Seabird Resources

Magnificent Frigatebird female in Barbuda (Photo by Ted Eubanks)

Books

Breeding Seabirds of the Caribbean; edited by P.E. Bradley and R.L. Norton (2009). This book is an island-by-island inventory of Caribbean seabirds, including colony locations, population estimates, threats to seabirds, and research and conservation actions and needs. The book is currently ‘out of print’, but BirdsCaribbean has an inventory of hard copies that are available for sale online at a greatly reduced price.

Status and Conservation of West Indian Seabirds; edited by B.A. Schreiber and D. Lee (2000). This book provides information on breeding seabird species of the Caribbean, and has dedicated chapters on associated conservation needs and tools. A classic reference that has received excellent reviews. A PDF can be downloaded here.

Seabird Breeding Atlas of the Lesser Antilles; K. Lowrie, D. Lowrie, and N. Collier (2012). This book provides species profiles and distribution ranges of seabirds in the Lesser Antilles, and outlines methodologies for monitoring these populations. The Atlas gives information on islands with breeding seabirds, outlines the nations supporting globally and regionally important populations, and discusses the significance of the Caribbean for seabirds. For more information visit Environmental Protection In the Caribbean’s (EPIC).

Important Bird Areas in the Caribbean: Key Sites for Conservation; edited by D.C. Wege and Anadon-Irizarry V. (2008). This book provides information on the network of designated Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) in the Caribbean. This IBA program in the Caribbean started in early 2001, and has continued following the publication of this inventory in 2008. For more information visit Birdlife International.

Databases and Repositories

The West Indian Breeding Seabird Atlas This Atlas provides a comprehensive overview of breeding seabirds in the Caribbean. While this resource has not been updated in recent years, our working group hope to continue with this task in the future. Therefore, if you have observed breeding seabirds in the region or have updated information please visit www.wicbirds.net, or contact Atlas creator and manager Will Mackin.

Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) Program in the Caribbean Birdlife International’s IBA program aims to identify and protect a network of sites crucial to the long-term viability of naturally occurring bird populations across their distribution ranges (see Lascelles et al. 2016). Many seabird populations that inhabit the Caribbean meet the criteria for IBA designation (see links in Active Seabird Projects). The Important Bird Areas of the Caribbean Inventory presents detailed information on identified IBAs for seabirds in this region.

OBIS-SEAMAP (Ocean Biogeographic Information System – Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations) This global program, hosted at Duke University, seeks to organize seabird, marine mammal and sea turtle spatial data to advance conservation and collaboration. In the Caribbean, Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) (a contributor to OBIS-SEAMAP) have now updated the ‘Seabird Breeding Atlas of the Lesser Antilles’ based on standardized colony surveys undertaken between 2001–2010 (see epicislands or seamap for information).

Movebank Movebank is a free, online database of animal tracking data hosted by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, which helps animal tracking researchers to manage, share, protect, analyse and archive their data. Links to many existing tracking datasets in the Caribbean, and the groups that hold them, can be found through this repository.

2023 Caribbean Seabird Census. The Seabird Working Group intends to reference the data collected during the Caribbean Regional Seabird Census into the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). GBIF is a free online, publicly available open-source repository of datasets that will ensure that you remain the full owner of your datasets. You can find our standardized reporting datasheets for the 2023 Caribbean Seabird Census in our shared Google Drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PVU7hdPy0gjotO2lA86EMmDPioqjLRUi

Tools for Managing Invasive Species

Invasive Species are a major threat to seabirds in the Caribbean, as they are worldwide. The Caribbean has dedicated Invasive Species Working Groups that aim to support and share information amongst those working to address this threat (see the BirdsCaribbean Invasive Species Working Group and Caribbean Invasive Species Working Group pages).

Monitoring Manuals/ Handbooks

Haynes-Sutton A. et al. (2018) Caribbean Seabirds Monitoring Manual: Promoting Conservation of Seabirds and their Marine Habitats through Monitoring. BirdsCaribbean, 85 pp. (PDF: English, Spanish and French)

Steinkamp M. et al. (2003) Breeding Season Population Census Techniques for Seabirds and Colonial Waterbirds Throughout North America. Unpublished report, 81 pp. (PDF).

Chardine J.W. (2002) Basic guidelines for setting up a breeding seabird monitoring program for Caribbean countries. Unpublished report, 17 pp. (PDF).

Reports and Publications of Interest

Final NFWF Seabird Support Project report (PDF): This report was an output of a three-year project, awarded to BirdsCaribbean and funded by the US National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which aimed to raise capacity for seabird conservation in the Caribbean.

Coffey J. & Collier N. (2020) Community-based Conservation Management Plan for the Seabirds of the Transboundary Grenadines Archipelago. Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC), 66 pp. (PDF).

See https://epicislands.org/publications.html for a list of other publications highlighting EPIC’s seabird activities.

Local organisations and Government Departments throughout UK Overseas Territories, in collaboration with Universities in the UK, are involved in a number of seabird projects funded by the UK Government’s Darwin Initiative scheme. Past and present reports from this work can be found on the Darwin Initiative website.

Workshops and Webinars

Species Hour

Caribbean Seabird Census

Updates from the First-ever Caribbean-wide Seabird Census

Public Education Tools

Save Our Seabirds posters—Available in English and Spanish

Seabirds of the Caribbean Identification Cards⁠—sturdy waterproof cards ideal for use in the field for monitoring and education have been printed in English and French, and Spanish versions for Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. There is also a version for Bermuda. “Aves marinas de Puerto Rico”, by Carlos A. Delannoy Juliá. This book provides written accounts for all 16 seabird species present in Puerto Rico. In Spanish. This book is available for free on Sea Grant Puerto Rico’s website. Please contact Lisa Sorenson (lisa.sorenson@birdscaribbean.org) if you are interested in receiving hard copies of these materials.

Magnificent Frigatebirds (Photo by Rhiannon Austin)

Merchandise

You can help support and spread the word about the 2023 Caribbean Seabird Census in style with a variety of beautifully designed products including a range of fantastic T-shirts available here. These feature the wonderful artwork from our Seabird Census 2023 graphic by Josmar Esteban Márquez and 40% of the profit goes towards supporting the census. Pick your favorite featured bird or just have all of them!

click on images to enlarge

For those in the Caribbean don’t forget that you can minimize transport pollution, reduce packaging waste and share shipping cost by bulk ordering of any merch with others on your island. Thanks in advance for supporting our efforts!