The Caribbean islands are home to 172 endemic bird species that are found nowhere else in the world. Many survive on just one island. Right now, these birds, and their habitats, are under increasing pressure from badly planned commercial development, poaching for sport and subsistence, as well as increasingly deadly storms due to climate change, to …
Plastic is killing our planet – not least our beautiful birds. But you can help! This year, the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) and World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) address this critical issue with the conservation theme Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution. While migration is in full swing, in the Caribbean, it’s …
It’s a hit – for students, teachers and communities. “This program is so well designed that once introduced to educators it sells itself. It brings knowledge with the help of fun activities, and because birds are all around us, it helps children and adults alike to better appreciate our immediate surroundings, and inspires environmental stewardship …
Thank you to the Growing Editorial Team at JCO. With the recent completion of The Journal of Caribbean Ornithology’s 31st volume, I would like to recognize the outstanding new team that has come together at the journal. Managing Editor Justin Proctor has done a tremendous job organizing a copy editing team that has helped us …
“I honestly finally feel like I can tackle shorebirds, with some level of comfort and confidence. I am so excited to get back out and practice!” Natalya Lawrence, Coordinator of the Offshore Islands Conservation Programme at Antigua’s Environmental Awareness Group, said this just after she returned from the Conserving Caribbean Shorebirds and Their Habitats International …
We wrap up our series of our 30th Anniversary celebrations with this final video. In the Caribbean we celebrate not only the diversity of our birds (172 bird species found only in the region!), but also our members. For 30 years we have brought people together from dozens of countries to learn from each other, …
In April 2018, we published an article about the controversial export of threatened parrots from Dominica to Germany. After the 2017 hurricane season, the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP) exported two Sisserou (Imperial Parrots; Amazona imperialis) and ten Jaco (Red-necked Parrots; Amazona arausiaca) in March 2018. ACTP claimed that establishing a captive breeding population at …
BirdsCaribbean is excited to announce the first recipients of grants from the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund. Three excellent projects focusing on endangered birds endemic to the Caribbean were selected among many deserving proposals. Projects in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and St. Lucia were granted over $132,000 through the fund, with commitments of an additional $114,000 …
The Avalon is setting sail again this May for important shorebird and seabird conservation and research. The mission is a continuation of on-the-ground protective and restorative measures to limit human-caused disturbance and control invasive Australian pine at key shorebird and seabird sites in The Bahamas with support from Conservian, BirdsCaribbean, Bahamas National Trust, and partners. …
The last time we met them, Yvan Satgé and his colleagues from Grupo Jaragua and USGS – South Carolina Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit were hiking up and down the high slopes of Loma del Toro, in the Dominican Republic. They were in search of active Black-capped Petrel burrows in which to set traps for …
Another short entertaining video in our series celebrating our 30th Anniversary! Thanks to our members and partners for sharing your thoughts with us in creative and entertaining ways! First up is our partner, Sustainable Grenadines Inc. (SusGren), based in Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Drone footage shows recent progress on the restoration of …
We are 30 years old, and what a year 2018 – the Year of the Bird – has been! The Caribbean has had another extraordinary year. It has been a “Tale of Two Cities” – or rather, two different groups of islands. On the one hand, it has been a story of restoration and a …
2018-2019 Awards Now Open! Size of Award: Several grants up to $1,000 each Application Deadline: December 20th, 2018 at 5 p.m. EST. Address Questions and Send Application to: Will Mackin, Co-Chair Seabird Working Group, BirdsCaribbean, wicbirds@yahoo.com; copy to info@birdscaribbean.org Announcement of Awards: January 18th, 2019 Donations to the Fund: Tax-deductible (U.S.) at this link. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ David S. …
With so many recent tragic and conflicted events occurring in the world, BirdsCaribbean wants to share something uplifting. As part of our continuing 30th Anniversary celebration, we present you with a two-minute glimpse of what our Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Mexican colleagues are doing to conserve birds and their expressions of appreciation to BirdsCaribbean. Please …
BirdsCaribbean’s Seabird Monitoring Manual, released in English in 2015, has undergone final copy-editing and has been translated to Spanish and French. All three versions, now dated 2018, are downloadable in PDF format [English Spanish French]. Yvan Satgé of the South Carolina Cooperative Unit of the USGS and Clemson translated the manual to French with help from Régis Gomès (Association pour …
Hannah Madden, an ecologist with the Caribbean Netherlands Science Institute, provides an update on the status of the Bridled Quail-Dove one year after the tiny island of St. Eustatius was ravaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Surveys just after the storms indicated the population was smaller, but similar to pre-hurricane levels. However, the extensive vegetation …
“Almost daily, we learn more about what astonishing creatures shorebirds are, but at the same time how their populations are disappearing,” said Dr. Charles Duncan, Former Director of the Shorebird Recovery Project and BirdsCaribbean Director-at-Large . “World Shorebirds Day celebrates their wonder and brings attention to their plights. And in that celebration, we are reminded of …
Bahama Nuthatch observations fuel hope for the species One of the rarest birds in the Western Hemisphere, the Bahama Nuthatch, has been rediscovered by research teams searching the island of Grand Bahama. The finding is particularly significant because the species had been feared extinct following the catastrophic damage caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, and …
Chirp chirp I cried Flapping my wings from the sky To see all my siblings from another egg Black, white, and even red From the quit of the banana To that of the dowitcher Terns and herons Plovers and flycatchers Doves and even the belly yellow elaenia Nice how we diversify The lagoon who’s gravity …
Its local name is “Little Devil.” But not much is known about this elusive bird, either on land or at sea. An intrepid group of conservationists go on an expedition in the mountains of the Dominican Republic to find out more about the Black-capped Petrel. A Seabird in the Mountains We park the pickup trucks …
Join BirdsCaribbean, the Caribbean Birding Trail and acclaimed Cuban bird guide, Ernesto Reyes Mouriño, on the adventure of a lifetime in January or March of 2019. Cuba is well-known for its amazing landscapes, vibrant culture and unique biodiversity. According to the new Endemic Birds of Cuba: A Comprehensive Field Guide, 371 birds have been recorded …
I recently attended BirdsCaribbean’s week-long Caribbean Birding Trail Interpretive Guide Training Workshop on Union Island in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. I learned many things, including bird identification, guiding techniques and the importance of conveying a message on your tour. One of the highlights of the training for me, however, was learning to identify shorebirds. …
The most recent, comprehensive look at Caribbean breeding seabirds is now available at an extremely reduced cost! This island-by-island inventory of Caribbean seabirds includes colony locations and estimates of the numbers of breeding pairs, the severe threats that seabirds face, and proposals for research and conservation measures. In the past two decades, global populations of …
Jennifer Wheeler shares “postcards” from her recent volunteer vacation in the Bahamas, where she sailed the ocean blue with a crew of dedicated conservationists. She shares stories from a week spent in the beautiful northern Exumas, surveying and banding shorebirds and seabirds, and removing invasive plants. Dear folks, I’m recently back from my “volunteer vacation” in the …
Scott Johnson shares with us his recent experience conducting surveys of Bahama Parrots in the wilds of Great Abaco with Dr. Frank Rivera-Milan— read on to find out more about the challenges these birds face and the results of their work. The chilly 52 degree breeze stung my face as I headed to our champagne …
Imagine a vast expanse of rectangular saline ponds in surreal colors – pinks, turquoises, greens – that reach out towards the horizon, flanked by a collection of enormous, immaculately white pyramids of salt. It’s an extraordinary landscape, with an eerie beauty. Now, there is something even more remarkable about Bonaire’s Cargill Salt Ponds. BirdsCaribbean is …
It’s springtime in the Caribbean and all across the islands, the landscape will be painted with the vivid colours of the striking yellow and pink poui trees, the gentle blue from the blossoms of the Lignum Vitae, and so many other trees, bursting with colour. This too is the time when our birds settle down …
Join Holbrook Travel and BirdsCaribbean for an unforgettable birding tour of Cuba’s foothills, wetlands and coast, November 3-13, 2018. Cuba’s protected natural areas, geographic isolation, and limited development combine to create an ideal destination for birders. The country’s diverse habitats support over 360 avian species, more than two dozen of which are endemic to the …
BirdsCaribbean is excited to announce 2018 awards for the David S. Lee Fund for the Conservation of Caribbean Birds. Five young scholars will carry out important research that will increase our knowledge of Caribbean birds and the actions needed to conserve them. The 2018 award recipients are Yvan Satge, Janine Antalffy, Juan Carlos Fernandez-Odoñez, Eduardo Manuel …
It is a pleasure to announce the publication of the first issue of the Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Cuba by Nils Navarro Pacheco and Ernesto Reyes Mouriño (No 1, 2017). This publication will serve as an official list and platform for work in the field of ornithology within the Cuban archipelago, as well as …
