaribbean, don’t forget to sign up to our monthly newsletter here for further updates.
BirdsCaribbean was one of nine partner organizations hosting the NAOC 2020 Conference. We thank the US Forest Service International Programs and other sponsors for providing generous support to allow our Caribbean delegates and others to attend the virtual conference at no cost or a reduced fee. #NAOC2020
The gallery below shows the 16 presentations in our Island Treasures Symposium. No worries if you missed the talks, we will be uploading them to our YouTube Channel.
BirdsCaribbean Meet and Greet – more of the folks that stopped by for our Zoom cocktail hour. It was great fun to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones!
BirdsCaribbean is expressing deep concern over three areas of Grenada — critical bird habitats and ecosystems — that are now being damaged from development: Mt. Hartman, La Sagesse, and Levera. This includes the island’s only Ramsar site (Levera) and other wetland and forest areas harboring a wide variety of wildlife, including endangered species of sea turtles, and the Critically Endangered Grenada Dove.
Projects underway in these three areas include large resorts, a marina, waterpark, and golf course, all of which will have wide-ranging and permanent negative consequences on the local ecosystems.
BirdsCaribbean is calling for the immediate cessation of destructive activities, pending the completion of proper Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and approvals, mitigation plans, and full and transparent consultations with stakeholders. See links below for how you can help.
Wilson’s Plover (female) at Mt. Hartman wetland in Grenada. It is one of many species of resident and migratory waterbirds and shorebirds that depend on Grenada’s wetlands (including beaches, mangroves, salt ponds ,and mud flats) as breeding and wintering habitat. This species is resident in Grenada and breeds here at the Mt. Hartman wetlands. (photo by Gregg Homel).
BirdsCaribbean’s Executive Director Lisa Sorenson urges Grenada not to destroy or damage its last remaining wetlands. “Not only are these significant habitats for many vulnerable species of birds and endangered wildlife, wetland areas perform myriad important ecosystem services that improve the safety and health of local communities. These services are increasingly important and economically valuable in the face of climate change.”
Sorenson notes that Grenada is a leader for environmental conservation. It has recently embraced the concept of the “Blue Economy.” In 2013, Grenada went beyond its Caribbean neighbors’ commitments, pledging to protect 25% of its near-shore marine and coastal environment by 2020 under the Caribbean Challenge Initiative signed in 2013. Sadly, these developments and the failure to designate a majority of the protected areas proposed under its Protected Areas Systems Plan, make it increasingly unlikely that Grenada can meet its international obligations and national targets.
Sorenson pointed out that it appears that vegetation has been removed before an approved EIA/plan for all three projects, which would be in direct violation of Grenada’s Physical Planning Act of 2016. Moreover, the developments and the way they are being carried out does not seem consistent with Grenada’s own Blue Growth Coastal Master Plan, whose Guiding Principles and Goals call for Sustainability, the Precautionary Principle, Good Governance, and Equity.
We stand with our local partners and call for action from the leaders of Grenada’s government to protect Grenada’s invaluable natural assets from destruction. You can help – SIGN THE PETITION HERE and see more ways to help below.
Map of Grenada showing National Parks and Protected Areas and the locations of the 3 developments at Levera, La Sagesse and Mt. Hartman. (note that not all protected areas in Grenada are included on this map).
Local conservation groups and partners of BirdsCaribbean in Grenada are alarmed at the recent deforestation of these areas. Jane Nurse of the Grenada Land Actors Platform (GLAP) commented: “We have engaged with decision makers, including the developers and the Physical Planning Unit, but have encountered mostly disappointing negligence. In rectification, we demand that our communities and civil society are consulted before development projects of such a scale are undertaken.”
Other members of the GLAP questioned whether Grenada could accommodate these mega-projects, from water, sewerage, and solid waste treatment, to road infrastructure and airlift, particularly at a time when the world is heading towards one of its biggest recessions. Jody Daniel-Simon of Gaea Conservation Network added: “There are numerous examples of our lands being cleared with no considerations of the ecological impacts; sadly, many of these projects fail because of insufficient funds, leaving behind them only a trail of debts and destruction.”
Mt. Hartman: Last Refuge for the Critically Endangered Grenada Dove and Vital Wetlands
In the Mt. Hartman Estate, dry forest habitat is in the process of being cleared for a new resort and marina that will be developed by the Hartman Resort Group Ltd (formerly Grenada Resort Complex LTD); this Chinese company now owns the property. Communications with the Grenadian Government’s Physical Planning Unit indicate that they are apparently unaware of the project and have not given any permission. There is no known EIA in progress.
The Mt. Hartman National Park was set up to protect habitat crucial to the survival of one of the rarest birds in the world, the Critically Endangered Grenada Dove, unique to Grenada. So special is the dove (there are only about 110 adults remaining) that it is recognized as Grenada’s National Bird. Over 90 other bird species have been recorded throughout the area, including the Grenada Hook-billed Kite, an Endangered subspecies, also endemic to Grenada.
The Grenada Dove on its nest at Mt Hartman. The Grenada Dove is a Critically Endangered species endemic to Grenada. The Mt. Hartman National Park and Dove Sanctuary were set up to protect the dove. The development is adjacent to the park. Without careful mitigation, the long-term survival of the dove is in jeopardy. (photo by Greg Homel)
Although the development falls just outside the National Park, it will be directly adjacent to it. Grenada Dove Biologist, Bonnie Rusk, indicated: “Development that is not done carefully, with sufficient mitigation to support the site’s ecosystem and species, will significantly impact the National Park and the purpose for which it was established—the conservation of the Grenada Dove.”
With its unique dry coastal scrub ecosystem and associated biodiversity, Mt. Hartman is internationally recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) and as an Endemic Bird Area (EBA) of the Lesser Antilles by BirdLife International, the world leader in bird conservation, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.
The Mt. Hartman Estate also encompasses the largest expanse of black mangroves on the island, as well as red mangroves, providing an important “nursery” for fisheries stock to the Woburn fishing community. The mangroves and wetlands act as a buffer zone for land-based pollution, and a natural filter for water. Mangroves have repeatedly been shown to provide protection from storms, hurricanes, and floods. The two wetlands provide critical habitat for numerous species of resident and migratory shorebirds and waterbirds, including many species of conservation concern.
Mt. Hartman wetlands in June 2014 (left; photo by Greg Homel) before vegetation was cleared for Grenada Resorts (2015) and Mt. Hartman Resorts Group (2020). Mt. Hartman wetlands in August 2020 (right; photo by Reginald Joseph), following the removal of dry scrub and mangrove forests without the knowledge of the Physical Planning Unit.
An artistic rendition for the resort (see image below) shows that one of the two vital wetlands and the adjacent mangrove in the Mt. Hartman Estate will be destroyed to create a Marina in Secret Harbor; the other one will be severely impacted by the development. “We successfully protected these wetlands from prior proposed developments,” commented Dr. Sorenson. “It would be a sad loss for one of Grenada’s last remaining wetlands to be destroyed. It is difficult to understand how this can happen when the Government has pledged to protect its vital coastal resources for the benefit of the Grenadian people.”
Artist rendition of the Mt. Hartman resort development and marina within the Mt Hartman Estate. The development is adjacent to the Mt. Hartman National Park and Dove Sanctuary, which was established to protect this Critically Endangered endemic species. Grenada Doves also live in the Mt. Hartman Estate where the development is taking place. One of the wetlands will be completely destroyed for the marina. This is inconsistent with Grenada’s pledge to protect 25% of it marine and terrestrial environment.
La Sagesse: Destruction of Habitat for Endangered Turtles (Six Senses/Range Developments)
At La Sagesse—listed as a Natural Landmark and Area of Cultural and Historical Interest—there has been extensive clearcutting of mangroves and other vegetation on the headland and around the salt pond, to build the 100-room, Six Senses Resort (tagline “Sustainable is not something we do; it is who we are”). Permission to do the clearing was given by the Physical Planning Unit. Phase II, separate from the Six Senses Resort, adds a 185-room Luxury Hotel, catering to families. Both projects are managed by Range Developments through the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme.
La Sagesse Pond in May 2019 (left), before the Six Senses Resort and Luxury Hotel development plan was approved. La Sagesse Pond in August 2020 (right), four months after there was extensive clear cutting and bulldozing to accommodate the first phase of construction (photos by Reginald Joseph).
While the EIA and project plan have been approved, only one Town Hall style community meeting was held last week after clearing had already taken place, contrary to the recommendations made in the EIA. Further consultations with the local community are apparently in the works following public outcry. Following a review of the EIA and development plans by scientists from Gaea Conservation Network, the developers have since promised to work with them to develop a mangrove and pond restoration plan; they also claim to have harvested mangrove propagules for restoration purposes. In their 9-page review, Gaea Conservation Network highlighted a litany of environmental concerns that should have been addressed in the EIA, based on the Terms of Reference provided by the developer.
Photo showing the complete deforestation around the La Sagesse Salt Pond this spring. (photo by Reginald Joseph)
Before the extensive clear cutting, La Sagesse Pond supported white and buttonwood mangrove, providing cover for Critically Endangered hawksbill sea turtles. It is also a nesting site for the Endangered leatherback turtle. A diverse array of some 89 bird species attracts birding tours to this site. Under an older National Parks and Protected Areas plan, the area was proposed as a Protected Seascape due to its outstanding features including a mangrove estuary, salt pond, 3 beautiful beaches, interesting geological formations, coral reefs, and excellent examples of littoral woodland and thorn scrub cactus woodland.
Levera: Grenada’s Large, Highly Diverse Wetland of International Importance
The Levera Wetland is Grenada’s only Ramsar site, designated as a Wetland of International Importance on May 22, 2012. Despite an EIA still being under way, forest has already been removed to build temporary housing for a one billion dollar resort, to be constructed under the CBI programme by the Singapore Heng Sheng (Grenada) Development PTE LTD company, who now owns the property. The mega-resort will include a water park, golf course, villas, and 500-room hotels (see artistic renditions of the development in the gallery below).
As a Contracting Party of the Ramsar Convention, Grenada has agreed to the wise use of its wetlands. Ramsar describes “wise use” as the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands and all the services they provide, for the benefit of people and nature.
The over 500-hectare highly productive ecosystem includes a variety of habitats: woodland, dry scrub forest, mangrove wetlands, beach, brackish pond, seagrass beds, and coral reefs. Surrounded by red, white, black and buttonwood mangroves, the large freshwater pond and beach area boast a large diversity of birds, with over 85 species documented on eBird Caribbean from 2006 to date. The site is also a critical area for the survival of the Grenada Hook-billed Kite, an Endangered sub-species endemic to Grenada.
Leatherback sea turtle (an Endangered species) returning to the ocean after laying eggs on the Levera Beach. (photo by Kate Charles, Ocean Spirits)
Moreover, Levera is a critical habitat for numerous species of mammals, snakes and fish. The beach is the third largest nesting site for Endangered leatherback sea turtles in the Caribbean, with 600–1400 nesting activities recorded annually, according to Ocean Spirits (a local sea turtle NGO). Offshore, there are important foraging grounds for Endangered green sea turtles and Critically Endangered hawksbill sea turtles, as well as Critically Endangered elkhorn coral colonies growing in shallow waters close to the coastline.
Although the area is used by local fishermen and Grenadians for recreational purposes, there has been very little consultation with the community and no modification of the plans to address environmental and social concerns. Notably, a recent survey of stakeholders done in 2016 in the communities in and around Levera suggests that less than 15% of individuals support hotel development. More than two-thirds support the establishment of a National Park and Recreational Area and have suggestions for how they would like to see their community involved through a “co-management” approach.
It is unclear if the current deforestation—including for the purpose of building migrant workers’ barracks—was approved by the Physical Planning Unit, or whether an EIA has been undertaken for this development. Furthermore, there is strong evidence that funds for the Levera project have been grossly mismanaged in the past. (see here, here, here, and here). The development company’s website shares information on the Grenada Levera project from the home page, including a short video regarding the vision for this area (see photos in the gallery below) and how one can invest in the project through the CBI (Citizenship By Investment) programme.
Levera Pond in June 2019 before (left; photo by Reginald Joseph) permission was granted by the Physical Planning Unit to clear vegetation. Levera Pond in August 2020 (right; photo by Orlando Romain) after temporary housing and storage containers were built for migrant workers to build the mega-resort, which will include a water park, golf course, villas, and 500 room hotels. Based on a recent survey of stakeholders in the communities in and around Levera, more than two thirds of community persons would prefer that this area is established as a National Park and Recreational Area – only 15% support hotel development.
Protect Grenada from Destructive Land Development – Final Thoughts
We must prevent future generations from wondering how Grenada managed to destroy so much of its natural habitat, a precious resource in which man and nature should exist in harmony. It’s not too late to put a stop to these developments, which are already having a significant damaging effect on the environment. Tourism is a key element of Grenada’s economy, but any new developments must take place within the context of true sustainability and sensitivity to these fragile ecosystems and the needs of local Grenadians.
In an online opinion piece dated August 25, 2020 in NowGrenada, S. Brian Samuel observes: “Naturally, tourism must play a central role in the regeneration of the Grenadian economy, but the crucial question is: What kind of tourism? You can’t fit square pegs into round holes; a country’s tourism strategy has to gel with its natural and human attributes.”
Local economies are best protected by protecting nature. We stand with our local partners and call on the Government of Grenada to immediately cease destructive activities at these sites and plan a way forward that protects Grenada’s natural assets for generations to come.
Note: After signing this petition, change.org will ask for a donation – this is inherent functionality of change.org petitions. The donations are used by change.org as payment to boost the petition, and it is not possible to remove this feature from the petition. All donations go to change.org and not the Grenada Land Actors Platform (consortium of concerned local citizens and groups) – we do apologize for this, and are working on a way for people that wish to do so to support the cause in Grenada directly through donations as well as signing the petition.
Artist renditions of the 3 developments are shown in the gallery below.
Artist rendition of the Six Senses La Sagesse Resort.
Artist rendition of the Mt Hartman resort development and marina. The development is adjacent to the Mt Hartman National Park and Dove Sanctuary, which was established to protect the Critically Endangered endemic species. Grenada Doves also occur in the Mt Hartman Estate where the development is taking place.
Artist rendition of the Mt Hartman resort development and marina. The development is adjacent to the Mt Hartman National Park and Dove Sanctuary, which was established to protect the Critically Endangered endemic species. Grenada Doves also occur in the Mt Hartman Estate where the development is taking place.
Artist rendition of the Mt Hartman resort development and marina. The development is adjacent to the Mt Hartman National Park and Dove Sanctuary, which was established to protect the Critically Endangered endemic species. Grenada Doves also occur in the Mt Hartman Estate where the development is taking place.
Artist rendition of the Lavera Resort development. The resort includes a waterpark, golf course and 500 room hotel.
Artist rendition of the Lavera Resort development. The resort includes a waterpark, golf course and 500 room hotel.
Artist rendition of the Lavera Resort development. The resort includes a waterpark, golf course and 500 room hotel.
A sample of the beauty and biodiversity of Grenada at the 3 sites is shown in the gallery below.
Adult Eared Dove with chick in Grenada – Mt. Hartman Estate. (Photo by Greg Homel)
Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Grenada race. Note the crest and yellow belly. (photo by Greg Homel).
Billboard at a parish boundary advertising the Mt Hartman National Park. (Billboard design by Madelaine Smith, photo by Greg Homel/Natural Encounters)
Grenada Dove at Mt. Hartman – Grenada’s National Bird and found only in Grenada at 2 locations. It is Critically Endangered one of the rarest birds in the world (photo by Greg Homel)
A huge diversity of waterbirds and shorebirds call the Mt. Hartman wetlands home, including both resident and migratory species. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
White-rumped Sandpiper, one of the many species of migratory shorebirds that relies on Grenada’s wetlands as wintering habitat. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
A huge diversity of waterbirds and shorebirds call the Mt. Hartman wetlands home, including both resident and migratory species. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Aerial view of the Mt. Hartman Estate during the dry season. You can see the 2 salt ponds – the extensive mangrove vegetation is green year-round. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
A huge diversity of waterbirds and shorebirds call the Mt. Hartman wetlands home, including both resident and migratory species. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Grenadians that participate in BirdsCaribbean Bird Guide Training Workshop in 2013 practice identifying shorebirds on La Sagesse Beach. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Caribbean Birding Trail Guide Training Workshop in 2013 – a group of Grenadians received a week-long training all about birds, birding, the bird tourism market, and how to be a guide. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Blowhole at Levera Beach. (photo by Ted Eubanks)
Levera Boardwalk and observation tower at Levera Pond and Ramsar site. (photo by Ted Eubanks)
Levera Pond, Wetland of International Importance and Grenada’s only Ramsar site. Sadly, this pond will be severely impacted by the resort development.
Male Hook-billed Kites tend to be a solid bluish-gray color on their heads and backs, while their breasts are grayish and adorned with pale streaking in horizontal bars. (Photo by Andrea Easter-Pilcher)
Grenada’s endemic subspecies of the Hook-billed Kite is considered to be Endangered. (Photo by Andrea Easter-Pilcher)
Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, an endemic bird to the Lesser Antilles. (Photo by Ted Eubanks).
A Grenada Hook-billed Kite chick. Female and male Hook-billed Kites work together to build their nests, which are shallow and cup-shaped and built from small twigs and sticks.
Grenada Hook-billed Kite, an endemic sub-species only found in Grenada.
Red Mangrove prop roots protect the coastline and property from flooding and damage from severe storms and hurricanes, which are increasing with climate change. (photo by Greg Homel).
Mt. Hartman National Park and Dove Sanctuary Visitors Centre and bird sign. (photo by Greg Homel)
Pneumatophores or “breathing roots” of the Black Mangrove at Mt. Hartman wetlands. Mangroves help reduce climate change by absorbing carbon. They also protect coastal areas from storms and flooding. (photo by Ted Eubanks)
Leatherback turtle hatchling at Levera Beach, making its way to the ocean. (photo by Kate Charles, Ocean Spirits)
Caribbean Bird ID Monitoring at Flickr
Stilt Sandpipers are one of many species of migratory shorebirds that rely on Grenada’s wetlands as a winter home. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Stilt Sandpipers
BirdsCaribbean, like many other organizations, has had to “rethink” and restructure many of its regular activities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF), celebrated each spring by diverse groups and partners throughout the Caribbean, moved into the online world for 2020. It transformed into a “virtual festival” from our homes—our “nest.”
Vivian and her grandson Diego enjoy birding in Punta Cana in the DR. Grupo Acción Ecológica developed a simple protocol so that the citizens could make observations of birds from their homes and nearby surroundings, departing from traditional group activities for CEBF for the first time. They report that 70 species were sighted, of which 19 (27%) were endemic. Furthermore, the Festival generated wide family participation and photographs of birds, with much excitement and enthusiasm for this birding-from-home activity (Credit: Grupo Acción Ecológica).
Making the Most of the Challenge
In the 19-year history of the CEBF, we have always found fun and creative ways to connect people to our rich and diverse regional avifauna, with a special focus on the unique 171species that live only in the region. Each year, partner organizations, led by BirdsCaribbean organize educational, social and scientific events, gathering people of all ages together at various birding “hotspots.” This year, the planned theme was to celebrate our Birds and Culture; but the challenges of COVID-19 and the social distancing restrictions on the islands’ residents presented unusual challenges for participants.
However, adjusting to difficult situations is nothing new for the region, points out CEBF Regional Coordinator Eduardo Llegus: “Caribbean people—and birds—are very resilient. We have endured catastrophic hurricanes, severe droughts, heavy rainfall and flooding, pollution, and a number of impacts on our environment caused by human activity.”
“Despite these challenges, our enthusiastic partners and bird educators still inspire everyone to help conserve our winged friends and their local habitats, as well as our natural resources, in harmony with humans,” he stressed.
The Virtual Festival Takes Off
Children, teens and adults engaged in a safe, fun, and educational “virtual festival” for CEBF 2020. Online discussions, webinars, courses, educational videos, bird puzzles, maps, eBooks, colouring pages, blog and newspaper articles all formed part of an exciting range of remote activities.
Birding safely from the house in the Dominican Republic! Due to COVID-19, many people enjoyed watching and learning about birds from their house for this year’s CEBF. Many people started birding for the first time (credit: Grupo Acción Ecológica)!
BirdsCaribbean launched pages from the recently published Endemic Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book on our website. This delightful book features 50 endemic Caribbean birds and includes a wealth of additional information on each bird. BirdsCaribbean is especially grateful to the artist Christine Elder, Mark Yokoyama, and many other contributors, including bird photographers. We featured an Endemic Bird of the Day for 50 days on our From the Nest page, and shared photos, puzzles, activities, videos, bird songs and calls, and more.
Throughout this spring, the online world was busy. Birds Caribbean was no exception, with visits to our website and to social media pages increasing by more than 500% in the last two months. BirdsCaribbean now has hundreds of new friends and followers, all engaged and interested in our work.
BirdsCaribbean partners created their own online initiatives for CEBF 2020, mainly on their social media pages, reaching more than 100,000 people all around the Caribbean region, and across the globe. The Bahamas National Trust offered the first online talk, exploring the mysteries of the legendary “Chickcharney”, an owl-like folkloric creature. Artist Christine Elder live-streamed hands-on workshops on Sketching Hummingbirds and Sketching Parrots assisted by parrot expert, Aliya Hosein, in Trinidad.
Social media post by a new BirdsCaribbean fan, Trinidadian Katrina Khan-Roberts, of her sketches from Christine Elder’s Caribbean Hummingbirds Webinar
Josmar’s Drawing and Coloring Caribbean Endemic Birds YouTube Series
Cuban groups partnered with the University of Havana to focus on an Endemic Cuban Bird each day on Facebook, with wonderful photos and fascinating information on each species.
The Cubans shared a different Cuban endemic bird each day of the Festival.
Les Fruits de Mer, BirdLife Jamaica, SOH Conservación, Grupo Acción Ecológica, Puerto Rican Bird Photographers and other Caribbean non-governmental organizations posted on social media about endemic birds and their habitats.
Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources Twitter post on the Puerto Rican Parrot
Learning New Ways to Connect
CEBF 2020 was remarkable, offering fresh insights and perspectives through the online experience. BirdsCaribbean and its partners entered a new world of creative possibilities, discovering fresh ways of communicating our important messages on endemic birds. We explored different options, learned to handle Zoom meetings and to present online, and stepped up our social media presence. The response was enthusiastic. The festival was more than just a substitute for regular organized, in-person events. CEBF 2020 highlighted in an innovative way the importance of our unique native wildlife, and emphasized how essential it is to protect our endemic species.
Visit BirdsCaribbean to find From the Nest page, our Youtube channel, and Resources page to enjoy our Endemic Bird of the Day series with photos, puzzles, activities, videos, and more. Follow BirdsCaribbean (@BirdsCaribbean) and your local nature groups on social media with #CEBFFromTheNest and #Festival_de_Aves_Endémicas_del_Caribe.
Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival events are held annually between Earth Day on April 22nd and International Biodiversity Day on May 22nd. Contact your local environmental group to find out about events on your island, or contact BirdsCaribbean to organize an event of your own: CEBF@birdscaribbean.org.
Thank you to all of our partners and friends across the region for participating so enthusiastically and making CEBF 2020 memorable and special. Enjoy the gallery below! (hover over each image to see the caption; click on each photo to see it larger and to view images as a gallery).
Dr. Adrianne Tossas in Puerto Rico gave an outstanding webinar on the endemic birds of Puerto Rico, co-hosted by the DRNE and BIrdsCaribbean.
Artwork from the DR shared by Grupo Accion Ecologica.
Ave Zona in Venezuela was active ni sarhing information about endemic birds and habitats for CEBF.
Bird Photographer in Puerto Rico shared many outstanding photos of Puerto Rico’s endemic birds.
Corredor Biológico en el Caribe shared information about the much beloved endemic Cuban Tody for CEBF 2020.
Participants in our parrot sketching workshop by artist and naturalist Christine Elder, showed off their artwork on social media!
Sustainable Grenadines Inc in Union Island, did a fantastic job sharing sightings of birds at local habitats throughout CEBF!
The Dominica Forestry Dept did a lot of great sharing about birds found Dominica’s diverse habitats.
Parrot expert and enthusiast, Aliya Hosein, in Trinidad, did a wonderful job sharing information, artwork, and stamps of the Caribbean’s endemic parrots
BirdsCaribbean offered online puzzles of endemic birds with each Endemic Bird of the Day; these can be accessed at our From the Nest page.
Dominica’s Forestry, Wildlife and parks Division challenged their followers to ID birds throughout the month.
An updated edition of the acclaimed field guide to the spectacular birds of the West Indies is now available for purchase.
We are excited to announce the recent release of an updated, second edition to the acclaimed field guide, Birds of the West Indies by Herb Raffaele et al.!
Birds of the West Indies was the first field guide to cover and depict all bird species known to occur in the region with any regularity, including infrequently occurring and introduced forms. Now fully updated and expanded, this stunningly illustrated book features detailed accounts of more than 600 species, describing identification field marks, ranges, status, songs and calls, and habitats.
There are more than 100 beautiful color plates that depict plumages of all the species—including those believed to have recently become extinct—as well as distribution maps, a color code for endemic birds, and an incisive introduction that discusses avifaunal changes in the West Indies over the past fifteen years, and the importance of conservation.
Noteworthy Features of the Second Edition:
Covers more than 60 new species, including vagrants, introductions, and taxonomic splits
Presents species in user-friendly order from ocean birds to land birds
Separates vagrants to minimize confusion with regularly occurring species
Updates the status of every species
Features illustrations for all new species and improved artwork for warblers and flycatchers
Color codes endemic species confined to one or only a few islands
And don’t forget: whenever you shop on Amazon (e.g., to buy the new field guide), please shop on Amazon Smile and designate BirdsCaribbean as your charity to support. You don’t pay extra, rather a portion of your regular purchase price comes to us – every little bit helps – thanks in advance!
Music producer Robin Perkins of Shika Shika fuses birdsong with art to benefit the conservation of Caribbean birds! Shika Shika is a record label without owners for music without borders.
My name is Robin. I’m a music producer, an environmentalist, and a long-time bird lover. From the name on my passport, to the name I use on stage, El Búho (the owl in Spanish), birds have always been part of my life. There is something magical and fascinating in their freedom, their diversity and, of course, their song…
Robin Perkins (El Búho) co-founded Shika Shika in 2015 with Agustín Rivaldo (Barrio Lindo) to showcase the new wave of music appearing in cities around the world, inspired by the meeting between folk tradition and modern electronic production. “We love music that brings together worlds, that knows no borders or genre boundaries and that is pushing the fusion between rhythms, cultures, sounds, languages and ideas. We believe in people, we believe in collaboration and we believe in the power of music to impact our lives and our planet.”
I first started making music some five years ago, mixing traditional Latin American sounds with electronic music. I soon became fascinated with the idea of incorporating the incredible soundscapes of the natural world into my music and released my first EP: four tracks inspired by the song of four Latin American birds. This was the start of a beautiful journey that gave birth to “A Guide to the Birdsong”…
The project, which began in my small flat in Amsterdam in 2014, had a simple aim: to persuade a group of musicians or electronic music producers from a particular region of the world to create a piece of music inspired by the song of an endangered bird. Ten exciting artists paired with ten endangered birds. We would crowdfund the production of the album, the artwork and the vinyls. All of the profits would be donated to organizations working to protect these species.
The reaction for this first compilation, “A Guide to the Birdsong of South America” was incredible: we smashed our Kickstarter target, sold out of everything and raised almost US$15,000 for the non-profit environmental organizations Aves Argentinas and Ecuador’s Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco.
The story and the concept captured people’s imagination, drawing their attention to the plight of these beautiful species and their disappearing songs. The amazing music and eye-catching artwork supported concrete actions to preserve these endangered birds and their habitats.
Fast-forward five years and we are on the verge of releasing Volume II: “A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean.” The concept is the same but we have migrated north and shifted our focus to a new flock of species and artists. The movement has also grown with us as we met our crowdfunding goal by over 400%!
The resulting album, which will be released on June 26th, features ten tracks from artists from across the region. For example, Caribbean musicians such as Jamaica’s Equiknoxx and Cuba’s DJ Jigüe worked with the songs of the Jamaican Blackbird and the Zapata Wren. And Maracuya in the Dominican Republic composed the song for the Bay-breasted Cuckoo.
Zapata Wren and Jamaican Blackbird Artwork
We are very happy to partner with BirdsCaribbean as one of our three beneficiaries. This organisation is committed to protecting not only birds and their habitats, but also all that is unique and authentic about the islands. The profits from the album will go to support their Caribbean Birding Trail project, which aims to promote authentic travel experiences that highlight birds and culture, benefit local people, and encourage the protection of the Caribbean’s unique birds and natural resources.
I have always firmly believed in the power of art and music as a tool for change, to deliver a message and raise awareness. My hope is that this project can go some way towards supporting those doing an incredible job in preserving birds, their habitats, and their songs for the generations to come.
Here’s a taste of the album – it’s the song for the Black Catbird (found in Mexico) – one song that has been released from the album thus far:
Editor’s Note:Robin Perkins is the creator of Shika Shika, a record label without owners for music without borders. Their mission is to bring together producers from around the world exploring the line between organic and electronic music. The platform aims to foster global collaboration between artists, designers, videographers, product designers and creative minds across continents.
We are so excited and honored to be partnering with Robin and Shika Shika on this amazing project! Thank you, Robin, and thanks to all for supporting this project! Below are images of the 3 endangered Caribbean endemic birds whose bird song is incorporated into the music on the album. Proceeds from the sale of the album, t-shirts, and artwork will benefit conservation of these birds through our Caribbean Birding Trail project.
The Bay-breasted Cuckoo is endemic to Hispaniola. This large active cuckoo is distinguished by its dark reddish-brown throat and breast and thick curved bill. (photo by Jorge Brocca)
The Zapata Wren is endemic to Cuba and is found only in the Zapata Swamp. (photo by Alvaro Jaramillo)The Jamaican Blackbird lives in the forests of Cockpit Country and the Blue and John Crow Mountains of Jamaica. It is threatened by loss of habitat from bauxite mining, clearing of forest for agriculture, etc. (photo by Judd Patterson)
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us in our virtual “From the Nest” edition! Have fun learning about a new endemic bird every day. We have colouring pages, puzzles, activities, and more. Download for free and enjoy nature with your family at home.
Endemic Bird of the Day: St. Vincent Parrot
The Saint Vincent Parrot or Saint Vincent Amazon (Amazona guildingii) is the national bird of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is endemic to the island of Saint Vincent. This species has striking and unique coloration unlike any other Amazon. There are two colour morphs: yellow-brown (more common) and green. Both have pale heads and bronze-colored underparts, a blue, yellow and orange tail, and green-and-blue flight feathers. The green morph has many green feathers on the back, whereas the yellow-brown morph has the rest of the upperparts largely similar to the body. Males and females look similar. This colourful bird has the colours of the national flag, making it more special to Vincentians.
The Saint Vincent Parrot is found in mature rainforest along western and eastern slopes of the central mountain range. Occasionally, they are seen in nearby cultivated lands. They are usually seen flying in pairs but are observed foraging in flocks on fruits, seeds, flowers and leaves. These parrots nest in cavities of large, mature trees. The female typically lays two eggs, but could lay up to four. They are loud birds with an impressive vocal repertoire. Like most parrots, they are active early in the morning and late in the afternoon, the ideal times to see them in the wild!
The Saint Vincent Parrot was once common, but destruction of its forest habitat, hunting for food, trapping for the cage-bird trade, and hurricanes all led to the parrot’s decline to only 370-470 birds in the 1980s. Thankfully, the parrot and its habitat are now protected by law and the population is slowly increasing. It is now listed as Vulnerable with a wild population of about 750 birds. Continued conservation and public awareness campaigns are critical to saving this species from extinction. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the St. Vincent Parrot!
Download the page from Endemic Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book. Use the drawing above or photo below as your guide, or you can look up pictures of the bird online or in a bird field guide if you have one. Share your coloured-in page with us by posting it online and tagging us @BirdsCaribbean #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the call of the St. Vincent Parrot
The St. Vincent Parrot has an impressive vocal repertoire; they give a loud, scratchy un-parrot-like call gua-gua-gua while in flight.
Puzzle of the Day
Click on the image below to do the puzzle. You can make the puzzle as easy or as hard as you like – for example, 6, 8, or 12 pieces for young children, all the way up to 1,024 pieces for those that are up for a challenge!
St. Vincent Parrots in Flight (Photo by SVG Tourism Authority)St. Vincent Parrot (Photo by St. Vincent Parrot Project)St. Vincent Parrot (Photo by Joel Sartore)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Learn how to draw Cuban endemic birds—the charming Cuban Tody and gorgeous Bridled Quail-Dove—in this fun video by talented artist, biologist, and educator, Josmar Esteban Marquez! The video is in Spanish with English sub-titles. (turn on sub-titles by clicking on the “CC” link at the bottom of the video screen).
FOR ADULTS:Learn more about the birds of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and top birding hotspots in this Caribbean BirdWatch article in ZiNG magazine, LIAT Airlines in-flight magazine. Take a virtual birding trip to the Lesser Antilles, including St. Vincent, and “see” the St. Vincent Parrots in these two fun articles:
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us in our virtual “From the Nest” edition! Have fun learning about a new endemic bird every day. We have colouring pages, puzzles, activities, and more. Download for free and enjoy nature with your family at home.
Endemic Bird of the Day: Ridgway’s Hawk
The Ridgway’s Hawk is found only on the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by the nations of Haiti and Dominican Republic. It is one of the most Critically Endangered raptors in the world, with fewer than 500 birds remaining. It hunts by maneuvering through the thick forest with the help of its broad wings and long tail, or by perching low to the ground in open areas scanning for prey. It feeds on snakes, as well as lizards and skinks, frogs and toads, small rodents, bats, and birds.
This hawk often builds its nest right on top of an active nest of the Palmchat, the national bird of the Dominican Republic. The hawks add larger twigs on top of the existing Palmchat nest, without causing any harm to the smaller birds nesting below. It’s like a two-story building for birds! The Ridgway’s Hawk is not shy around people and will even nest close to settlements and roads. However, nesting pairs are quick to defend their territory against humans or any other predator—they will vocalize loudly and chase off the intruders.
Since the late 19th century, the Ridgway’s Hawk population has been in steep decline. Much of their native habitat is disappearing through clear-cutting of forests and wildfires. Birds are also shot or chicks taken from the nest and killed as people fear these beautiful hawks will prey on their chickens. Fortunately conservationists at The Peregrine Fund, working in partnership with local communities, are making great progress in saving this species from extinction. BirdsCaribbean is supporting on-the-ground conservation work for this species through its Betty Petersen Conservation Fund. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Ridgway’s Hawk!
Download the page from Endemic Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book. Use the drawing above or photos below as your guide, or you can look up pictures of the bird online or in a bird field guide if you have one. Share your coloured-in page with us by posting it online and tagging us @BirdsCaribbean #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the call of the Ridgway’s Hawk
The Ridgway’s Hawk call, is a loud, shrill repeated wee-uh.
Puzzle of the Day
Click on the image below to do the puzzle. You can make the puzzle as easy or as hard as you like – for example, 6, 8, or 12 pieces for young children, all the way up to 1,024 pieces for those that are up for a challenge!
Adult Ridgway’s Hawk (Photo by Pedro Genaro)Immature Ridgway’s Hawk (Photo by Guillermo Armenteros)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Complete our Ridgway’s Hawk Word Scramble! How many words do you know? If you need help, check out our Glossary for some definitions that will help you figure out this word scramble. And here is a the Answer Key to the puzzle.
FOR ADULTS: Learn more about what is threatening the Ridgway’s Hawk survival and how conservationist Marta Curti and communities in the DR are working to save it, thanks to the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund and The Peregrine Fund. Donate here to support this project and save the hawk for future generations to enjoy!
Members of the community of Los Brazos create a home-made sign that reads “Welcome to Los Brazos. This community protects the Ridgway’s Hawk” to show their support of the conservation projectOur field crew in Los Limones organized the painting of a beautiful mural at the entrance to the community to highlight the importance of conserving Ridgway’s Hawk in the area (Photo by The Peregrine Fund)
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us in our virtual “From the Nest” edition! Have fun learning about a new endemic bird every day. We have colouring pages, puzzles, activities, and more. Download for free and enjoy nature with your family at home.
Endemic Bird of the Day: Bridled Quail-Dove
The Bridled Quail-Dove is a mostly orange-brown dove with a white stripe below its eye. Its mournful who whooo call can usually be heard in May during peak breeding season. It is endemic to the West Indies and can be found in forested areas where it forages on the ground for seeds, fruits and the occasional gecko. They use their bill to toss aside leaf litter while searching for food.
It is exciting to see this species because they are quite shy and afraid of humans. If you’re lucky enough to see one, move slowly or stand very still and you may get a glimpse of its shimmering turquoise neck feathers. More often than not, the quail-dove will walk away rather than fly, allowing you a little time to admire its beauty.
The Bridled Quail-Dove is found in the Lesser Antilles, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Its natural habitats are tropical dry forests or moist lowland forests. It is considered uncommon or rare everywhere in its range and isolated populations are declining. Habitat loss from development and hurricanes threaten this species, as well as predation by cats and rats.
Unfortunately, not much is known about the quail-dove due to its secretive nature, but BirdsCaribbean is working with partners to try to learn more about its status on different islands and how we can help. If you want to help too, you can start by teaching others about this bird, as well as supporting conservation of forests in the Caribbean where it occurs.Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Bridled Quail-Dove!
Download the page from Endemic Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book. Use the drawing above or photo below as your guide, or you can look up pictures of the bird online or in a bird field guide if you have one. Share your coloured-in page with us by posting it online and tagging us @BirdsCaribbean #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the song of the Bridled Quail-Dove
The Bridled Quail-Dove call is a mournful who-whooo, on one pitch or descending towards the end, getting loudest in the middle of the second syllable, and then trailing off. Note that there is also a Zenaida Dove calling in this recording; it’s call is coo-oo, coo, coo, coo, the second syllable rising sharply.
Puzzle of the Day
Click on the image below to do the puzzle. You can make the puzzle as easy or as hard as you like – for example, 6, 8, or 12 pieces for young children, all the way up to 1,024 pieces for those that are up for a challenge!
Bridled Quail-Doves forage on the forest floor but they frequently perch on rocks or downed tree trunks to rest and preen. (Photo by Hannah Madden)Bridled Quail-dove (Geotrygon mystacea) in the Quill (photo by Hannah Madden)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Complete our All About Birds Crossword Puzzle! How many words do you know? If you need help, check out our Glossary for some definitions that will help you complete this puzzle. And here is a the Answer Key to the puzzle.
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us in our virtual “From the Nest” edition! Have fun learning about a new endemic bird every day. We have colouring pages, puzzles, activities, and more. Download for free and enjoy nature with your family at home.
Endemic Bird of the Day: West Indian Whistling-Duck
The West Indian Whistling-Duck (WIWD) is a tall, graceful, mostly brown duck with a beautiful haunting call. It is endemic to the West Indies and can be found in different wetland habitats, like salt ponds, mangroves, marshes, swamps, rice fields, and palm savannas. It is always a thrill to see this species because they often remain hidden during the day, roosting in mangrove trees or other vegetation. They become active at sunset when they fly around to different wetlands to feed.
This duck was once common, but populations are now very small and isolated on each island. Destruction of wetland habitats, illegal hunting, and invasive predators (like mongoose) have all contributed to the decline of this species. The gorgeous WIWD is the flagship species for wetlands conservation and education efforts by BirdsCaribbean and partners. You can help save this species by reporting illegal hunting, teaching others about this bird, and supporting conservation of mangroves, ponds and marshes on your island. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the West Indian Whistling-Duck!
Download the page from Endemic Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book. Use the drawing above or photos below as your guide, or you can look up pictures of the bird online or in a bird field guide if you have one. Share your coloured-in page with us by posting it online and tagging us @BirdsCaribbean #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the call of the WIWD
The call of the WIWD is a shrilly whistled Chiriria, which is the origin of one of its Spanish names.
Puzzle of the Day
Click on the image below to do the puzzle. You can make the puzzle as easy or as hard as you like – for example, 6, 8, or 12 pieces for young children, all the way up to 1,024 pieces for those that are up for a challenge!
Close-up of the beautiful West Indian Whistling-Duck (photo by Ray Robles)Two West Indian Whistling-Ducks having a rainwater drink in Antigua (photo by Nick Hollands)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS! Learn about what makes a bird a bird, and play Bird Spy Bingo in your backyard. Parents – some great activities for your kids to help them enjoy and learn about nature in your own backyard. Do one or all of the activities described in this lesson. Print the Bird Spy Bingo game and play with the whole family!
Soaring above the tree tops of Los Haitises National Park is the mighty Ridgway’s Hawk. Conflicts with humans and changes in its forest habitat have made it hard for this species to survive. Marta Curti gives us an update on the exciting work of The Peregrine Fund to save this Critically Endangered raptor.
Since 2000, when we began our project to conserve the Critically Endangered Ridgway’s Hawk in the Dominican Republic (DR), we began to hire and train local crew members to help carry out the field work. In 2011, we increased our recruitment and training efforts greatly. One of our main goals is to make the project sustainable in the long-term, which means giving locals the opportunity and the means to support their families while working directly for conservation.
We currently have over 20 Dominicans employed on our project. Most were born and raised in the very communities where we work, right in the heart of Ridgway’s Hawk territory. These residents range in age from late teens to over 60. They are trained in nest searching, monitoring, data collection, data entry, tree climbing, banding, treating nests to prevent nest fly infestations, and environmental education techniques. They spend long hours in the field, hiking over rough terrain, sometimes in oppressive heat and humidity or torrential downpours, to monitor and protect the hawks. While we are always so grateful for the work they do, this year, more than ever, their commitment to this project has proved invaluable.
Members of the community of Los Brazos create a home-made sign that reads “Welcome to Los Brazos. This community protects the Ridgway’s Hawk” to show their support of the conservation project
Communities Take Up the Reins During COVID-19
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Thomas Hayes (Ridgway’s Hawk Project Director) and Marta Curti (Ridgway’s Hawk Project Environmental Education Specialist), will not be able to travel to the DR for the next several months, if not longer. If this were a “normal” year, we would both be planning a trip now, as the next few months are critical to our project’s success. Ridgway’s Hawk breeding season is in full swing and it is important to continue monitoring, banding, and treating nests. Thanks to our local crew, this work is being accomplished without a hitch!
At our first reintroduction site, the Punta Cana Resort and Club, our team is monitoring 17 pairs. Six of these pairs have hatched 13 young so far this year, while 9 have eggs waiting to hatch! This is an incredible achievement, considering that Ridgway’s Hawks hadn’t been documented in this area since the 1970s and breeding pairs didn’t start to form there until 2013! Though our environmental education efforts have been postponed in order to maintain social distancing, we were still able to reach 1,594 individuals at the beginning of the year. Our crew in Los Limones had a beautiful mural painted at the entrance to the town.
Our field crew in Los Limones organized the painting of a beautiful mural at the entrance to the community to highlight the importance of conserving Ridgway’s Hawk in the area (Photo by The Peregrine Fund)
Los Brazos: An Eco-Friendly Release Site for Ridgway’s Hawks
While our seasoned crews are doing an amazing job in Punta Cana and Los Haitises National Park, we are particularly grateful for the newest additions to our team – our crew from the town of Los Brazos, located within the Aniana Vargas National Park in Dominican Republic. The small town of approximately 100 people relies heavily on the production of shade-grown certified organic cacao. Young and old, men and women, work daily to harvest, dry, process, and sell the crop.
The town itself consists of one dirt road with houses scattered on either side. In and around the town are cacao plantations interspersed with tall trees, wildflowers and wildlife. To maintain the organic certification, they must heed certain rules: no use of pesticides, no killing of wildlife, no cutting of forests. This, and the fact that this area was designated as Aniana Vargas National Park in 2009, was the main reason we chose this area as the newest site for Ridgway’s Hawk releases. Though every area has its unique challenges when it comes to releasing birds of prey, we knew we would be ahead by leaps and bounds releasing birds here. Thanks to support from the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund, we were able to release 25 young hawks in this area in 2019.
Peregrine Fund seasonal biologist, Sete Gañan, leads a jewelry-making workshop in the community of Los Brazos, the site of our newest release site for Ridgeway’s Hawk (Photo by Nicholas Lormand/The Peregrine Fund)
Exciting News to Report
Though we had planned to release another group of hawks this coming field season, we have decided to postpone this year’s releases due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, thanks to our local crew, we have some amazing news to report. Our team has documented a pair of hawks building a nest in the area. This is the first pair formed from the previous year’s cohort of released birds, and a huge step in developing an additional hawk population in this region.
A nestling Ridgway’s Hawk is in good hands with our local biologists (Photo by Nicholas Lormand/The Peregrine Fund)
While there is so much uncertainty in the world at this time, it is an opportunity to focus on the things we are grateful for. I, for one, deeply appreciate the work of our amazing team and their unending dedication to protect this hawk. And I am grateful to the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund and BirdsCaribbean for continuing to support our work.
By Marta Curti, The Peregrine Fund. Marta 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. This project is funded in part by BirdsCaribbean’s Betty Petersen Conservation Fund. Please donate to help this save the Ridgeway’s Hawk!
Our local field crew tracking reintroduced hawks using radio telemetry. Each young hawk was fitted with a transmitter – paid through support from the Betty Petersen Fund – so we could monitor them after release. This is a key part of the program as it helps us keep track of the young birds during the first critical weeks after release (Photo by Nicholas Lormand/The Peregrine Fund)
A Ridgway’s Hawk nest with young (Photo by Nicholas Lormand/The Peregrine Fund)
A local team member climbs a Ridgway’s Hawk nest tree in order to band nestlings before they fledge. Banding young is an important part of our project as it helps us monitor dispersion patterns and survivability of young hawks through band re-sightings (Photo by Nicholas Lormand/The Peregrine Fund)
Our local field crews participate in First Aid training to help keep them safe in the field. This is just one of several training programs we provide (Photo by Nicholas Lormand/The Peregrine Fund)
Peregrine Fund seasonal biologist, Julio Gañan, trains one of our local volunteers, Fredelina Espino Campo, in tree climbing techniques (Photo by Nicholas Lormand/The Peregrine Fund)
Peregrine Fund seasonal biologist, Sete Gañan, observes released Ridgway’s Hawks along with a young community member from Los Brazos. Everyone in the community showed a great interest in the project, and we had visitors both young and old almost every day during the releases (Photo by Nicholas Lormand/The Peregrine Fund)
Sharpen your pencils and prepare your paints, everyone!
The Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) is just around the corner. This year, much of it will be celebrated virtually, as we continue to experience unusual challenges at this time. Nevertheless, BirdsCaribbean has a special surprise for young (and not so young!) bird enthusiasts: a beautiful 64-page Endemic Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book.
Back and Front Covers of the Endemic Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book
“We will be shipping out boxes, free of charge, to our partners to use in their education programs on birds and nature — and of course for their Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) celebrations,” noted Lisa Sorenson, Executive Director of BirdsCaribbean. “Due to the current difficult situation, we realize that the usual exciting CEBF events will not be possible and distribution of the colouring books will be delayed. In the meantime, we will share some pages online with everyone as part of our celebration of CEBF at home.”
With delicate, detailed wildlife drawings by naturalist, educator, and illustrator Christine Elder, and informative text by writer Mark Yokoyama, the book offers children of all ages the opportunity to learn interesting facts while learning the techniques of colouring the birds’ vibrant plumage.
Barbuda Warbler and Hispaniolan Lizard-Cuckoo Colouring Pages
The Colouring Book includes 50 endemic birds, with a focus on the most vulnerable, widespread, and colorful species. The front cover has an extra page that folds in and provides a Colouring Key to all 50 birds. There are also colouring tips, and background information on endemic birds, the threats they face, and how kids can help. At the end of the book there are Activity pages and a Glossary.
Colouring Tips and Colouring Key
BirdsCaribbean is working on preparing the Spanish version of the colouring book — it should be ready within a few weeks’ time. The French version will follow soon after that.
“Kids are often amazed to learn that there are birds and other animals that live only on their island,” commented our writer, Mark. “These birds, and this book, can help them discover how special their home is.”
Artist Christine Elder said, “It was an honor to work with BirdsCaribbean to illustrate these beautiful endemic birds. I’m confident that this book will serve as a valuable tool for conservation and I look forward to seeing the children’s drawings.”
“BirdsCaribbean wishes to thank the U.S. Forest Service International Programs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and BirdsCaribbean members for their tremendous support for this project,” said Lisa Sorenson. “This Colouring Book has been a dream of ours for quite a long time. It was delayed by pressing issues, such as our urgent work on hurricane relief the past several years. We are so proud of the final product. We hope our partners and the public they serve will enjoy using it as a fun educational tool, and we look forward to receiving feedback.”
Help us get these books to children across the islands!
We are short on funds to ship this book to 25+ Caribbean countries as well as funding to print the Spanish and French versions. If you would like to help, please click here. No donation is too small!!
How to obtain copies of Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book
If you are an educator working for an NGO or government in the Caribbean and would like to receive one or more boxes of the coloring book, please fill out this form. To save on shipping costs, we are aiming to limit the number of shipments per country. We ask for help with distribution by a local institution to NGOs and governmental ministries for use at bird and nature education events.
You can download the colouring book for free on our Resources page.
If you would like to purchase a copy of the coloring book (US$7.99 + shipping), we anticipate that we will be able to ship you the book by the end of April. At this time, we can easily sell only to customers in the U.S. or Canada, and in small quantities (e.g., 6 or less). (Customers in other countries, or in need of large quantities, should contact Lisa Sorenson).
You can purchase up to 6 copies of the book via PayPal using the menus below (PayPal will add the shipping). If you prefer to purchase via check, please make the check out to BirdsCaribbean and mail to: BirdsCaribbean, 841 Worcester St. #130, Natick, MA 01760. On your check, indicate the total number of books you would like and calculate the total cost for the books plus shipping by referring to the chart below.
There is a $1 discount for paid-up (2020) BirdsCaribbean members; if you wish to join BirdsCaribbean, click here. If you need to renew your membership, click here. If you are not sure of your membership status, please contact our Membership Manager, Delores Kellman).
Are you staying home right now? Sit back, relax and enjoy this vivid account of a trip around four islands, an adventure in search of the Amazona parrots. Ryan Chenery, the Barbados-based CEO of Birding the Islands will take you there. Ryan’s company is a proud partner of BirdsCaribbean’s Caribbean Birding Trail (CBT) and shares our philosophy of directly involving and benefiting local communities. Birding the Islands tours often using CBT-trained local guides—not only contribute to conservation efforts across the islands but also to support locally owned businesses. These tours are multi-faceted, but…“We always come back to the birds!” says Ryan.
St. Vincent Parrot (Amazona guildingii) (Photo by Birding the Islands client Keith Clarkson)
Birding the Islands and BirdsCaribbean February 2020 trip to: St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Trinidad
Day 1: St. Lucia, Airports and Aupicon
We exit the plane at the vibrant Hewanorra International Airport and get straight into some productive airport birding. We easily spot the endemic subspecies of Carib Grackle and seemingly ever-present (yet fascinatingly split) near endemic subspecies of Bananaquit, flitting from one heavily laden calabash tree to another. A juvenile Merlin perched high atop a swaying Australian Pine is a surprising and welcome addition to our fledgling Lesser Antillean list. What a great start!
As we make for our first birding hotspot of the trip, the spectacular scenery of St. Lucia leaps out at us. This is a breathtakingly beautiful island – the perfect blend of towering forest-covered mountains and pristine white sand beaches lined by sparkling turquoise seas. It is no wonder that, centuries before, the French and British fought fiercely and passionately for the right to fly their flag atop its highest peak.
St. Lucia Parrot (Amazona versicolor) (Photo by Birding the Islands client John Dyson)
We plan our arrival at the sprawling Aupicon Wetlands to coincide with the return to their roosts of several species of heron and egret. After our vehicle winds its way through a corridor of towering Coconut Palms (their produce once the primary export crop of this lush tropical island), we catch our first sighting of migratory Blue-winged Teal and resident Common Gallinule – the brilliant blue wing coverts of the former and radiant red frontal shields of the latter gleaming in the last of the sun’s rays. Adding to the spectacle, large flocks of Snowy as well as Cattle Egrets now begin a near continuous approach to favoured roosting sites in the middle of the wetlands. The darting bills and dancing legs of Tricolored and Little Blue Herons contrast nicely with the bobbing of Pied-billed Grebes and American Coots (white-shielded Caribbean subspecies). A lone Osprey returning from the sea with a freshly caught fish is the cue for us to head to our accommodation for dinner.
Day 2: Endemic Overload!
The morning begins at our peaceful Inn, tucked away in quiet Mon Repos, where we enjoy a delicious buffet breakfast (yes, more freshly picked pineapple is on its way Nick!) on the sweeping veranda overlooking the densely forested hillsides and glittering waters of Praslin Bay.
Mon Repos is ideally located in the vicinity of some of the last remaining Dry Atlantic Forest on the island, and we start the morning’s birding by entering this wilted, scrubby landscape… only to be treated to absolutely cracking views of an inquisitive Mangrove Cuckoo. This seemingly impoverished habitat also yields our first three endemic sightings of the trip. A charming pair of St.Lucia Black Finch forages amongst the leaf litter, their pink legs dancing amongst the crisp brown leaves. With every step closer the gleaming black of the male provides an ever more diagnostic contrast to the soft cinnamon brown of his mate. We also see a stunningly patterned St. Lucia Oriole; and a brilliant adult St. Lucia Warbler, its subtle patterns fully visible in the neutral morning light.
The strikingly patterned St. Lucia Oriole (Icterus laudabilis) (Photo by Birding the Islands client Keith Clarkson)
We continue northwest over the dominant mountainous spine of the island and down to the scenic west coast, gliding through the sleepy towns of Laborie and Choizeul. There is a striking difference between the rich fertile soils found here in the shadow of the cavernous Mt. Soufriere and the parched earth of our last birding site. While living beneath a volcano is not without its risks, the rewards can also be great – as evidenced by the wealth of produce in the form of yams, dasheen, sweet pototato, plantains and much more being sold here at small roadside stalls. The unparalleled fertility of this region also attracts large numbers of indigenous birds, drawn to the wondrous variety of fruiting citrus trees. We soon find ourselves surrounded by a host of other new and exciting regional specialties.
First to appear however is a curious and hitherto unknown species—“the rare St. Lucia Bum Bird”! Or at least that is what we call the odd rufous-feathered buttock sticking out of a large ripe grapefruit at the side of the trail. It is not until the head of the owner of said buttock emerges from the depths of the fruit cavity, that we are able to accurately identify it as a Lesser Antillean Bullfinch. No sooner had our group exchanged smiles and taken photos than a flurry of wings announced the arrival of a splendid Gray Trembler! As is so often the case with this fascinating near endemic (known only to the tiny islands of St. Lucia and Martinique), upon landing the bird immediately begins to convulse its entire body in a violent trembling motion – hence its name. The brief display over, the trembler proceeds to sink its impressive bill into the fleshy centre of the grapefruit, from which the bullfinch had been so unceremoniously usurped!
Gray Trembler (Cinclocerthia gutturalis) about to dig in! (Photo by Mark Greenfield)
“Beak plunging” appears to be the order of the day. An obliging Lesser Antillean Saltator is the next to start tucking into a meal. This time, the weapon of choice is a gargantuan cone-shaped beak, and the victim—the soft flesh of the golden orbed breadfruit.
Lesser Antillean Saltator (Saltator albicollis) (Photo by John MacLennan)
The birding, already going well, suddenly and unexpectedly gets even better as out of the valley below a pair of St. Lucia Parrots wing their way up towards us and perch not 30 feet away. Perfect light and unimpaired views allow for an absolutely enthralling encounter with this large and stunningly patterned parrot—the first in our Search for the Amazonas!
We round off a terrific morning’s birding with a delicious buffet lunch of creole chicken, steamed mahi mahi, fried plantain, and yam pie… all washed down with freshly squeezed lemonade and enjoyed on the balcony of The Beacon—the restaurant with an unrivaled view of the magnificent twin-peaks of Les Pitons.
Back at our locally owned accommodation some of the group enjoy a relaxing late afternoon swim in the pool before dining on yet more delights prepared by the Paris-trained chef. Tonight’s specialty: lobster bisque, flank steak (or Creole mahi mahi) and crème caramel.
Not a bad place to return to and relax after a great day’s birding!
Day 3: A Breezy Farewell
Today sees us make for the pride of St. Lucia – the splendid Des Cartiers Rainforest. Upon arrival, we enjoy our pre-packed breakfasts before starting our way along the well-maintained trail. Here we are immediately transported into another world – one dominated by towering emergents, prehistoric tree ferns and dangling lianas.
When in St.Lucia, Birding the Islands works alongside local guide and BirdsCaribbean partner, Vision, who is a superb “birtanist” (birder and botanist rolled into one) and as we walk, Vision pauses to point out the many fascinating native tree species all around us (and explain their myriad uses). These make for fascinating topics of conversation between birding hotspots.By far the most dominant tree here is the mighty Lansan. It is known only to four Lesser Antillean islands. Its aromatic resin is a key ingredient of the slow-burning incense still used widely in St. Lucia homes to ward off evil spirits.
Our first bird experience in Des Cartiers is certainly one of the most memorable: a St. Lucia Parrot poked its head out of a nest cavity some 50 feet above us. But this ancient forest is to have many more surprises in store before we leave. At an observation area with breathtaking views of the riverine valley below, we enjoy incredibly close views of the Antillean Euphonia daintily hopping amongst strands of mistletoe. A pair of Lesser Antillean Flycatchers interrupt proceedings with a low fly-by. Other arrivals during our time at this site include a fabulous Green-throated Carib effortlessly gleaning insects from the underside of a leaf, a positively delicate St.Lucia Pewee seemingly freeze-framed on a looping vine, and an overly inquisitive Pearly-eyed Thrasher.
The delightful St. Lucia Pewee (Contopus latirostris) (Photo by Jane Hartline)
After a lunch enjoyed on the white sand shores of Cocodan, our final birding stop of the day is the towering peak of Moule a Chique, where we brave the blustery winds to look down upon Red-billed Tropicbirds hurtling beneath us – their brilliant pure white plumage contrasting perfectly with the deep blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) (Photo by Birding the Islands client Keith Clarkson)
Later that evening after a pre-dinner cocktail, we settle in to dine on Kingfish (delivered earlier from the traditional fishing village of Dennery, where the previous day we had the opportunity to witness an intense bartering culture in action). Experiencing the culture of the islands as well as supporting local communities, while illustrating the correlation between us visiting birders and the economic prosperity of many local businesses and citizens is extremely important for Birding the Islands Ltd and our partner BirdsCaribbean. We adopt this approach on every island we visit.
Hold onto your hats!!! Our group high atop Moule a Chique (pictured from Left to Right: the Bajan Birder-Ryan Chenery, Mark Greenfield, Valerie Brown, Ken Kuehn, Jane Hartline, John MacLennan, Bonnie Sample, St. Lucia Guide-Vision James, Jane Fenton, Nick Gibbons and Liz Tymour).
Day 4: Dominica, A Day of Close Encounters
The large boulders dotted throughout this islands’ lush landscape point to a violent volcanic past. However, as our vehicle makes its way around long winding corners and upwards along the coast, the sight of sparse tree canopies and fallen forest giants are glaring reminders of the after effects of a far more recent natural disaster (Hurricane Maria in 2017). This leaves us with a deep appreciation of the hardships endured by the inhabitants of this wild and stunningly beautiful land.
Red-legged Thrush (Turdus plumbeus) (Photo by Birding the Islands client Mark Greenfield)
Arriving at our cliff-side hotel, we enjoy a hearty lunch of line-caught tuna, steamed plantain, and veggie rice, enjoyed throughout in the company of a Red-legged Thrush and an absolutely brilliant Purple-throated Carib—its dazzling throat glinting in the sun as it feeds.
This Purple-throated Carib (Eulampis jugularis) provided constant entertainment at meals (Photo by Birding the Islands client Mark Greenfield)
Later in the afternoon, a sudden downpour restricts any extensive foray into the sprawling Syndicate Estate. But before the rain falls, we are treated to what surely must be one of the closest ever encounters with a Red-necked Parrot (Jaco) in the wild! Having entered the Estate in the presence of Dr. Birdy (Bertrand Baptiste) himself—the most experienced bird guide on the island and long-time BirdsCaribbean partner, we soon find ourselves surrounded by the gleeful calls of several Jaco in the fruiting trees around us. However, one particularly close cry draws us towards a heavily laden guava tree. In the heart of the sparsely leafed tree one of these brightly coloured Amazonas delicately plucks a swollen guava from the tree with its beak, and flies to a low cecropia perfectly positioned over our path. Following an excited period of hastily focusing scopes and training binoculars on the bird, we soon realize that the parrot is so distracted by its food that we can slowly approach—until we are standing a mere 15 feet beneath it! A full half an hour elapses with us caught up in this magical moment with this beautiful bird. Finally, its meal finished, it flies off towards a more secluded area.
What an experience!
Tonight we soak up the tropical ambiance at a candlelit dinner in the outdoor restaurant of our hotel—the sounds of the rolling waves beating against the black volcanic shores below.
Day 5: To the Seas!
After a mid-morning arrival at the bustling port of Roseau, we board our vessel and jet across the waters off the southwest of the island, in search of the giants that call Dominica’s deep oceanic trenches home. A whale-watching trip can be rewarding for pelagics, but in addition to the usual suspects of Magnificent Frigatebirds, Brown Booby and Laughing Gulls, this trip surprisingly only reveals a Sooty Tern and a Red-footed Booby as new species for the trip. The whales however are far more cooperative. We do not have to wait more than twenty minutes before the captain bellows “BREEEECH”! He knows these waters well, and skillfully guides us towards a pod of mighty Sperm Whales in such a manner that the next surfacing is far closer than the last. We are so close we can even listen via hydrophone to the popcorn popping sounds emanating from the giants as they hone in on prey below us!
From the bow of the boat we are afforded superb views as some of majestic behemoths rest near the surface, before resuming their feeding. Sadly the excitement of the encounter apparently proves too much for the engine of our craft, resulting in an earlier than planned end to our whale-watching adventure.
Maintaining our maritime theme of the day, we enjoy sumptuous fish tacos for lunch (what on Earth is in that sauce?) before settling in to a quiet final night at our beach-side hotel on Dominica. The spectacular Brown Pelicans in the height of breeding plumage settle in to roost in nearby trees.
A stunning sunset seen from our hotel room balconies on our last night in Dominica (Photo by Bajan Birder)
Day 6: A Day of Wonder
On our final day in Dominica we wake at dawn to travel into the montane forest for which this island is so renowned. As the skies clear, the birds begin to steadily appear. The methodical notes of Black-whiskered Vireo, a startlingly pugnacious Antillean-crested Hummingbird, and an inquisitive andscratchy-throated Plumbeous Warbler all provide us with excellent views. An obliging male Blue-headed Hummingbird steals the show by feeding at a flowering ginger growing conveniently close to our trail.
The fluid musical notes of a House Wren (Antillean) later lead us to a copse of flowering coffee, and an audience with this endemic subspecies. Increasing research on these islands is leading to many new species splits and the identification of a plethora of endemic subspecies throughout these closely neighbouring islands. That this wren (and many other subspecies in the Lesser Antilles) may well attain full species status in years to come is very possible indeed.
Antillean Crested Hummingbird (Orthorhyncus cristatus) (Photo by Birding the Islands client Keith Clarkson)
The awesome power and force of the hurricane season of two years ago has transformed this forest. A large number of trees have been either felled or their canopies have been blown off. This has resulted in a huge increase in the amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor, which has in turn provided young saplings with the impetus needed in their never ending quest for the heavens. Out of devastation comes new life, and here in this magical setting, new life is all around us. Right on cue, Liz spots a young Red-rumped Agouti scurrying out of a path in front of the group.
Back at the hotel we enjoy our now customary three-course meal before setting off for the airport. An afternoon flight to St. Vincent awaits!
Bonnie and Jane enjoying a chat before heading to the next island on our itinerary – St. Vincent (Photo by Jane Hartline)
Day 7: St. Vincent, The Perfect Send-off
Serenaded by the calls of Yellow-bellied Elaenia and the gentle cooing of Scaly-naped Pigeons, we enjoy breakfast in the spacious open-air dining room of our beachfront hotel, located on the south west coast of spectacular St. Vincent. As we chat and await our meals, we briefly lower our cups of freshly brewed Vincentian to watch a school of flying fish—scales glistening in the early morning sunshine—leaping from the vast expanse of Caribbean Sea. Their gliding attracts the attention of a large number of Brown Boobies and Magnificent Frigatebirds, who immediately alter their flight course in pursuit. The boobies begin shallow exploratory dives, while the frigatebirds attempt to snatch the gliding fish from mid-air. A closer inspection with binoculars also reveals a boiling sea below the birds—perhaps an indication that this feeding frenzy was started by large predatory Dolphin or Crevalle targeting the flying fish from below.
What a start to the day.
Ahh—here come the omelettes!
Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) having just caught a fish (Photo by Mark Greenfield)
After breakfast, the wonderful and knowledgeable Lystra Culzac (Caribbean Birding Trail certified guide) arrives to guide us to the birding hotspots on the island (the best of which requires her having negotiated with landowners for access to private land). We journey along the wave-ravaged Atlantic coastline, through the coastal settlement of Georgetown, with her black sand beaches and wind lashed rooftops and onward north to the volcanic slopes of towering Mt. Soufriere.
Its entrance guarded by brilliantly sapphire-headed St. Vincent Anoles, the well-maintained Soufriere Trail is lined with two species of endemic begonia. The raging Atlantic is clearly visible to the east, and expansive montane forest lines the volcanic slopes to the west. This is a forest in which the weird and wonderful come alive before your eyes. First, we spot the unique dark morph of Coereba flaveola attrata (endemic subspecies of Bananaquit) and St. Vincent Tanagers gorging themselves high in a fruiting fig. The eerily ethereal call of the Rufous-throated Solitaire, deep low notes of Ruddy Quail Dove and positively hyperactive vocalisations of Scaly-breasted Thrashers and Brown Tremblers (an entire genus restricted to the Lesser Antilles) all lead us deep within this ancient primary forest.
Rufous-throated Solitaire (Myadestes genibarbis) (Photo by Birding the Islands client Keith Clarkson)
However the star of the show is so far remaining elusive…and quiet.
The song of the Whistling Warbler can travel for miles. We reach a now dry river bed, which for millennia slowly carved its way through the dark volcanic bedrock beneath our feet – and we hear THE CALL.
Cautious spisshing lures the tiny vocalist ever closer, until in a flash there he is—flitting ever so briefly out of the dense undergrowth, before once again retiring to a dark tangle of mistletoe and epiphyte-laden trunks. This is a Critically Endangered species and we are fortunate to have had even a glimpse.
Some treasures are meant to remain secret.
St. Vincent is a largely quiet and laid back island. We pass several rural communities tucked into the pocketed hillsides of a mountainous interior, on our way to the largest remaining roost of St. Vincent Parrotson the planet.
The tracks leading up to this secret location are narrow and heavily potholed, so we abandon our van and climb aboard a 4wd SUV—the only vehicle capable of making this ascent.
Crossing streams home where Green-throated Caribs bathe, lined with a multitude of tropical butterflies, we soon arrive at a quiet small holding perfectly framed by a scenic ridge.
As we arrive at the summit of the ridge, that quintessential call of parrots the world over begins to echo out of the east.
They are coming…
The birds first arrive in pairs (their constant calls seeming to reassure their respective life partners of their presence in the now steadily fading light), but slowly their numbers build, to the point where dozens of this once critically endangered parrot are winging their way over our heads.
A pair of St. Vincent Amazons (Amazona guildingii) winging their way in to roost (Photo by Birding the Islands client Keith Clarkson)
The thrill of being directly beneath them is exhilarating. However, we are only able to get a clear view of the truly spectacular deep blues and vibrant greens and oranges of their flight feathers when the parrots begin to tack hard and low down towards their favoured roosting trees, against a backdrop of the lush, verdant, forested valley below. These are stunningly beautiful birds. As they settle in to land, there are audible gasps of delight from our group.
We spend a full hour in the presence of St. Vincent’s national bird, enjoying every rhythmic twist and turn of their approach. This is one of the undoubted highlights of the trip.
A celebratory Dinner that night is a selection of creole fish dishes, washed down by the local Hairoun beer!
Day 8: Trinidad, The Spectacle
Masked Cardinal (Paroaria nigrogenis) in Caroni Swamp (photo by Mark Greenfield)
Several of us wake early to enjoy another dip in the calm waters typical of this Caribbean coastline. Then we settle into a delicious breakfast of pancakes and french toast, or for those of us feeling adventurous—salt fish buljol with all the local fixins!
The short 15-minute drive to the airport is filled with fond reminiscing of the variety of unique Lesser Antillean species seen… but we also talk about the many South American wonders that await.
We touch down in Sweet Sweet T&T (as the popular soca song so fondly refers to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago) and are met by beaming Lester Nanan (our terrific local guide and grandson of the renowned conservationist Winston Nanan). We board a large comfortable bus and as we have arrived at midday, it is not long before a cooler is produced and we begin tucking into pre-ordered(and gigantic) chicken rotis (done the traditional Trinidad way—bone and all) as well as veggie rotis brimming with large chunks of mango, papaya, eggplant and more.
Trinidad is such a contrast to the small quiet islands of the Lesser Antilles that we have spent the last week travelling between. The area around the airport especially has the feel of a large metropolis. But (delicious rotis in hand) we are soon leaving all this behind and making for one of the treasures of the Caribbean—the Caroni Swamp.
En route we stop to bird productive grasslands, sheltering such vibrant secrets as Red-breasted Blackbird and Saffron Finch. We visit sheltered ponds and canals home to a plethora of water—loving species—from blazingly neon-crowned Yellow-hooded Blackbirds and nesting White-headed Marsh Tyrants to Southern Lapwing and Pied Water Tyrants.
The birding is thick and fast, but as 3pm arrives, we gather back at the bus in fervent anticipation of our next destination.
There are several wetlands in the Western Hemisphere that get birders’ hearts racing, and the Caroni Swamp is one of them. This sprawling 12,000-acre wetland is home to one of the greatest spectacles in the animal kingdom—the return to roost every evening of over 3,000 Scarlet Ibis!
Tropical Screech Owl (Megascops choliba) perched directly above us (Photo by Mark Greenfield)
Although this is the main event, the warm up acts are none too shabby, as evidenced by the pair of roosting Tropical Screech Owls, their intricately patterned breast feathers perfectly mirroring the marbled bark of the White Mangroves in which they roost. We have good views of the superb stock-still Boat-billed Herons from our flat-bottomed boat, as it negotiates its way through the mangroves.
Cruising through the mangroves in our comfortable flat-bottomed boat
As we edge deeper into the swamp, the long tendril-like roots of Red Mangroves seem to reach ever further into the water, providing prime perching positions for an unbelievable array of species. The roots are festooned with oysters, barnacles and home to a plethora of Mangrove Crabs…and occasionally Mangrove Boa. A magnificently coiffured Masked Cardinal and dainty Bicolored Conebill, along with both Green and Pygmy Kingfishers, all give us cause to pause and admire. We are even treated to a vociferous exchange between warring factions of Grey-necked Wood Rails!
After almost an hour of delightful travel we approach the famous roost site, a welcome low tide ensuring an added bonus encounter with 30 American Flamingos.
As we tether the boat, and start to share out the locally brewed rum punch and freshly baked pastries, wave upon wave of 50, 100, 200 ibis at a time begin continuously streaking by. Before long the dark green of the mangrove island upon which they roost is unrecognisable. It has been transformed into a rhythmic and convulsing mass of colour. The brilliant reds of the breeding adults contrast perfectly with the soft subtle pinks of non-breeders—all set against the wondrous backdrop of Trinidad’s stunning Northern Range.
An unforgettable experience.
Scarlet Ibises (Eudocimus ruber) coming in to roost (Photo by Mark Greenfield)
Later that evening we arrive at the world-renowned Asa Wright lodge where a delicious buffet dinner awaits us. We duly indulge, before strolling to our cottages located in the heart of the densely forested Arima Valley.
Day 9: Dawning of the Light
At daybreak we make our way to the veranda of the main lodge where, coffee in hand (locally harvested from trees on the Asa Wright estate), we settle in and prepare for what is surely one of the most incredible birding experiences in the region.
Below us, the waking sun is proving the catalyst for the inhabitants of this vast rainforest to begin to stir. The sprightly melody of a Cocoa Thrush, the rapid-fire staccato of a White-flanked Antwren and cat-like call of the Spectacled Thrush, mixed in with the somewhat demonic laughter of the Barred Antshrike combine and build to a feverish crescendo.
Barred Antshrike (Thamnophilus doliatus) (Photo by Biridng the Islands client Beatrice Henricot)
As more light steadily filters down through the canopy, the last of the nocturnal brigade (in the form of Pallas’s Long Tongued Bats) begin to surrender their positions at the feeders to a veritable onslaught of colour.
A sudden white flit across the feeders—the breast of a White-chested Emerald; a sprinkle of neon pink – the stunning crown of a male Ruby Topaz; brilliant orange ear tufts and a gently bobbing tail diagnostic of the bedazzling Tufted Coquette.
The dazzling Ruby Topaz (Chrysolampis mosquitus) (Photo by Birding the Islands client Beatrice Henricot)
And still they come.
There are the dazzling rich blues and emerald greens of Blue-chinned Sapphires and glistening Copper-rumped Hummingbirds—so close you can see the minuscule fluffy white garters on their legs.Purple as well as Green Honeycreepers, White-bearded Manakins, and Violaceous Euphonias all join the fray. In the distance, away from this hive of activity, a pair of Green-backed Trogons are taking turns to diligently and carefully excavate a cavity in a termite nest affixed to a gargantuan trunk. A dozen feet below them, a lone Golden Olive Woodpecker silently begins its measured investigation of the same tree.
With all of this birding brilliance, we almost miss breakfast…almost.
The entire day is ours to walk the myriad trails coursing through the private forests of Asa Wright, and after breakfast we begin by heading down Jacaranda Trail for an encounter with Oilbirds. Isolated from the rest of the bird world in a family of their own, living in caves and using echolocation to negotiate their nocturnal feeding forays, this is easily one of the strangest birds we connect with on the trip. The cave at Asa Wright is one of the most accessible sites to see them in the world and we are rewarded with sensational views! On our way back, and after passing under a spectacular Bee Orchid, we soon enter the realm of the Bearded Bellbird—its otherworldly metallic call boldly proclaiming this land to be his. Once we have tracked the call down to a favoured perch, the bird is brilliantly visible, its superb wattled neck flickering in the shafts of sunlight with every resounding CLANK of its call.
Bearded Bellbird (Procnias averano) (Photo by Birding the Islands client Steven Kornfeld)
After this excitement we retire in the heat of the day to the veranda, where we continue to watch the birding entertainment on show. Some of us round off the afternoon with a dip in the cool fresh water pools found throughout the Centre grounds.
After dinner, our night walk provides a fascinating insight into the lives of some of the nocturnal residents of these forests. Huge Trinidad Chevron Tarantulas cling to bamboo stalks; minuscule but “swerve-worthy” scorpions, velvet worms and land crabs line the banks of the roadside; and bats flutter almost constantly overhead.
Day 10: Desserts and Delightful Birding
The Asa Wright Centre grounds are superb, but to get a true sense of the variety of inhabitants of the highest peaks in the Northern Range, one must take to the Blanchisseuse Road. We do so on our final full day in Trinidad.
Birding is slow and steady at first, with initial stops revealing sightings of Tropical Parula and a magnificent pair of Collared Trogons. Later the ground appears alive with army ants, allowing for a close (but not too close) examination of the intricate relationship that Cocoa and Plain Brown Woodcreepers as well as Great Antshrikes have with these tiny marauders of the forest floor.
Great Antshrike (Taraba major) (Photo by Birding the Islands client Keith Clarkson)
We enjoy lunch at a local chocolatier’s farm, where the proprietor explains that his return to the land and harvesting of cacao has had a positive effect on many local communities in and around Arima, with an upturn in financial independence. The birding is good here too, for Rufous-breasted Hermit, Turquoise Tanagers, a Lineated Woodpecker, and hordes of Yellow-rumped Caciques all appear as we are wrapping up our chicken pelau and treating ourselves to a dessert of his delicious chocolates!
Turquoise Tanager (Tangara mexicana) (photo by Mark Greenfield)
At our final stop, the scale of diversity and sheer beauty of the birds of the Northern Range is truly revealed. Rufous-tailed Jacamars swoop from favoured perches to pluck swallowtail butterflies effortlessly from the air. A pair of Scaled Pigeons select the highest possible perch and turn purposefully to catch the last of the afternoon light on their brilliantly chevroned breasts. A young Forest Elaenia pleads with her parent, which ever so delicately plucks and then proffers a berry to its offspring to take a bite. Later a flock of seven spectacular Blue-headed Parrots silently wing their way in to a nearby cecropia and are joined at the canopy by a stunning Channel-billed Toucan. We cap off our frenetic and highly rewarding birding of the highlands with a young Yellow-headed Caracara flying directly over our bus. A pair of Tropical Kingbirds is hot in pursuit.
Day 11: A Ferruginous Farewell
On our final day of the trip, and after our now customary morning visit to the veranda, we take a leisurely stroll along the driveway that winds its way into the Asa Wright Centre. The forest that has yielded so many of its treasures to us has one more surprise in store: a superb sighting of a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, which staunchly resists the urge to flee from incessant harassment by a large mixed flock of tanagers and flycatchers.
Life in the rainforest is never dull…for any of us!
At the airport, before boarding our flight, we pay a visit to the best Doubles hut on the island and positively chow down on these uniquely Trinidadian delicacies. There’s no way we were going to come to Trinidad and not have Doubles. The fusion of chickpeas, sweet tamarind sauce, pickled cucumber and hot sauce lights up the taste buds, and is a perfect send off to our tour—a tour which has given us a true flavour for the spectacular birding that the Lesser Antilles and Trinidad has to offer.
Thanks to our Caribbean Birding Trail partner, Ryan Chenery and his company Birding the Islands, for this positively wonderful and enticing trip report! To learn how you can join Ryan and BirdsCaribbean on our next In Search of the Amazonas tour (Nov. 21st to Dec. 1st, 2021) please contact Ryan at thebajanbirder@gmail.com. To learn more about the Caribbean Birding Trail, birding sites, tours, and guides throughout the islands, click here.
An absolutely stunning look at Oilbirds, one of the strangest birds we connected with on our February 2020 trip. Isolated from the rest of the bird world in a family of their own, Oilbirds live in caves and use echolocation to negotiate their nocturnal feeding forays. The cave at Asa Wright is one of the most accessible sites to see this species in the world and we were rewarded with sensational views!
Aliya Hosein shares about her recent trip to Saint Vincent to learn more about the endemic St. Vincent Parrot, one of the most beautiful and colorful parrots in the region!
St Vincent Parrot (Photo by Nandani Bridglal)
I recently enjoyed an exciting trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I spent nine days on this wonderful, mountainous island; and I can certainly say that St. Vincent Parrots (Amazona guildingii), flying over the lush ridges at Jennings Valley, was the most memorable sight of all.
I spent months preparing for this trip. I carefully planned lodging and flights and made endless calls to my friend Cathlene Trumpet, who is a Forestry Officer with over fifteen years of service to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Forestry Department. Among the questions I asked her were “Who sells the best burgers and donuts on the island?” and “Where should I go to see the parrots?” Then it was time to leave Trinidad and fly towards my adventure.
Cathlene and I met through the Conservation Leadership in the Caribbean (CLiC) Fellowship Program. For 18 months we worked on an intense, sometimes hilarious, and occasionally scary project on the illegal trade in Blue and Gold Macaws in Trinidad. I remember being in awe as Cathlene related stories about the national campaign to build pride among Vincentians for their endemic parrot. Later, I flipped through my “Parrots of the World” book to find a picture of it.
In the past the St. Vincent Parrot, locally called the Vincie Parrot, was targeted for the local and international pet bird trade because of its beauty and rarity. Although St. Vincent and the Grenadines is made up of over 32 major islands, the St. Vincent Parrot is found only on the mainland of St. Vincent. Poaching and hurricanes, from colonial times to the present day, are still significant threats to the parrot’s habitat. These pressures have resulted in it being listed as Vulnerableon the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, and in Appendix I by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). It is estimated that there are only 850 St. Vincent Parrots in the wild.\
How Gorgeous is the St. Vincent Parrot!
Saint Vincent Amazon in flight (Photo by Nandani Bridglal)
This parrot lives mainly in the upper west and east ridges of the central mountain range, just south of Mount Soufriére and the La soufriére volcano at elevations between 125 to 1,000m. It is a large parrot, certainly larger than the Orange-winged Amazon (Amazona amazonica) I am used to seeing in Trinidad. About 40 cm long, it is mostly bronze-brown, multi-colored with yellowish white, blue and green head, greenish-bronze upperparts. It has grey feet, reddish eye, and violet blue-green wings. Its tail feathers are centrally banded violet-blue with broad yellow tips. Two morphs exist: a yellow-brown morph and a less common green morph. Male and female birds are similar. The parrot feeds on the flowers, nuts, fruits and seeds of many plants such as Ficus, Clusia and Cecropia.
There Is More to Be Learned
At the breeding facility at the Botanic Garden (Photo by Cathlene Trumpet)
Before making the trek up into the moist montane forest to see the parrots, I had the pleasure of meeting the Director of the Forestry Department, Mr. Fitzgerald Providence. Initially I was intimidated by his title and stacks of reports on his desk. But once we settled down in his office, I was relieved to find out that he was delightfully welcoming and eager to tell me about St. Vincent.
We chatted about the island’s biodiversity; about flora and fauna both known and waiting to be discovered. He had noticed that the feeding habits of the parrots were changing. The parrots are now visiting agricultural areas on the island. He attributed this change to the influence of climate change on fruiting patterns of the parrot’s natural food plants. In general, however, he felt that much was still to be known about the St. Vincent Amazon. This parrot was proving to be quite mysterious. I was hooked and more than ever wanted to see them in the wild.
Afterwards we visited the Botanical Garden of Saint Vincent where there is a breeding facility for the parrots. The breeding program was established to provide a safety net for the parrots should there be a sudden decline in the wild parrot population following, for example, a hurricane.
An Early Morning Start
The next morning, Cathlene, Ray – her fellow Forestry Officer – my friend Nandani and I headed to Georgetown in a 4-wheel drive along the winding highway. It was five in the morning and people were already up and moving. The radio was airing an announcement to farmers and a reminder of the soon-to-be closed hunting season. We stopped to pick up Ian, another Forestry Officer, before continuing along the highway.
Sunrise over Jennings Valley (Photo by Nandani Bridglal)
After about 20 minutes we ventured off into a narrow rugged road leading to Jennings Valley. We arrived at a farmed property with a small cottage. The sun was now beginning to rise and I really did not expect to see or hear any parrots. About 10 minutes into our uphill walk to the look-out point we heard their loud squawks “quaw….quaw…quaw” followed by shrieking “scree-ree- lee.” It was enough to stop us in our tracks. Pairs of parrots were emerging from the ridges north of us. It was still too dark and all we saw were their silhouettes.
As the sun began to rise more parrots began flying out, sometimes directly above us. I was mesmerized by the many colours of the St. Vincent Parrot in the sunlight, against an all-green backdrop. At times it seemed as though the pairs were touching each others’ wings while flying. The largest flock we saw was a group of twelve. They were all squawking, possibly deciding where to go to have breakfast. By now we had reached the look-out; a plateau with mountain views on the northern, western and southern sides and the deep blue Atlantic Ocean on the eastern side.
The Group, Gosfield Charles, Cathlene Trumpet Wyllie, Aliya Hosein, lan Christopher, and Ray Charles, at Jennings Valley (Photo by Nandani Bridglal)
For about an hour or so we continued to see parrots flying over. Only one pair flew down into a golden apple (Spondias dulcis) tree near the cottage. I could not see what they were doing from my vantage point, but my guess is that they were feeding, because they were very quiet. A flock of three flew over us. Ian suggested it was a family in which the parents, with their stocky bodies and short tails, were leading the way, with their offspring straggling behind. After this sighting there was a lull in activity. The parrots either rested at the top of the trees or disappeared into the trees along the mountain ridges. We waited for about an hour again before leaving.
It really was a remarkable experience seeing the St. Vincent Parrots flying free, with people who truly appreciated their beauty. Nevertheless there is still a lot to learn about these birds’ ecology and their role in the island’s montane forests. Not much is known beyond its population estimate and description of nesting sites. An understanding of its habitat requirements and reproductive biology are critical components of well-developed protective measures to ensure the long-term survival of this incredible bird on the island.
Article by Aliya Hosein, member of BirdsCaribbean’s Media Working Group. Aliya works as the Leader of the Welfare and Wildlife Program at the Centre for the Rescue of Endangered Species of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a biologist and avid conservationist, especially fond of parrots and hummingbirds.
BirdsCaribbean is excited to support Nils Navarro’s newest project: an updated, comprehensive Field Guide to the Birds of Cuba. This is an ambitious and exciting venture, and we need your help to make it a reality!
Illustrations by Nils Navarro.
Nils Navarro is Co-Chair of the Caribbean Wildlife Art Working Group of BirdsCaribbean. He has dedicated his life to the study and conservation of the biodiversity of his native Cuba as well as other areas of the West Indies and Latin America. He holds a degree in Fine Arts with a specialization in painting. An extraordinarily versatile and internationally recognized wildlife artist and illustrator, Nils’ work is characterized by a refined technique combined with a profound understanding of the biodiversity of the Caribbean region. He is an avid conservationist and has pioneered the promotion and formation of young wildlife illustrators and artists in the Caribbean and Latin America. He co-authored the ground-breaking Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Cuba in 2017 and has published a new edition each year since.
Nils began work on the field guide over a year and a half ago. The new guide will contain the largest number of illustrations by species published by any guidebook on Caribbean birds. Nils will be accomplishing this over five years by drawing upon a thorough review of the literature, museum collections, and field work, as well as Nils’ personal experience, and his role as an eBird reviewer for the island. The field guide will cover the different species, subspecies and plumages, dimorphism, and much more, through a new and practical structure never before used for such a guide.
There has never been a better time to produce a guidebook like this. For the first time in the history of the country, there is a local community movement of birdwatchers who are making significant contributions to the knowledge of Cuban birds. This is accomplished through platforms based on citizen science (eBird Caribbean) and sharing knowledge (via Facebook), and the local community requires an updated comprehensive field guide for identification. Many of these people use a field guide as the main tool for their work. In addition, many people from all over the world visit Cuba to birdwatch. They will appreciate having a a new comprehensive guide that covers all of Cuba’s birds.
If you’re interested to purchase Endemic Birds of Cuba: A comprehensive Field Guide by Nils Navarro, click here. This book covers the endemic birds of Cuba as well as the regional endemics.
Join Jennifer Wheeler as she shares real-life stories from the field about the challenges of saving the endangered Black-capped Petrel, aka Diablotin, from extinction. You might laugh, you might cry, you might want to join the project. Hopefully you’ll feel as inspired as we are about the future of this species, thanks to the hard work of many organizations and people.
Only a very small number of people on the planet can say they have had close contact with a Black-capped Petrel. This mid-sized seabird comes to land only to breed, only at night under cover of darkness, and often heads quickly out of sight into underground burrows. This covert behavior as well as the species’ eerie, wailing vocalizations in the night sky, earned it the name Diablotin (“little devil”) from early European and African arrivals to the Caribbean. It was the birds that should have been afraid: human settlement of the Caribbean, accompanied by the introduction of invasive mammals, reduced the Diablotin from abundant on many Caribbean islands to widely considered extinct by the early 1900s.
The Black-capped Petrel nests in burrows or crevices located at typically hard-to-reach, high-elevation spots in both the Haitian and Dominican Republic portions of Hispaniola. Petrel burrows have yet to be found on any other island (Photo by Jim Goetz)
I’ve been cheerleading and coordinating conservation of the Diablotin for a decade, working with numerous partners in the International Black-capped Petrel Conservation Group. The species turns out not to be extinct but very rare. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and the total world population is estimated at no more than 1,000 breeding pairs. Only about a hundred Diablotin burrows have been located to date, all on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic). It’s actually much easier to see a Diablotin out at sea than find one inland.
My first encounter with the species was in 2009. I saw them zipping by at a distance over the open ocean from the Stormy Petrel, a seabirding tour boat operating out of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Though the Diablotin’s breeding range is limited to the Caribbean, it turns out that they concentrate in a foraging area off the southeast U.S. To observe them at sea, one needs to be out over deep marine waters near or in the Florida Current and Gulf Stream, and that is most easily done where the Outer Banks protrude into the Atlantic. In the subsequent years, I got no closer, and I certainly wasn’t one of the group of people that could say they had touched a Diablotin, seen one up close, or even smelled their fishy body odor. Last year, I decided it was time to change that.
The small number of people who have seen a Black-capped Petrel have usually seen them at a distance from a boat well out at sea in deep marine waters (Photo by Jennifer Wheeler)
Hoping for Haiti
In April 2019 I planned on experiencing the Diablotin first-hand on a trip to Haiti. This is the country where most of those one hundred burrows are known to occur. In fact, it was in Haiti that they were re-discovered on a mountain ridge in 1961, after being lost to science for decades. This is miraculous considering that Haiti is one of the most deforested nations in the world, with some estimates that Haiti has retained less than 1% of its primary forest. Almost all of Haiti has been converted to agriculture or grazing, and secondary forest is degraded by wood-cutting and forest product collection. Petrels don’t need trees for nesting but trees and shrubs provide cover and root structure needed for burrow construction. Additionally, socioeconomic conditions in Haiti are so dire that people encountering these species are quite likely to consume them, which of course, is what introduced rats, cats and mongoose would like to do.
The Black-capped Petrel’s exact nesting locations in Haiti have not been easy to find. Even with the knowledge that they persisted on Haiti, it took until 2002 to locate an active burrow and until 2011 to see a living chick. Finding that little fluffball took an incredible number of hours crawling along cliffs and the forest floor, aided by information collected by radar and automated sound recording devices.
There is a small but significant nesting population of Diablotin in southwest Haiti, in a small patch of primary forest near the village of Boukan Chat. Since the discovery of the Diablotin in this area, local and international conservationists have been building relationships with the citizens of the village. Beginning with humanitarian projects, conservationists now pursue a strategy of improving farming practices and empowering local farmers to convert to more sustainable crops. More productivity on existing farmland reduces the likelihood of encroachment into the forest. Winning the hearts and minds of the local people also involves outreach, education and celebration. Foremost among these is the now annual Festival Diablotin Boukan Chat, which I had hoped to personally experience.
The conservation of the Diablotin relies on the actions and support of the local people. In the Haitian village of Boukan Chat, farmers are encouraged to switch to sustainable tree crops in buffer areas around the remaining patch of forest harboring petrels (Photo by Ernst Rupp)
Unfortunately, 2019 was not a good year for Haiti and its people. Anti-government protests turned violent last February, with accompanying increases in crime. The U.S. State Department and other authorities advised against travel to Haiti. Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) is the organization spearheading much of the education and outreach in Boukan Chat. Adam Brown, project leader, made the disappointing but prudent decision to cancel attendance by international festival team members, including myself.
And yet, civil unrest did not deter the local members from carrying on with the festival! Boukan Chat held a Black-capped Petrel parade with musicians, pupils, farmers, and community members from the village to the soccer pitch. The celebrations ended with a soccer match between two soccer teams, including the appropriately logo’ed Boukan Chat team, ‘The Diablotins.’ There was a nighttime screening of the short film, Haiti, My Love, My Home which tells how the villagers, conservationists and humanitarians, have come together to protect the Diablotin. EPIC just released another amazing film The Diablotin Festival, which portrays the festival and just about makes me cry every time I watch it. I sincerely hope I can attend the Diablotin Festival in-person in the future, and more importantly, that peace returns to Haiti.
A young man in a Black-capped Petrel costume leads the parade during the Festival Diablotin held in Boukan Chat, Haiti. The festival also includes a soccer game and film screening, and is designed to instill interest and pride in the rare bird nesting in nearby forest (Photo by Anderson Jean)
Lost (it) At Sea
May 2019 brought a new opportunity to encounter petrels. This involved another trip on the Stormy Petrel in North Carolina, but with a twist. A team would be attempting to capture petrels at sea in order to fit them with tracking devices. The goal was to learn more about Diablotin movements, and if the transmitters lasted until breeding season the following winter, track them to possibly new and unknown nesting locations. The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) invited Chris Gaskin from New Zealand and his super nifty, specially designed hand-held net launcher for the job.
New Zealander Chris Gaskin prepares the air compressor used to launch a spreading net into the air. The net was specially designed to capture flying Black-capped Petrels at sea, in order to fit the birds with tracking devices (Photo by Jennifer Wheeler)
Even with this, I confess, I was a doubter. There was no way this was going to work. Petrels are fast flyers and don’t come all that near to boats. What I didn’t realize was that Chris would be shooting from a small, inflatable Zodiac, which apparently doesn’t spook petrels, especially those fixated on the smelly fish oil put out to attract them. On May 8, as I prepared to drive down to North Carolina from Virginia to join in the expedition, I received a text with an image of a flying net enfolding a Black-capped Petrel!
Turns out that the team was fantastic at catching petrels. Brian Patteson, captain of the Stormy Petrel knew where to find the birds. Brad Keitt with ABC and Pat Jodice with the U.S. Geological Survey South Carolina Coop unit at Clemson University took turns piloting the Zodiac and Chris into position. Chris never missed after his first shot. Yvan Satgé, also with Clemson, deftly fit each bird with a small solar-powered tracking device and took measurements and photos. Arriving in North Carolina, I helped celebrate the first six Diablotin ever captured at sea and I couldn’t wait to observe and assist.
The weather did not cooperate. The first day after I arrived the seas were too rough to be safe. The next day the seas were too calm; open ocean seabirds like wind. The third day was too rough again. I was out of time and actually began driving home. What was I thinking!?! An hour out I came to my senses and turned back to Hatteras to wait for good seas. Finally, on May 14, conditions looked very promising. And they were! It was so exciting to see a bird netted by Chris and watch the Zodiac speeding back to the boat to hand it over to me. And then, the dream came true: I held a living Diablotin in my hands!
One of the first Black-capped Petrels ever to be caught at sea and fit with a satellite tracking device awaits release. In total, 10 birds were tagged in May of 2019, tracking petrel movements to as late as January 2020 (Photo by Jennifer Wheeler)
Not for long. I rushed to disentangle the net, then thrust the bird into someone else’s hands so I could rush to the side of the boat and throw up my breakfast. My big chance to handle a live Diablotin and I nearly foul its feathers with vomitus. Sigh. I was seasick for the rest of the day, providing only comic relief while the rest of the team successfully captured and fitted four more birds with satellite transmitters. Over the months to come, the birds’ movements were followed via satellite. Amazingly, the bird I almost upchucked upon was still transmitting 8 months later, longer than any other. Maybe it felt the love.
Determined in Dominica
As noted, one of the hopes of the satellite tracking was to see if any of the birds traveled to new nesting locations. Diablotin burrows have been found only on Hispaniola, but hope and evidence exists that they also persist on other islands: notably Dominica, where evidence is very strong. In 2015, radar surveys performed by EPIC picked up 900+ petrel-like targets heading in and out of the mountains of that island. Additionally, individual birds were observed through night-vision scopes during those surveys. And over many years, a handful of grounded birds have been found well inland. Following the radar surveys, technical exchanges were arranged to train and assist in ground searching. In April 2016, a team from the Dominican Republic visited Dominica; another exchange in the opposite direction took place in April 2017. Unfortunately, bad weather limited search time and no burrows were located on Dominica. Then, petrel work and just about everything else on that island was derailed when Hurricane Maria blasted Dominica in September 2017, the strongest storm in that island’s recorded history.
Jennifer Wheeler takes a break on a newly opened trail in Trois Pitons National Park, Dominica, during a January 2020 expedition to look for evidence of Black-capped Petrels on that island. (photo by Stephan Brown)
Last month, I invited myself to assist EPIC’s trip to Dominica to repeat radar surveys after five years and to help resume ground searches. Overcoming the challenges of arriving in Dominica late and alone, needing to navigate across the island’s high mountains in the dark, and driving on the “wrong” side of the road, I began to feel quite confident and helpful. I met with staff from the Division of Forestry; attended to the logistics of rental car, rental house, and groceries and obtained the heavy marine batteries needed to power the radar. My greatest success was finding a supply of small desiccant packs (those little bags of silica used to absorb moisture). I visited a dozen shops dealing with computers, appliances, and clothing, affirming that yes, I did mean those little packets that say Do Not Eat, and finally, met success at a shoe store! I was so proud. But pride goeth before the fall.
Did I mention that Dominica has really narrow roads? And it was hard to see my front left side while driving with a right side steering wheel? Fortunately, the burly body-builder was very nice about the big dent I put in his car. Repairing the suspension from shoving his car into a culvert was going to be costly though. The good news was that the damage to the rental truck was minor! You can be sure that I was relieved to turn over the driving to Adam Brown when he arrived on the ferry from Guadeloupe after two weeks of radar surveys there. And I must report that Adam often turned over the driving the really winding roads to local team members Machel Sulton and Stephen Durand. Things went smoothly after that.
We assembled the marine radar equipment and headed into the hills. Sure, setting up takes some work, but this field activity was really pleasant. We positioned ourselves on a hilltop and watched the sun set, enjoyed the cool breezes, and looked and listened for night flying creatures. Petrels appear as a distinctive pattern of blips on the radar screen. Adam would note them coming and call out for us to attempt a sighting with the night vision or thermal image scope. As was the case in 2015, the surveys detected a number of petrels at a number of locations, flying rapidly in and out of the mountains. The peak of activity commenced about 45 minutes after sunset and tapered off at about three hours. At 9 p.m. we were packing up and headed to dinner, excited about our findings but a little concerned about the drop in petrel target numbers since 2015.
Adam Brown, Stephan Durand and Machel Sulton set up for an evening of radar surveillance in Dominica in January 2020. Five years earlier, the first radar surveys conducted on the island revealed hundreds of petrel-like targets flying in or away from several of Dominica’s mountains (Photo by Jennifer Wheeler)
Daytime work to place soundmeters required more exertion. Radar surveys only point the way to the peaks where petrels might be nesting. Placing automated recording devices in these areas to collect any vocalizations helps narrow down the sites and seasons to search. As noted, work on Dominica to find petrels discontinued in late 2017, and the trails to the peaks selected for soundmeter placement had yet to be cleared of trees felled by hurricane and two years of new growth. Division of Forestry foresters are really very good breaking trail with machetes; regardless, it was a slow, hot hike up to the first of the selected peaks. It was certainly not unpleasant, given the varied foliage, numerous orchids and occasional songbird; but I wish we had packed more food! Once we reached higher elevations, there was the chance of finding petrel burrows so off trail into the thick, prickly underbrush we went. Crawling through the dirt, peering under roots and sniffing at holes, I fantasized about finding a burrow entrance. I’m a finder by nature—I’m happy to spend hours looking for beach glass, fossils, antiques—and I just KNEW at any moment, I would see a hole with a tell-tale plop of guano or catch a fishy whiff of petrel. What a find it would be! Alas…I did not nor did anyone else. There is still no documented nesting in Dominica since 1862.
Persistence
Now it’s February, and petrel conservationists are gearing up for field work and community-based conservation on Hispaniola. I’ve heard that the biologists in Cuba are planning an expedition into the Sierra Maestra. There will be detailed reports coming out on the surveys in Guadeloupe and Dominica, with the findings from monitoring and recommendations for continued searches. Soundmeters are placed and listening. The members of the International Black-capped Petrel Conservation Group are strategizing for the long term and seeking funds. With the Diablotin, we must be persistent. Finding the petrel is difficult; contemplating the magnitude of its threats—human population growth, habitats invaded by introduced mammals, and climate change foremost among them—can be overwhelming. But as long as there are Diablotins, there is hope.
Here’s one more story to serve as a symbol of surviving against the odds. After placing a new soundmeter in Morne Trois Pitons National Park in Dominica, we went in search of one deployed in 2017 and actually found it. It was bleached, scratched, and breached by rainwater. The tree to which it was strapped was broken and battered by the 160 mph winds of a Category 5 hurricane. It was difficult to open the unit. Yet the SD card inside survived, containing readable data. Miracles do happen.
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 Board member and Treasurer of BirdsCaribbean for 8 years. She is currently co-chair of the International Black-capped Petrel Conservation Group and Financial Officer for BirdsCaribbean.
The activities noted in this article were largely supported by Seabirding/Stormy Petrel, Environmental Protection in the Caribbean, Plant with Purpose, Jeune En Action Pour La Sauvegarde De l’Ecologie En Haiti, Soulcraft All-stars, Grupo Jaragua, BirdsCaribbean (and the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund of BirdsCaribbean), American Bird Conservancy, U.S. Geological Survey South Carolina Coop unit at Clemson University, Dominica Division of Forestry, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Disney Conservation Fund.
Please Donate!
To help save the Black-capped Petrel from extinction while also working with the people of Haiti to farm more sustainably, please donate here or here.
To view larger images in the gallery, click on each photo; they may also be viewed as a slide show.
Conservation actions in Boukan Chat, Haiti include educational programs for both adults and children. The long-term goal of these programs is to provide local people with knowledge and appreciation for sustainable agriculture and other livelihoods that increase standard of living and protect natural resources into the future. (photo by Anderson Jean)
Adam Brown takes a GPS measurement on a ridge overlooking a valley where radar detected petrel movements in and out of the nearby peaks (Photo by Jennifer Wheeler)
Stephen Durand takes in the view overlooking a Dominica valley where radar detected petrel movements in and out of the nearby peaks. (photo by Jennifer Wheeler)
A soundmeter placed in early 2017 in Dominica’s Morne Trois Pitons National Park was recovered in 2020. Though the data are yet to be analyzed, the unit’s sound card was intact inside the unit, despite the devastation wrought by Category 5 Hurricane Maria (Photo by Stephen Durand)
Members of the team aboard the Stormy Petrel are all smiles after a successful expedition to catch Black-capped Petrels at sea. Can you tell who was seasick most of the trip? Back row, left to right: Yvan Satge, Chris Gaskin. Front row: Captain Brian Patteson, Jennifer Wheeler, Kate Sutherland, Brad Keith.
Jennifer releases a Black-capped Petrel fitted with a satellite tag.
The Cayman Islands Government is urging residents who are keeping Cayman Parrots as pets to have their birds registered with the Department of Environment (DoE) before February 29th, 2020. This amnesty is part of the Government’s efforts to reduce poaching and prevent further decline in the wild parrot populations on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac.
The Grand Cayman Parrot (Amazona leucocephala caymanensis) and the Cayman Brac Parrot (A.l. hesterna), both represent the national bird of the Cayman Islands. The local name is “Cayman Parrot” but these parrots are a subspecies of the Cuban Parrot, which occurs in Cuba, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands and was formerly called the Rose-throated Parrot (read more on eBird Caribbean).
The Grand Cayman Parrot is generally green, with a white forecrown, white eye-rings, red cheeks (depending on whether male or female), black ear patches and blue wing feathers which are only seen in flight. Their tails are green with blue edges and red and yellowish-green underneath. The Cayman Brac Parrot is smaller in size and has a more pure white forehead with a large maroon area on its abdomen.
Cayman Parrot in the wild (Photo by Jane Håkonsson)
As is typical of parrots, they are active during the early morning, when they go out in search of fruits and berries. During the breeding season they look for food as well as tree cavities in which to raise their young. When resting quietly after their morning activities, they ‘comb’ and clean their feathers using their beaks. It is almost impossible to spot them at this time as they are perfectly camouflaged among the leaves of the trees. In the late afternoon they return to their roost.
The Cayman Brac Parrot previously inhabited Little Cayman but its prime nesting sites were destroyed in the Storm of 1932. It now has the smallest known range of any Amazon parrot in the world. Its survival depends entirely on the protection of remaining old-growth forest which can still be found on Cayman Brac.
Natural disasters such as hurricanes are a threat to the Cayman parrots’ survival—but not the only one. Habitat loss through development and trapping for the illegal pet trade also jeopardize the future of these birds.
DoE Research Officer, Jane Håkonsson, inspecting a pet Cayman Parrot
These parrots have been highly sought “gifts” and pets, even though they are protected by law. It is illegal to trap, sell and keep the birds in captivity. Yet, many people still keep them as pets. In an effort to curb the illegal trade in the national bird, the DoE set up a six month amnesty program, running from September 1st 2019 to February 29th 2020. Pet parrot owners can now legally register their birds without the risk of their pets being taken away.
Each pet parrot will be checked by a veterinarian, given an identification number printed on a small band around the parrot’s leg and implanted with an identification chip, similar to the ID tags used to register dogs and cats, at no cost to the owner.
About a year ago, the DoE started a collaboration with a private member of the public to open a much-needed Parrot Sanctuary in East End. The Cayman Parrot Sanctuary boasts native plants and trees. Parrots that are not yet able to return to the wild are housed in secure, clean and spacious aviaries. The Sanctuary is managed by Australian-born Ron Hargrave, who is very much invested in the conservation and well-being of parrots and Cayman wildlife.
The Sanctuary takes in injured parrots and provides rehabilitative care, with the goal of releasing the birds back into the wild population. The birds have a much higher chance of survival in the wild following releases from the sanctuary. They are given thorough medical exams and their health is continuously monitored. Parrots are also taught how to be wild birds again. They have natural foods to eat and learn where to find them; they are also able to form social bonds with other parrots.
Cayman Parrot at the Parrot Sanctuary (Photo by Jane Håkonsson)
Following every release, the birds are provided with temporary supplemental feeding stations. Their behavior and movements are monitored in the wild. To date seven parrots have been released.
Not all parrots can be released back into the wild. Therefore, pet parrot owners are discouraged from releasing their pet birds themselves. They should instead contact the DoE. Also, if you are a Cayman Parrot owner but have not yet registered your bird, please call Jane Håkonsson on 925-1807 or 949-8469 or email doe@gov.ky.
Spread the word and help protect the Cayman Islands’ national bird for generations to enjoy!
Special thanks to Aliya Hosein (Leader of the Welfare and Wildlife Program at the Centre for the Rescue of Endangered Species of Trinidad and Tobago) and Jane Ebert Håkonsson (Cayman Islands’ Department of Environment Research Officer) for this blog article!
From all of us at JCO, thank you to all of the authors and reviewers that contributed to a very successful Volume 32!
Inside you’ll find a sizable number of publications, including 16 research articles, our first designated “Conservation Report,” 4 book reviews, Recent Ornithological Literature from the Caribbean, and a special In Memoriam for the late Dr. James. W. Wiley.
I want to give some much-earned recognition to the 2019–2020 JCO team. While they were undertaking the aforementioned load of manuscripts, they were working double-time to make some incredible improvements behind-the-scenes. Let me just say that it’s no easy task to create and adopt a new workflow while you simultaneously have a dozen manuscripts—each at different stages— moving through the old workflow. And this new workflow means better communication, a higher-caliber final product, and a more efficient pathway for a manuscript to proceed from submission to publication. All great things!
Please take some time to enjoy all of Volume 32. Inside you’ll find a suite of excellent work stemming from more than 17 countries across the Caribbean. We should all take pride in this work and make the time to congratulate each other on all of these accomplishments. If you enjoyed reading a publication, please send the authors a quick email letting them know. That is what makes Caribbean ornithology special—a sense of community and comradery unlike anywhere else.
Thank you for your support of JCO!
— Justin Proctor, JCO Managing Editor
Map depicting research locations of the studies published in Volume 32.
On December 3rd, 2014, ornithologists spotted an American Pipet during an annual Cuba Bird Survey led by the Caribbean Conservation Trust. Previously undocumented in Cuba, this observation marks the first report of this species on the island, and underscores the importance of the Guanahacabibes region as an important stopover for fall migrants.
James F. Dwyer, Thomas I. Hayes, Russell Thorstrom, and Richard E. Harness
After a translocation program for the Critically Endangered Ridgway’s Hawk was stymied by electrocutions in the Dominican Republic, Dwyer et al. began to investigate. In this article, the authors identify the errors made while retrofitting power poles and discuss the necessity of properly mitigating electrocution risks for this project, and others throughout the Caribbean.
Meghann B. Humphries, Maribel A. Gonzalez, and Robert E. Ricklefs
Currently, there are eight subspecies of Carib Grackle distributed across the Lesser Antilles and northern South America. By sequencing mitochondrial genes of Carib Grackles across their range, Meghann et al. shed light on the phylogenetic and geographic history of the species, bringing into question the bases for the subspecies classifications.
In response to the dearth of current literature on the White-crowned Pigeon, Acosta and Mugica compiled the latest data on this Vulnerable species in Cuba. Here, they present their findings, focusing on the current distribution of the species as well as conservation measures that have contributed to the perseverance of the species.
Anthony Levesque, Antoine Chabrolle, Frantz Delcroix, and Eric Delcroix
While the Sedge Wren commonly winters in Florida, it has yet to be recorded in the Caribbean, until now. In this article, Levesque et al. recount their sighting of this species on Grand Bahama Island, providing descriptions and photographs of the bird’s diagnostic features and the habitat where it was located.
Christopher C. Rimmer, John D. Lloyd, and Jose A. Salguero-Faria
After Puerto Rico was identified as potential overwintering habitat for the globally Vulnerable Bicknell’s Thrush, Rimmer et al. conducted surveys to clarify the species’ winter distribution on the island. Here, they report that Bicknell’s Thrush is a rare and local species in Puerto Rico and highlight the importance of conservation efforts in Hispaniola, where the species is more abundant.
In 1796, Nicolas-Thomas Baudin captained an expedition to the caribbean, bringing back close to 300 specimens; however, there is controversy surrounding their procurement. After investigating the origin and spread of these specimens, Jansen and Fuchs document their findings and address the arguments of theft made by David K. Wetherbee (1985, 1986).
Currently, the six subspecies of Turkey Vulture are delineated by external measurements and subtle plumage variations, with the Antillean Turkey Vultures falling under Cathartes aura aura. However, through photographic documentation and eBird records, Graves calls attention to the similarity of facial caruncles on Turkey Vultures throughout the caribbean to those present on the eastern United States and Middle America populations. As facial caruncles are largely absent from South American populations, Graves’ work brings into question the diagnostic nature of these markings.
While there are no species of geese native to Jamaica, vagrant or introduced species have been recorded intermittently on the island. Here, Levy amalgamates the scattered history of three geese species in Jamaica and presents a new record of a Snow Goose, illustrated in 1758: the second Snow Goose ever recorded in Jamaica.
Though the comb forkedfern is native to the New World tropics, it is invasive to protected areas in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. By comparing the bird diversity between invaded habitats and fern-free habitats in the Mason River Protected Area, Davis demonstrates that increased incidence of comb forkedfern decreases bird diversity, particularly native species. Through this, Davis urges the importance of controlling fern spread to protect native bird and plant species.
Richard R. Schaefer, Susan E. Koenig, Gary R. Graves, and D. Craig Rudolph
Though the Jamaican Crow and Jamaican Boa co-occur in certain habitats in Jamaica, there are no published reports of their interactions. By detailing four accounts of mobbing by crows on boas and one probable instance of depredation of a crow’s nest by a boa, Schaefer et al. are the first to document a presumably ongoing feud between these two native species.
With violently strong winds, hurricanes are known to displace birds and transport them to new and unusual habitats. That is why, when Hurricane Maria passed over Puerto Rico on September 20th, 2017, Pérez-Rivera was ready. Here, he documents several unusual bird sightings made by him and others in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
The island of La Gonâve, Haiti, boasts a diversity of bird habitats and has historically sustained a variety of both diurnal and nocturnal raptor species. However, due to rampant environmental degradation and habitat destruction, it is rarely visited by ornithologists or wildlife researchers. After conducting raptor surveys on La Gonâve in 2012, White et al. compared their findings with historical records of raptors on the island, noting that only a few generalist species have been able to sustain populations.
While the Shiny Cowbird is native to South America, over the past century, this brood parasite has spread across the caribbean archipelago and into North America – but how and when did this dispersal occur? In an effort to document the introduction and spread of this species in Jamaica, Levy compiles historical observations of Shiny Cowbirds and postulates a potential hurricane-mediated arrival on the island.
André Dhondt, Jeremy L. Collison, Matthew H. Lam, Matthew J. D’Ambrosio, and Taylor L. Crisologo
Palmchats are among the few passerine species that build complex, multi-chambered nests; however, there are no published studies of their nest-related behavior. After studying Palmchat nests in the Dominican Republic, here, Dhondt et al. report on their observations, noting differences in group size, nest size, twig-related activities, twig length and shape, and nest construction.
William E. Davis, Lisa G. Sorenson, and Ernesto Reyes Mouriño
On January 28th, 2018, birders on the BirdsCaribbean Cuba Bird Tour in Ciénaga de Zapata National Park, Cuba, spotted an almost entirely white Willet amongst a group of Short-billed Dowitchers and other Willets. In this article, Davis et al. present photographic evidence and a detailed description of this leucistic Willet and use phenotypic characteristics to classify it as a western subspecies.
Since its introduction to Cuba in 2003, the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival has achieved paramount recognition for its talks, conferences, competitions, workshops, exhibitions, and other ornithological events. By uniting and strengthening the national network of environmentalists, this festival has expanded its scope of activities and built its capacity to prepare and distribute educational materials.
[this is our first publication under the header “Conservation Reports” – we invite more of these!]
Jason M. Townsend, Rafaela Aguilera Román, Felisa Collazo Torres, José González Díaz, Chandra Degia, Hiram González Alonso, Floyd E. Hayes, Lyndon John, Steven C. Latta, Lourdes Mugica Valdés, Nils Navarro Pacheco, Fernando Nuñez-García, Carlos Peña, Herbert Raffaele, Pedro Regalado, Ernesto Reyes Mouriño, Yaroddy Rodríguez, Bárbara Sánchez Oria, Helen Snyder, Joseph Wunderle
Summary: This In Memoriam of Dr. James W. Wiley not only celebrates his foundational research career, with four decades of published work, but also the profound personal connections he built through his mentorship and friendship. Twenty authors contributed to this piece, paying homage to Jim and painting a beautiful picture of the life he lived.
A special thank you to Dr. Steven C. Latta, Director of Conservation and Field Research at the National Aviary and longtime editor for JCO, for his continued efforts undertaking this important section of our journal that compiles recent publications from around the Caribbean. Steve has been contributing ROLs to JCO since Volume 22 in 2009.
“My idea then was to catch everything that was published after the publication of Jim Wiley’s “A Bibliography of Ornithology in the West Indies” which I always thought was a tremendous effort and a tremendous resource. I wanted to make it easier for people across the Caribbean to have ready access to the most recent literature by knowing what had been published and how to contact the researchers for copies of their papers. I also wanted to make the updating of the bibliography a whole lot easier.”
Steve has done an outstanding job and we encourage our readers to look back through his work over the past 10 JCO volumes, which can all be found in our free and open-access Archives.
Article by (1) Simon Campo – Editor for the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology and a Researcher at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT; Connect with Simon via LinkedIn or email; (2) Justin Proctor – Managing Editor for the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology; and (3) Aliya Hosein – Centre for the Rescue of Endangered Species of Trinidad and Tobago.
Journal of Caribbean Ornithology relies on donations to keep all of our publications free and open-access. If you would like to support our mission and the broader goal of giving a voice to Caribbean ornithologists and their work, please consider becoming a supporter of JCO.
The Red-legged Thrush is a key seed disperser in the forests of the Dominican Republic. (photo by Dax Roman)
Spencer Schubert’s adventures into the remote corners of the Dominican Republic Part continue, all in the name of science and conservation.
If you are reading this, I probably do not have to convince you that birds are great. The more interesting discussion to be had, of course, would be what makes them so great. We are all drawn to birds for different reasons. For some of us, the sights and sounds they provide to the ambience of our backyard or local natural area are enough to endear them to us. For many others it comes from their experience as pet owners. Even the tradition of hunting can inspire reverence for birds and a passion for their conservation. I have always liked birds, but I can hardly claim that they were any more interesting to me than lizards or turtles, for example. Indeed, on my grumpiest of days, I sometimes refer to myself as a failed herpetologist.
My gateway to birds has been a fascination with their role as seed dispersers. It may not be the first thing that you notice, but no matter where you go, as long as you’re standing on dry land and there is some green vegetation nearby, you would be hard pressed to find somewhere where there aren’t birds eating fruits and seeds. These feeding behaviors by birds are a key component to many terrestrial ecosystems. By swallowing fruits or otherwise carrying away seeds in their bill, potentially flying great distances, birds give plants a major boost in their potential to propagate in the environment.
Our restoration plots, constructed in 2017, are small pasture areas each about the size of a basketball court. By enclosing these areas with barbed wire fences, our objective was to eliminate the effects of cattle grazing, trampling, and landscaping efforts by farmers in order to observe the process of seed dispersal and plant growth. Perches with crossbars were installed to attract birds and collect droppings and seeds.
One of the major implications of seed dispersal in a world with ever diminishing forests is the prospects for degraded ecosystems to bounce back. About two years ago, I contributed an article to this blog on up-and-coming work in the small town Jarabacoa in the central mountains of the Dominican Republic. I was studying whether constructed perches could be used to attract birds to restoration sites on abandoned parcels of farmland, with the goal of promoting natural seed dispersal and forest recovery. It all began with a simple principle: If you build it, they will come.
To some extent this was true. We found that installing perches increased the number of birds visiting restoration plots. However, some key seed dispersers such as the Palmchat, Black-crowned Palm Tanager, and Red-legged Thrush – to name a few – showed little to no interest in our perches. So, I got to thinking, maybe we need a better sales pitch.
Have you ever walked down the streets of a popular street in town looking for a place to eat or hang out? Would you rather walk into an establishment that is silent with no sign of people inside or one that is bustling with music and laughter? Atmosphere is what you’re looking for. All else being equal, you’re much more likely to walk into a restaurant that sounds like there are a lot of people inside than one that is quiet and seemingly empty. We use these social cues to inform our judgments of the quality of different businesses all the time. As it turns out, birds are not so different.
Birders will already be familiar with the magic of playback. Many bird species are readily stimulated by hearing their own call and often rush in to investigate whether the sound is from a mate, new neighbor, or a potential intruder to the territory. This is often used to draw in shy birds for us to have a closer look at them or prompt them to reply for better identification (Note: Playback may cause unnecessary stress for some species, particularly during nesting season, and is prohibited in some parks and in many cases for threatened species). Similarly, birds may be drawn to the sounds of both their own kind and other species as a signal to flock up to find high quality habitat or food.
Black-crowned Palm Tanager (Phaenicophilus palmarum) feeding on Inga vera. (photo by Spencer Schubert)
Here is where my idea set in. One aspect of my studies over the past four years has been the community-level analysis at our sites in the central Dominican Republic in an attempt to fully document all feeding/dispersal relationships between all of the bird and plant species that occur here. Through thousands of hours of observation, we have uncovered enormous variation in the extent to which different bird species act as seed dispersers.
Some “generalist” species are responsible for dispersing the seeds of large numbers of plant species. For example, our research has revealed that the Palmchat eats fruits from 42 species. That’s nearly half of all trees and shrubs that are found, collectively, at the sites we have surveyed! Other “specialist” species, like the Antillean Euphonia, are only known to feed on fruits from just a few species. So, if you were any average Joe Bird in the mood for some tasty fruits, which of these species would you rather take a recommendation from?
Antillean Euphonia (Euphonia musica) feeding on a mistletoe (Phoradendron racemosa). (photo by Spencer Schubert)
This is, effectively, the question we asked with our latest experiment. By broadcasting sounds of fruit-eating generalists, specialists, and birds that do not eat fruits in separate trials, we sought to test how these sounds affect bird activity in our restoration plots. We expected, first of all, that the sounds of particular species would attract members of that same species. Additionally, we expected experimental trials with sounds from generalist birds to attract more birds in general than in trials with sounds from specialists, non-frugivores, and no sound. We used digital video cameras to record the activity of birds in the plots during these experiments. At this time, we are still reviewing the footage from this study. But we have already seen some fascinating results! Several species that we had never before recorded in the plots were confirmed as visitors responding to the sound of their own species during this experiment.
Here we see a family of Grey Kingbirds (Tyrannus dominicensis) frolicking among the perches in one of our restoration plots. Kingbirds are, nominally, insectivores. However, they supplement their diet heavily with a large variety of fruits. Their propensity to venture out into open spaces to hunt for insects makes them highly prolific seed dispersers in deforested landscapes. (Video by Spencer Schubert)
Our work demonstrates that sound and social cues are likely a key factor in birds exploring degraded landscapes. And this exploration and habitat use by birds has a direct relationship with seed dispersal. While our work is only a first glance into these relatively unexplored aspects of bird behavior, there is reason to believe that it could have key implications for environmental management and conservation. Beyond simply tricking birds into showing up to a particular site, taking various measures to promote the local abundance of birds through providing resources and habitat can extend well beyond improving the well-being of birds. Helping birds in this context has great potential for restoring the ecosystem services like seed dispersal that birds provide, which will be key in our future struggle to support biodiverse and resilient ecosystems.
As an extension of plant surveys and phenology monitoring, we used a make-shift space at our field station to germinate and rear seedlings of more than 30 species. At the end of the summer, Plan Yaque Inc. helped us transport these to a large scale nursery that supplies ongoing forest restoration projects for the Ministry of the Environment.
In the time since the inception of our project, we have taken steps to ensure that measures will be taken to improve management practices to make landscapes more supportive of bird populations. Our biggest push in this regard has been emphasizing the importance of planting native species both in restoration areas and in backyard landscaping projects to support native birds.
Over the past year, we have collected seed and grown seedlings of more than 30 species of native plants, all of which produce fruit resources for birds. In July of this year, we donated more than two hundred of these seedlings to Plan Yaque Inc. (a local NGO working to conserve natural resources in the Rio Yaqui del Norte watershed) and the Ministry of the Environment to incorporate into routine forest restoration projects, including the plots where we have done our experiments. We hope that this will be an important first step to reforming forest restoration practices so that they may become more sustainable and effective in promoting native biodiversity.
A Palmchat, endemic to the Dominican Republic and an important seed disperser, uses one of our artificial perches. (photo by Holly Garrod)
I owe gratitude to many individuals and organizations for their roles in supporting this project over the past several years. Chiefly among these were project technicians: Joaris Samuel Gonzalez and Juan Miguel Liberata. Field assistants: Alex Lascher-Posner, Paris Werner, Kim Shoback, Tyler Glaser, Alejandra Monsiváis, Juan Carlos Cárdenas, and Lara Grevstad. Dr. Eric Walters of Old Dominion University helped advise the project and has been instrumental in the progression of my ideas and my development as a scientist. Holly Garrod has closely partnered with this project as a collaborator during the course of MS thesis on todies of Hispaniola. Local organizations Plan Yaque and Rancho Baiguate have provided key logistic support, without which this work would not have been possible. Furthermore, numerous private land owners have generously received us on their farms to conduct our field studies. This research was funded jointly by the Rufford Foundation, the Sophie Danforth Conservation Award from Roger Williams Park Zoo, the Old Dominion University Kirk Wetland Research Award, and the David S. Lee Fund from BirdsCaribbean.
By Spencer Schubert. Spencer is Ph.D. student in the ecology program at Old Dominion whose thesis focuses on the contributions of avian seed dispersal to tropical forest recovery and plant-frugivore seed dispersal networks on farmland landscapes in the Dominican Republic. Spencer is a recipient of two BirdsCaribbean David S. Lee Fund Grants and is using his research as a platform to raise interest in the ecological importance of birds for restoration projects in the region around Jarabacoa.
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