Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2022! This year’s theme is “Dim The Lights for Birds at Night”. 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: Swainson’s Warbler
Swainson’s Warbler isn’t known to be one of the brightest or more eye-catching warblers. In fact on first appearances it’s a pretty plain little bird with a brown back, buffy-white chest, rusty cap, and white eyebrow. However plain this bird may be it is still an exciting find for many birders due to their very secretive nature.
Their affinity for swamps and marshes originally earned them the name “Swamp Warbler” when described by Audubon in 1833. He named it after his friend and fellow ornithologist, William Swainson. And while Audubon is credited with the discovery of this warbler, evidence suggests Georgia artist and naturalist, John Abbot, made paintings of the bird as early as 1801.
These swamp warblers are medium-distance migrants. They breed in the Southeastern US and spend winter in the Caribbean, Southeastern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. Within the Caribbean, in winter most birders find them in Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands. But, keep an eye out for them during migration in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and occasionally Aruba! In the Caribbean you can find them in many types of forest, including mangroves and montane forests, as long as there is a dense understory for them to hide in.
We still have a lot to learn about their overwintering range, as their skulky nature means they often go undetected. Fortunately BirdsCaribbean’s Landbird Monitoring Team will be deploying 10 motus tags on Swainson’s Warblers in Jamaica to better understand both their migratory routes and overwintering ecology. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Swainson’s Warbler
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Colouring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page 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 #WMBD2022Carib
Listen to the calls of the Swainson’s Warbler
The calls of the Swainson’s Warbler sharp, loud repeated “chips” given by both males and females.
Puzzles of the Day
Click on the images 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!
Swainson’s Warbler. This little brown warbler can be very hard to spot as it skulks in the undergrowth (Photo by Peter Brannon)Swainson’s Warbler. The male and female look the same and this migrant does not change it’s plumage colouration between the winter and breeding season. (Photo by Matt Felperin- Macaulay Library- ML439968381)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Swainson’s Warblers catch insects to eat. They feed in the forest canopy and on the ground. Sometimes, in dry weather, they dig under the leaf litter in search of insects. Imagine you are a Swainson’s Warbler in search of food and find out what bugs there are in your backyard in our fun bug hunt! Follow our instructions and see how many different types of bugs you can find! Perhaps you will spot a butterfly or a bee flitting past? Remember just to look at the bugs and not to touch or collect them. You can check the ones you see off on our list and perhaps take some photos of them?
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a Swainson’s Warbler in the wild! We aren’t likely to hear this little bird singing whilst they are migrating through the Caribbean, but you can enjoy their loud cascading song here. During the breeding season males will sing defending their territory, whilst the females build the nest.
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2022! This year’s theme is “Dim The Lights for Birds at Night”. 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: Red-footed Booby
If you were asked to name one of the most colorful birds of the Caribbean, would you choose a seabird? Probably not, but think about it. There is a seabird in the Caribbean that has black piercing eyes surrounded by a ring of ultramarine blue skin and a patch of cobalt blue (sometimes iridescent lime green in males). Its pointy bill looks like it was dipped in a rainbow, going from velvety black at the base, to orange, then blue and pale blue at the tip! If that wasn’t enough, there is one another touch of color in this bird, some say the most important splash of color: its feet are bright red.
Say hello to the Red-footed Booby, the most colorful seabird of the tropics. These colorful seabirds have even more variation, with a “white morph” that is the most common and a less common “brown morph” that has chocolate-brown feathers all over.
Red-footed Boobies are pelagic seabirds, which means that they travel far offshore to fish. They feed by plunge diving from great heights, targeting mostly flying fish and squid. Although these birds do not technically migrate they will disperse out to sea after nesting. This means you can see Red-footed Boobies at sea year-round, you will have better luck enjoying their colorful features on land – it is best to do so with binoculars, from a respectful distance.
Of the three booby species in the Caribbean (the others are the Masked Booby and the Brown Booby), the Red-footed Booby has the most restricted range. It breeds on a limited number of small islands and cays, mainly in the Lesser Antilles and the offshore islands of northern Venezuela, though an internationally-important population can be found in the Cayman Islands. During the breeding season, from October to May, Red-footed Boobies form colonies of up to a hundred nests in trees or shrubs.
The construction of the nest is part of the Red-footed Booby’s courtship ritual. Once he is joined by a female, the male starts collecting nest material. After he finds a good stick, he flies back to the nest with the stick in its bill, then presents it to his mate who may, or may not, accept it. If she does take it, the male watches her place the stick – sometimes he may grab one end of it and work with the female. Needless to say, for Red-footed Boobies, building a nest can take some time! They lay a single, white egg which they incubate for a month and a half, and raise their chick for three and a half months.
As for many seabirds, the biggest threat affecting Red-footed Boobies on land is the destruction of nesting habitat for human development. The first step to better conserve this magnificent species (and all the other Caribbean seabirds) is to record the location of its colonies. In fact, in 2023, seabird conservation partners are planning to count nesting seabirds across the Caribbean. So, if you know of a colony of Red-footed Boobies near you, you can help by informing your local conservation group! Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Red-footed Booby
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Colouring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page 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 #WMBD2022Carib
Listen to the calls of the Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby’s will be mostly silent during the non-breeding period. The make several sounds during the breeding season including a series of guttural “karuk” calls.
Puzzles of the Day
Click on the images 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!
The dark morph of the Red-footed Booby. (Photo by Doug Greenberg)
The light morph of the Red-footed Booby. (Photo by Andrew Wright)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: The Red-footed Booby feeds on fish and squid. They dive into the water to pluck out prey with their long, pointed bills . Like many of our seabirds Red-footed Boobies can be harmed by plastic in the seas and oceans. In an ocean full of plastic, it can be difficult for the Red-footed Booby to tell a fish and a plastic cup apart!
You can help seabirds by reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean, and by becoming a Plastic Investigator! For this activity, we want you and your family to become aware and informed about the various types of plastics that are in your house, and how many can be recycled. You can download out activity sheet here for more information and instructions on how to take part. Try to find an example of each type of plastic around your house. Record your examples in the Plastic Investigator Record sheet (included with the activity sheet).
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a light morph Red-footed Booby in the wild! These birds nest in trees along coasts and on offshore islands in the Caribbean. During migration and in winter you will see them plunge diving into the sea for fish.
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2022! This year’s theme is “Dim The Lights for Birds at Night”. 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: Prothonotary Warbler
Who’s that spot of sunshine in the swamp? It’s the Prothonotary Warbler! These bright wood warblers were named for their dapper plumage, as the yellow is reminiscent of the robes of papal cloaks or “prothonotaries” in the Catholic church.
And would you believe that these warblers assisted with the conviction of a spy? When alleged spy, Alger Hiss, denied his affiliations, those same affiliations came forward with knowledge of his recent amateur birding expeditions – including an exciting find of the Prothonotary Warbler! When Alger Hiss admitted to recently adding this warbler to his life list, his secret was out and his affiliation exposed!
These sunny wood warblers are the only warbler to nest in cavities, breeding in the southeastern U.S. In the Caribbean, Prothonotary Warblers are considered an uncommon migrant in both spring and fall. The best chance at spotting them is likely in Cuba, Grand Cayman Islands, or the Bahamas, though unusual vagrants have been reported in Bermuda. We don’t typically see them as often in the Caribbean because they take a trans-gulf route, crossing over the Greater Antilles to arrive in Mexico and continue further south.
During migration, Prothonotary Warblers expand their habitat selection from their usual preference of woody swamps. Though we still lack information on their habitat use during migration and overwintering, look for them along coastal areas like marshes and inland watercourses.
These little balls of sunshine often move together in small flocks. In the spring, males will head north sooner than females (to set up a territories on the breeding grounds), though no differences in sex or age have been noted in the fall. Prothonotary Warblers are fairly well studied in their breeding range, but we still lack a lot of critical information, especially how habitat loss has affected migratory and overwintering populations. These warblers have been heavily impacted by deforestation. Like many other songbirds, they migrate at night, making it extra important to turn off your lights so as to not disorient these and other birds. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Prothonotary Warbler
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Colouring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page 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 #WMBD2022Carib
Listen to the calls of the Prothonotary Warbler
The Prothonotary Warbler makes a loud, piercing series of repeated “tsweet” calls.
Puzzles of the Day
Click on the images 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!
A bright yellow Male Prothonotary Warbler perched. He will sing during the breeding season to hold his territory. But it’s not just his song that helps, males that are brighter yellow gain access to better nest sites than less colorful males! (Photo by Hemant Kishan)
Female Prothonotary Warbler. She is slightly less bright than the male, with a greenish crown and nape. (Photo by Hemant Kishan)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Make sure that you have read the information given above. The facts here will help you with todays activity. Use what you read and the clues on the sheet to untangle our our word scramble – all about the Prothonotary Warbler- our Migratory Bird of the Day! You will be finding words that are about where this small yellow bird lives, what it eats and how it behaves. Once you think you have found or the words, or cannot work out any more clues you can find all the answers here.
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a Prothonotary Warbler in the wild! This bird is bringing nesting material, it is one of the very few warbler species that builds its nest in cavities. They breed in wet forests, mainly in the southeastern U.S. So although you won’t see this little bird nest building in the Caribbean you can look out the small ‘sunny’ birds during their fall migration.
Find Warblers difficult to identify? Don’t worry we are here to help you out!
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2022! This year’s theme is “Dim The Lights for Birds at Night”. 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: Ruddy Duck
A common member of the stifftail family, the Ruddy Duck is a small, compact duck with a scoop-shaped bill. This duck has a long, stiff, spiky-looking tail often held upright. The Male has a black cap and bright white cheeks. During the breeding season, he sports a bright sky-blue bill and chestnut-coloured upperparts. He pairs this ‘ensemble’ with unusual but entertaining courtship displays. In the non-breeding season males are a bit less flashy with -brown upperparts and blackish bills. Females and immatures are brown overall with a dark cap and a distinct dark stripe across the pale cheek.
When breeding males perform a ‘bubbling’ display, the male will hold his tail straight up while striking his bill against his inflated neck. Bubbles are created in the water as air is forced from the feathers. A courting male may also drop his tail and run across the water, making popping sounds with his feet. Males also utters a nasal “raa-anh” call during courtship displays, but outside the breeding season these small ducks are mainly silent .
Ruddy Ducks are resident in parts in the Caribbean, found in the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, Virgin Islands and Barbados. Here they use open fresh-water and brackish ponds and lagoons. They feed mainly on aquatic insects, crustaceans, and other invertebrates, as well as small amounts of aquatic plants and seeds. They forage almost exclusively by diving, but are occasionally seen skimming food from the water surface. During fall and winter the Caribbean population is swelled by migratory Ruddy Ducks that breed in the Prairie Pothole region of North America. After breeding they head south to the Caribbean as well as the Gulf Coast, Mexico, and East Coast of the US to spend the winter.
Since Ruddy Ducks depend upon wetlands for their survival, they are directly impacted by threats to these areas such as pollution, habitat loss, and invasive species. It is vital to conserve and protect our wetlands. They provide habitats for the Ruddy Duck and many other species.They also provide invaluable services to humans such as flood protection, improved water quality, natural products, recreation, and so much more! Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Ruddy Duck
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Colouring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page 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 #WMBD2022Carib
Listen to the calls of the Ruddy Duck
Outside the breeding season Ruddy Ducks are often silent, but you might hear a nasal “raanh” call
Puzzles of the Day
Click on the images 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!
A male Ruddy Duck during the breeding season performs his display. This involves him raising his tail and making the a distinctive sound and causing the water to bubble by slapping his bill against his chest. (Photo by Rick Evets)A female Ruddy Duck. She does not have the distinctive bright blue bill of the breeding male but her small size and stiff up-pointed tail are characteristic of this species. (Photo by Gordon Johnston-Macaulay Library-ML354838041)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Ruddy Ducks can be found on ponds, reservoirs and in other wetlands all teaming with life! Ruddy Ducks like to feed on invertebrates and small crustaceans as well as plants. But within a wetland ecosystem all sorts of interactions take place as each animal living there looks for enough food to eat. A food web represents how living animals and plants gain energy from their environment. Take a look at our wetland ecosystem, including the Ruddy Duck, and see how many different links you can find! Think about what types of foods the different animals will eat to get energy. Use lines to make individual food chains. You can find some answers here.
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a male Ruddy Duck feeding in the wild! He is diving down to find food, perhaps he is looking for some aquatic vegetation or invertebrates? Notice that now the breeding season is over this male has a black bill (rather than the blue one he has when breeding).
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2022! This year’s theme is “Dim The Lights for Birds at Night”. 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: Bobolink
Be on the lookout for migratory Bobolinks! Known as the “backwards tuxedo bird” or “skunk bird,” breeding males have a bold black plumage with a white rump and soft yellow nape. However, females and non-breeding males have a more subtle beauty, boasting a buffy yellow-brown plumage with fine brown streaking all over the body and a distinct stripe through the eye. Be sure to look for their distinct spikey tail. It’s speculated that the Bobolink may have received their unique name from the poem “Robert of Lincoln” by American poet William Cullen, as the sight of large flocks of these birds was likely the inspiration for the poem.
During migration, Bobolinks can often be found in large flocks. They are quite an impressive migrant, known to log an approximate 20,000 km round trip from geolocater data (birds tagged with small backpacks that can log their location and tell us more about migratory movements). Bobolinks breed in the grasslands of the Northeastern US. They follow the Eastern flyway and migrate through the Caribbean, taking an extended stopover in Venezuela before continuing south to their overwintering grounds in Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia.
Boblinks have been reported to have a high site fidelity, both to their breeding and overwintering grounds. Some farmers in South America have reported having large flocks of Boblinks in their rice fields for 50 years!
In the early 20th century these birds were so numerous migrating through the Caribbean that non-stop flights from Jamaica were termed “Bobolinks!” In the Caribbean, Bobolinks can be found during migration in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and many of the lesser Antilles. Banding data has shown us that during migration, especially before crossing the Caribbean, these birds can increase their body weight by up to a third, going from 38g to 50g!
Unfortunately Bobolinks face a variety of threats on their migratory journeys. In the US, Argentina, and Bolivia their affinity for grasslands has labeled them as an agricultural pest. This has led to birds being shot or poisoned to save crops. On their breeding grounds birds may abandon nests due to mowing of agricultural lands. In Jamaica and Cuba, these birds are often caught for the domestic and international caged bird trade, and are sometimes even eaten. These threats mean the Bobolink is a Species of Conservation Concern in eight states in the US and they are protected under the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Protection of grasslands has helped their breeding populations as has banning of dangerous pesticides in Bolivia and Argentina. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Bobolink
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Colouring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page 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 #WMBD2022Carib
Listen to the calls of the Bobolink
Bobolinks have a distinctive “pink ” call they use all-year round. You might also hear the rambling, metallic sounding, multi-note male song.
Puzzles of the Day
Click on the images 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!
Male Bobolink in breeding plumage. (Photo by Ryan Sanderson- Macaulay Library-ML342377131)Bobolink females. Male and female Bobolinks have similar plumage in the non-breeding season. Look out for flocks of these sparrow-like birds during migration. (Photo by Karalyn Lamb-Macaulay-ML4702854910)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Bobolinks on the move can orient themselves with the earth’s magnetic field and use the stars in night sky to guide their travels. The pattern of stars in the night sky are like a map of landmarks that the Bobolinks look for so they will know where to fly. Bobolinks use the stars in the same way we might look for familiar buildings, trees on landscape features like hills and rivers to find our way from one place to another. In fact the stars are just like these types of landmarks for Bobolinks! Think about a path you are familiar and see if you can draw a map, from memory, of this route. You could include sounds and smells as well as the things you see along the way!
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Neonicotinoids are a type of pesticide and this group of chemicals are widely used in America. They can be found in a large proportion of corn crops groups in the US and nearly half of soybeans. Neonicotinoids can impact on the critical functions of songbirds, including effecting their metabolism, reproduction and migration patterns. Given that they are so widely used these effects on songbirds are deeply worrying. You can read more in the article below, about how pesticide use is affecting songbirds, including the Bobolink, in North America.
A Baltimore Oriole, a migrant to the Caribbean, is featured on our October Big Day 2022 promo graphic.
Get ready, get set, let’s go birding! The biggest day of birding in the fall season, October Big Day, is right around the corner! On Saturday October 8th, October Big day and World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) are celebrated in the Caribbean and around the world. This 24-hour birding opportunity lands right during some of the peak activity for bird migration. It’s also a great day to participate in educational activities about migratory birds for WMBD – the theme is Dim the Lights for Birds at Night! Check with your local organizations to see if any events are planned.
The goal for October Big Day is to get outside to watch, celebrate, and record your resident and migratory birds! You can bird in your backyard, neighborhood park, seashore or woodland. Watch birds for as little as 10 minutes in your local birding patch or plan out a route to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. No matter what, we hope you will get outside and go birding!
Like Global Big Day celebrated in May, it is hoped that this concerted effort will bring in a record number of bird sightings from citizen scientists around the world, contributing to our bird knowledge and a deeper understanding of conservation.
Where are the birds, and what are they doing?
The data collected will be used by birders and scientists to better understand and protect birds. This is also an opportunity for the individual birdwatcher to contemplate birds, their behavior, and the places where they may be found. For example, are there birds you are only likely to see in the late morning or early afternoon? And if so, are they at specific locations? Tanagers and bullfinches are often very active during the morning hours. As the day heats up, you may see raptors soaring above. Seagulls and shorebirds can be observed at almost any time of day. Migratory warblers generally show up in early morning or evening hours, feeding and bathing in suburban gardens and parks.
Make your birding count—submit & share your data!
Participating is easy with the essential tool, eBird, where you should record all the birds you see (and even hear) on Saturday 8th October via the eBird website or mobile app. If you’re in the Caribbean, be sure to use eBird Caribbean (and choose the eBird Caribbean portal in your eBird app settings on mobile). If you do not already have one, it’s easy to sign up for a free eBird account and here’s a quick guide on how to use eBird. Eager birders should spot as many birds as they can from midnight to midnight in their local time zone on October 8th. Or bird anytime during the weekend of Oct. 7-9 for the Global Bird Weekend. The handy mobile app allows you to keep and submit lists while you’re still out birding, perhaps exploring nearby Hotspots. It will even track how far you have walked while watching birds. Remember to submit eBird checklists before October 12, 2022 to be included in the initial results announcement!
Share your sightings with us, and join BirdsCaribbean!
We look forward to seeing your stories and photos on social media. You can find us on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram @birdscaribbean. Be sure to tag us! If you’re not on social media, consider joining our discussion group where you’ll be able to share your October Big Day experience with over 850 members.
May we remind you that BirdsCaribbean membership has so many benefits; for a reasonable membership fee you are entitled to a FREE subscription to Birds of the World ($49 value) – the most comprehensive online resource on birds. Additionally, you may receive discounts on our products, workshops and conferences; meet and network with fellow birders, scientists, educators and conservationists across the region; and keep in touch with birding trends and news through our monthly newsletters (free sign-up here). Join us today and help us save our Caribbean birds and their important habitats!
See you on October Big Day 2022 – and let’s see some birds!
Most importantly, have fun and don’t forget to tag BirdsCaribbean (@BirdsCaribbean) in your birding adventures! We can’t wait to see which of our migratory friends have arrived to the Caribbean!
Laura Baboolal, the World Migratory Bird Day Caribbean Coordinator for Environment for the Americas (EFTA) encourages us to celebrate the amazing journeys of birds during World Migratory Bird Day 2022! Keep reading to find out how you can help migratory birds this year and where to find resources to help you celebrate.
It’s that time of year again—birds are on the move! Bird migration is a global phenomenon where individuals of many different species of birds will fly hundreds or thousands of kilometers south to spend the winter in warmer climates with abundant food. World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) is officially celebrated on the second Saturday in October in the Caribbean. This year it’s on October 8th, but you can celebrate anytime in the fall that is convenient for you.
We encourage everyone to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) 2022, as you have celebrated the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with great success!
Light Pollution is Bad News for Birds
This year, the theme focuses on light pollution with the slogan, “DIM THE LIGHTS FOR BIRDS AT NIGHT!”
Light pollution is a growing threat to wildlife, especially migrating birds. It causes birds to become disorientated when they fly at night. Every year, light pollution contributes to the death of millions of birds. Artificial light can alter the migration patterns and foraging behaviours of birds. Attracted by artificial light at night migrating birds become confused and may end up circling in illuminated areas. This depletes their energy reserves and puts them at risk of exhaustion and predation. Lights at night also cause fatal collisions with buildings. With growing global human populations, artificial light is increasing by at least 2% annually. While in the Caribbean light pollution is not a significant issue compared to our continental neighbours we can still take action.
Take Action!
Every action you take counts and contributes to reducing the impact of light pollution on migratory birds. Take action at home, school, work, community or city! Turn off unnecessary outdoor lights at night or use a motion sensor light and shut curtains at night. Lobby for downward facing street lights in your community. Work with businesses and building owners to switch off unnecessary lights at night especially during migratory season. Consider advocating for no artificial lighting to be used close to important habitats for birds and at places that are on migratory pathways.
Raise awareness about the threat of light pollution to migratory birds and be an advocate for dark skies!
How to celebrate
World Migratory Bird Day can be celebrated any time of the year and there are many ways that you can do this. Why not visit an event? Hundreds of World Migratory Bird Day events and activities take place throughout the year. Check EFTA’s global event map to see what’s happening near you. Follow, like, and share! Follow EFTA’s pages for tips and facts about light pollution and migratory birds. Share these messages through social media and other outlets to increase awareness of this important issue. Use EFTA’s resources from coloring pages and stickers to posters and other educational materials and social media resources—to help you celebrate World Migratory Bird Day. You can download these here.
Information on migratory birds in the Caribbean, including coloring pages, activity sheets , photos, videos, and puzzles are available from BirdsCaribbean at this link. You, together with your local birding group, are also encouraged to go out and enjoy the birds. Most of all, have fun!
For now, you can enjoy and share this animation following a small migratory songbird as it is lured into the dangers of the city by intense lights. The threats it faces are common for migrating birds trying to navigate urban environments.
This 2-minute animation has been produced and made available by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It can be used in any promotional activities related to World Migratory Bird Day 2022. All language versions of the animation can be downloaded via this download folder: https://bit.ly/3w68a0g
Check out ETFAs Social Media Packet for lots of digital resources. Click here.
Learn more about the featured species for 2022, art created by Omar Custodio Azabache from Peru. Click here.
Last, but not least, don’t forget to share your WMBD events and experiences on social media with EFTA and BirdsCaribbean. You can find us on all major platforms. Thanks for helping to raise awareness about migratory birds and the threats they face, and we hope you get outside to see some migrants this fall!
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2022! This year’s theme is “Dim The Lights for Birds at Night”. 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: Willet
Willets are large shorebirds with long gray legs and a dark straight, slightly heavy bill, which is sometimes pale at the base. Overall, Willets can look quite nondescript and dull-colored in their winter plumage, with plain gray-brown plumage above and pale feathers below. However, when they take flight look out for the bold white-and-black striped pattern on their wings. This is a give away that you’ve seen a Willet, as none of the other similar-sized shorebirds have this wing-pattern. You can also listen out for their “kip-kip-kip” call which they might make if alarmed or agitated.
Most of the Willets that we see in the Caribbean are long-distance migrants, coming south from their in-land breeding and coastal breeding areas in North America. During fall and winter they can be found on our beaches, mudflats, and other coastal wetland areas. Here they feed on small crabs, worms, clams, and other invertebrates. Willets are often found feeding together in small flocks.
A very small number of Willets actually breed in some parts of the Caribbean including on Puerto Rico, Cuba and Anguilla. During the breeding season they are still overwhelmingly gray-brown in appearance, however their feathers become more streaked, mottled and slightly darker.
As with so many shorebirds, Willets are likely to be negatively affected by habitat loss and degradation across their breeding, migration, and wintering ranges. These changes are occurring through increased agriculture, commercial fishing, shrimp aquaculture, and tourism development. Willets are also hunted in parts of their range. Although currently listed as “Least Concern” by the IUCN it is important that wetland habitats are conserved for Willets and all of our shorebirds. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Willet
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Colouring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page 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 #WMBD2022Carib
Listen to the calls of the Willet
During migration and in winter you might hear Willets make a “kyah-yah” often in flight or as they take flight.
Photos of the Day
Willets are gray-brown in appearing and quite dull looking, until they open their wings an reveal a striking white and black pattern. (Photo by Brad Imhoff)In winter Willets can be found on beaches and mudflats, where they use their long bills to probe for food. (Photo by Jesse Gordon)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Shorebirds, like Willets, make long migratory journeys in the Fall and Spring between their breeding areas and the places where they will spend the winter. Often their migrations can cover 1000s of kilometres and might involved several re-fuelling stop-offs on the way! Shorebirds ‘wintering grounds’ are often far to the south of where the birds breed. This is so that Shorebirds can survive through the winter in warmer climates, away from the freezing conditions further north. Warmer weather on the wintering grounds also means that food is more abundant and easier to find for these hungry shorebirds. Can you help this Willet find its way on its long migratory journey? Can you help this Willet find its way on its long migratory journey? Find the route through the maze to guide it to warm weather and plenty of food on its wintering grounds. You can find the solution here.
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Need some help with your Shorebird ID? We know that these long-legged, long billed, gray-brown birds can be confusing sometimes! If you struggle to pick out Willets from the somewhat similar Short-billed Dowitcher take a read of this blog post by Allison Caton who has some handy tips for you.
Finally enjoy this video of Willets, moulting into winter plumage, feeding on the beach! Notice how they probe the sand with their long bills, in search of tasty bivalves and crabs.
Jennifer Wheeler, Chair of the Black-capped Petrel Working Group, shares an exciting annual update on research and on-the-ground conservation activities for this Endangered species.
The Critically Endangered “Diablotin” or Black-capped Petrel in flight. (Photo by Kate Sutherland)
The Black-capped Petrel is locally called the Diablotín (“little devil”) because of the creepy call it makes upon return to its mountaintop burrow in the evening. But nothing is more sinister than the threats this seabird is facing—habitat loss and invasive species. Fortunately, our Black-capped Petrel Working Group has been hard at work minimizing these threats to create a brighter future for these birds. In our latest blog Jennifer Wheeler, Chair of this Working Group shares an exciting annual update on research and on-the-ground conservation activities for this Endangered species.
The full annual update is available on our blog (link above) but here are a few noteworthy highlights:
A number of new confirmed nests have been located in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In fact, the team located nests on Pic La Selle, Haiti’s tallest mountain. This area is where some of the first Black-capped Petrels were rediscovered in Haiti by David Wingate in 1961 and 1963!
Over in Guadeloupe, researchers stepped up detection efforts with military-grade thermal binocular-camera equipment designed to detect, observe, and recognize objects that emit heat. Curious to find out what the camera picked up? Check out the report.
More evidence for persistence of petrels on Guadeloupe, Dominica and Cuba has come to light. A week-long expedition confirms the presence of the Diablotín on Dominica and has led to recommendations for future work, already in the planning stage. Specifically, the Group hopes to employ a four-legged companion to detect the petrels.
Lab analyses have revealed that petrels carry a tremendous load of mercury in their bodies and that their diet might be quite different from closely-related species.
Meanwhile, the people living and working in areas of key petrel habitat also carry on in spite of natural, social and economic calamities, showing resilience and fortitude. Environmental education programs for youth continue in Boukan Chat, Haiti and educational outreach opportunity presents itself in Pedernales, DR.
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2022! This year’s theme is “Dim The Lights for Birds at Night”. 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: Sanderling
These striking pale-coloured sandpipers are easy to pick-out from other ‘peeps’ (small sandpipers). In their winter colors they have an almost black and white appearance, with black legs and bill and plumage that is pale gray above and white below. You can also look out for a distinctive black shoulder bar, which helps you to be sure you’re seeing a Sanderling. However, perhaps it is their behavior that really gives them away. These ‘wave-catchers’ are constantly running into and out of the surf edge in search of food. Often you’ll see small flocks of them, dashing back and forth along the sand in a blur of black legs and white feathers.
During the breeding season the Sanderlings gray plumage becomes a striking brick-red. They nest in the far north, in high-arctic tundra. But in winter, these ultra long-distance migrants become one of the most wide-spread shorebirds in the world! At this time of year they can be found on almost any temperate or tropical sandy beach, anywhere across the globe. Of course, with our beautiful beaches, this includes the Caribbean.
During each year a proportion of juvenile Sanderling, who are not ready to breed, choose to take a beach holiday. Rather than making the long journey back to the arctic to breed they stay on their wintering grounds. This means they get an extra long rest, and have a better chance to build up their energy reserves before their long migration north the next year.
As a very wide-spread bird, Sanderling populations are not considered to be under threat. However, because Sanderlings love to hang out at beaches, just like people, in some places they are losing access to their habitat. This is from both coast development and increased disturbance by humans at beaches. It’s important that we remember to make space for our birds and share the shore with these beautiful wave-catchers.Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Sanderling
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Colouring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page 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 #WMBD2022Carib
Listen to the calls of the Sanderling
Sanderling call softly to each other within a flock with a squeaky “wick wick” call.
Puzzles of the Day
Click on the images 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!
Sanderling in the surf – its favorite habitat! (Photo by Gary McHale)Sanderlings foraging on a beach in a flock. Feeding in a group helps reduce the risk of being caught by a predator. (Photo by Scott Hecker)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Many migratory shorebirds have special features that mean they are perfectly adapted for life on on the mud and sand. These adaptations can range from the shape of their bill and the position of eyes, to the length of their legs and the colours of their feathers. Of course Sanderlings spend a lot of time at the beach. Can you match the Sanderling adaptations to their functions ?
There are four ways in which Sanderlings are adapted for a beach life given, all you need to do is match them up to the correct body part on the Sanderling. You can find the correct answers here. Sanderlings are often seen feeding and flying together in groups. When you download our Sanderling adaptations answer sheet you can also read all about some of the reasons why Sanderlings like to feed together in flocks, and about how this helps protect them from predators, like birds of prey.
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a flock of Sanderlings feeding together at a the beach! You can see them running back and forth into and out of the waves in search of food. This is typical Sanderling behaviour and is why some people call them ‘wave-catchers’.
BirdsCaribbean is delighted to announce the publication of a new graphic novel, just in time for World Shorebirds Day (September 6, 2022). “Sami the Snowy Plover: Stories of Survival” focuses on the vulnerability of these charming little shorebirds, which overwinter and nest on sandy beaches and salt flats on some islands throughout the Caribbean. You can leaf through this beautifully illustrated book here below or online in English or Spanish.
Josmar E. Márquez, the author and illustrator of the book, is passionate about these fragile shorebirds, whose IUCN status is Near Threatened. As he leads monitoring projects on Coche Island in his native Venezuela, his observations have made him come to love these round-bodied, pale brown plovers as they hurry across the sand. He also recognized the Snowy Plover’s susceptibility to human impacts and disturbances. He decided that he wanted to use his skills as an artist to tell stories that the reading public could empathize with, as he does. Hence little Sami’s story was born.
A naturalist and shorebird researcher and member of BirdsCaribbean and local NGO AveZona, Josmar is Coordinator of the Snowy Plover Monitoring Project in the offshore islands and cays of Venezuela. He explained that the idea of the novel grew in 2020 from a colouring book he created on the Snowy Plover. He worked with BirdsCaribbean’s Executive Director Lisa Sorenson and her team to make it a reality.
The Snowy Plover is a small, plump ground-nesting shorebird. In the Caribbean, they are primarily found in open, sandy areas near water like beaches, salt ponds, sand and mud flats, and barrier islands. (Photo by Hemant Kishan)
“Getting people to understand the risks faced by many shorebirds, especially Snowy Plover, is a personal goal. I have seen how Snowy Plovers are affected by human activity in their habitat,” says Márquez. To him, the book is “beautiful, tragic and hopeful.”
One of the pages from the book, highlighting the disturbance posed by driving vehicles on the beach causing stress and harm to the Snowy Plover and other ground-nesting shorebirds.
Please take a read through the poignant stories of little Sami, which also have a message for all of us to take to heart. We would also welcome your feedback!
Josmar Esteban Marquez in the field.
You can read the graphic novel online in both English and Spanish on our Flipsnack account where it is also available for free download. Please share with your networks!
Thanks to Josmar for creating this heart-warming but impactful resource!
Josmar Marquez, from AveZona, has lead bird monitoring projects on Coche Island in Venezuela since 2018. In addition to data collection, his work involves mentoring young conservationists and promoting nature-friendly behavior changes in the local community of the island.
Naturalist, illustrator, and shorebird researcher Josmar Márquez, who has just produced an online graphic novel “Sami The Snowy Plover: Stories of Survival” shares some encouraging news from the offshore islands and cays of his native Venezuela. His research and field work on Coche Island and Margarita Island for AveZona was supported by BirdsCaribbean through the David S. Lee Fund for Conservation.
Snowy Plover chick on salt crystals at Saline San Pedro de Coche, Coche Island. (photo by Sabino Silva)
The Snowy Plover is a special bird, in so many ways. Known in Venezuela as Frailecito it runs across the sand, pauses, and quickly catches its food (flies are its favorite) from the surface. Listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, its population is decreasing. It needs our protection! Let’s take care and share the beach, which is home to these and other shorebirds. Many have migrated long distances, and others use the beach as a breeding area. The Snowy Plovers breed from January to March on these islands. They build their nests by making a small depression in the sand, where they lay three to four eggs. The pair take turns incubating the eggs.
AveZona’s work in monitoring the Snowy Plover population began on Coche Island in 2018. During this year and into 2019, we were able to establish a positive relationship with people in the community. This has helped us to continue periodic counts of this wonderful species in the Saltpans of San Pedro de Coche, despite the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic. All the results of these years of research will be published shortly in The Journal Caribbean Ornithology.
Sabino Rafael Silva, resident of Coche Island, has faithfully monitored the Snowy Plovers and other birds on the salt pans and salinas of Coche Island.
Buff-breasted Sandpiper locally called Playerito dorado (Calidris subruficollis). (Photo by Sabino Silva)
Working under tough conditions…
Coche Island resident, Sabino Rafael Silva, was a major supporter of this project. Due to the travel limitations during the pandemic, when others were not able to visit the island, he was the one who spent many hours walking under the burning sun and extreme conditions on the salt flats. He managed to observe and count the population of Snowy Plovers, and also observe other species of shorebirds in this study area. In other areas of the Isla de Coche, he also observed species not previously reported for the island and for this region of Venezuela.
Anahy and Sabino walking in the Restinga Lagoon National Park, Margarita Island. (Photo by Josmar Marquez)
Josmar, Sabino and other members of his team in the Restinga National Park, Margarita Island. (Photo by Josmar Marquez)
Additional important members of the team were Anahy Marcano, Guilberto Figueroa, Carlos Amundarain and Zenaida Martinez. They are “Margariteños” who were able to record the Snowy Plover on several occasions in the Marites Lagoon Natural Monument, a protected area on Margarita island, near Coche Island. These observations were made in conjunction with the Caribbean Flamingo Monitoring Project.
…and involving local residents through volunteerism
Just like Sabino, Anahy, Guilberto, Carlos and Zenaida are volunteers and friends of AveZona who have carried out valuable work on Coche and Margarita Islands. This is a growing group of community members who are now paying greater attention to their birds and the conservation of the islands’ biodiversity. This is an example of “participatory science,” engaging local communities in a conservation project.
Group of young birders in the Marites Lagoon National Monument, Margarita Island. (Photo by AveZona)
AveZona’s programs offer a great learning and bonding opportunity for children, youth and adults in the island region of Venezuela, establishing a sincere and respectful relationship with local communities. These groups will be able to observe, share information, and protect the birds and biodiversity of the islands of Venezuela.
The Snowy Plover, traveling between islands
One of these seven “Frailecito,” tagged with the black band, which can be read from a distance, is individual 6A, banded on Coche Island in February 2020 by Josmar Márquez and Antonio Ros.
6A has since been observed and photographed three times on Margarita island, flying 14 km one way and 14 km back, over the Caribbean Sea. This tagged Snowy Plover has shown us that the plovers that breed in the salt flats of Coche Island may travel between nearby islands and possibly to the coast of mainland Venezuela.
It is possible that all the populations on the Island of Coche are closely related to those observed in the Marites Lagoon Natural Monument and other areas of Margarita Island. We estimated there were 96 (95% CI: 46-201) and 116 (95% CI = 61-220) Snowy Plovers in the Coche Island salt flats in February and December, respectively.
As shown in the table, several of the individuals were seen frequently in the Coche Island salt pan, while others have not been seen since the day of banding. This raises several questions about the survival rates, migration, or dispersal of many of the individuals. As explained above, a population of 96-116 individuals is estimated in the Coche Island salt flats, thus, it may not be possible to observe all the banded individuals.
We hope to hear soon from some individual birds, such as the 4A, 5A, 6A, and 7A that have not been resighted often or at all. We wish 6A the best of luck in his travels to Margarita Island. Perhaps 6A may decide to settle on this Island. In the future, we hope to be able to use other monitoring methods such as Motus nanotags in this population and in the entire population of Snowy Plovers on different islands of Venezuela.
Snowy Plover banded with tag ‘6A’ on Coche Island in February 2020 seen again walking on the mud flat at Margarita Island on September 9, 2021. (photo by Josmar Marquez)
Another photo of ‘6A’ on September 9, 2021 at Las Marites Lagoon, Margarita Island. (Photo by Josmar Marquez)
Snowy Plover ‘3A’ tagged on Coche Island and photographed on July 17th, 2021. (Photo by Sabino Silva)
Exciting news! Two new protected areas on Coche Island may shelter shorebirds
A great victory for the shorebirds of the island of Coche is the recent creation of the first two areas protecting the biodiversity of this island. Under Official Decree No. 4,550, a Reserve of Wild Fauna was declared for Bahía El Saco, with an area of Four hundred and Eighty-Nine hectares (489 ha).
Map showing the new Bahía el Saco Wildlife Reserve (green polygon), 489 hectares, and in orange the towns. Map by the Ministry of Ecosocialism of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Under Official Decree No. 4,551, a Reserve of Wild Fauna in Punta El Palo was declared, with an area of Two thousand Nine Hundred Sixteen hectares (2,916 ha). These two areas are of utmost importance for the population of shorebirds and seabirds on the island of Coche.
The new Punta de Palo Wildlife Reserve, in green the polygon of the Protected Area (2,916 hectares, in orange the towns and in yellow the tourist hotels. Map by the Ministry of Ecosocialism of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
If you spot any of these Snowy Plovers or other shorebirds banded with black flags and white code, please report it to www.paave.net (website of the Bird Banding Program in Venezuela) or at https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/bblretrv/
Acknowledgments: I greatly appreciate support from IDEA WILD for providing equipment for the execution of this project, and to the David S. Lee Fund for the Conservation of Caribbean Birds for funding for the field work.
Josmar Esteban Marquez, from AveZona, has lead bird monitoring projects on Coche Island in Venezuela since 2018. In addition to data collection, his work involves mentoring young conservationists, creating artwork to educate about birds, and promoting nature-friendly behavior changes in the local community of the island.
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2022! This year’s theme is “Dim The Lights for Birds at Night”. 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: American Oystercatcher
With their large size, striking black and white plumage, pink legs and carrot-like orange bills, American Oystercatchers are truly unmistakable! Males and females look the same, and in addition to their distinctive plumage they have yellow eyes with a red eye ring. If their size and coloring don’t make them conspicuous enough American Oystercatchers will be sure to alert you to their presence with their loud, excited, high-pitched “hueep hueep hueep!” calls.
American Oystercatchers can be found year-round and breed in some islands of the Caribbean, including Cuba, the Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Hispaniola, and some Lesser Antilles islands. Outside of the breeding season they can be found across most of the West Indies, with birds migrating south in Fall from breeding areas on the Atlantic coast of the U.S.
Oystercatchers are true coast-lovers, and can be found in areas of rocky shoreline and on beaches and offshore cays. Their orange bills might look comical but they serve a serious purpose. These shorebirds specialize on feeding on bivalve mollusks. Their bills are powerful with razor-sharp edges for breaking into tightly closed clams, oysters and mussels.
The diet of American Oystercatchers means they are restricted to coastal areas. Although they are not currently considered to be of conservation concern by the IUCN, they are on the Partners in Flight’s Yellow Watch List. This is because their population size was estimated at only 10,000 birds in 2000. This led to a flurry of research on the species and conservation actions by the “American Oystercatcher Working Group.”
Biologists learned that American Oystercatchers are threatened by direct loss of their breeding habitat from coastal development and the impacts of human disturbance. They are less likely to breed successfully on beaches with high levels of human activity. Management actions such as raising public awareness and protecting breeding sites from disturbance are helping the population to recover. Undisturbed coastal areas are vital to help them thrive throughout the year in the Caribbean too. Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the American Oystercatcher
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Colouring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page 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 #WMBD2022Carib
Listen to the calls of the American Oystercatcher
American Oystercatchers have loud high-pitched ” hueep” or “weeer” calls, which they can repeat in rapid succession (often with increasing rapidity and volume).
Puzzles of the Day
Click on the images 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!
American Oystercatcher. American Oystercatchers use their sturdy, strong bills to pry open mussels, clams, and other bivalves. (Photo by Hemant Kishan)American Oystercatcher with Chick. Oystercatchers nest in some islands in the the Caribbean, but are just winter visitors on other islands. (Photo by Phillip Simmons)
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Don’t forget that you still have time to take part in this year’s Global Shorebird Count. This takes place between September 1 – 7! To take part all you need to do is visit your local wetland and count all the shorebirds (and other birds) that you see there. Then share your eBird Caribbean list with ‘worldshorebirdsday’. You can find out more about how to take part in our handy blog post. This is full of tips and hints for carrying out a successful survey, including links to help out with shorebird ID.
Enjoy this video of an American Oystercatcher. In the video you can see it using it’s bill as it forages on the rocky shore on some tasty mollusks!
Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) with us in 2022! This year’s theme is “Dim The Lights for Birds at Night”. 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: Least Sandpiper
Meet our smallest Caribbean shorebird, the Least Sandpiper! Even the second part of their scientific name “Calidris minutilla” means “very small” in medieval latin. In fact, these tiny sandpipers, part of the group of shorebirds known as ‘peeps’ are not much bigger than a sparrow. These diminutive wetland inhabitants have a compact body, with brown or reddish-brown plumage above and white below. They have a thin slightly down-curved bill, which is black.
Their legs are quite short for a shorebird, and are a distinctive yellowish green color. Look out for these yellow-colored legs, they are a great way to tell Least Sandpipers apart from other very similar looking peeps, such as Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers, who have black legs. Take care though—their legs are sometimes covered in dark mud making the yellow difficult to spot! In addition to their slightly smaller size, yellowish legs and thin, slightly down-curved bill, another way to tell them apart from other peeps is to look for a warmer, browner tone to their plumage. Listen also for their distinctive cheep call.
Least Sandpipers might be small but that doesn’t stop them from making an amazing long-distance migration in the Fall. These birds head south from breeding grounds in subarctic regions in the far north of North America. They travel 1000s of km to winter in the Caribbean, Central and South America. Least Sandpipers will migrate in groups and once they arrive in their winter areas they also like to stay in a flock. They can be found in muddy areas of wetlands, both on the coast and inland. Here they can be seen in a typical ‘hunched over’ posture feeding on tiny invertebrates on the mud surface.
Least Sandpipers are listed as “Least Concern” by the IUCN. However, like all shorebirds they are threatened by disturbance from humans and habitat loss. During migration and overwinter these tiny birds rely on the food that wetlands provide for their survival. Protecting our wetlands is vital to helping conserve shorebirds like the Least Sandpiper! Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Least Sandpiper
Download the Migratory Birds of the Day Colouring Page! Use the picture above and the photos on this page 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 #WMBD2022Carib
Listen to the calls of the Least Sandpiper
Least Sandpipers make a distinctive high-pitched “greeep!” call. You might heard this as a small flock takes flight.
Puzzle of the Day
Click on the images 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!
Look out for browner colored plumage and yellowish legs to be sure you are seeing a Least Sandpiper and not a different small sandpiper. Also note the pointed down-curved bill (Photo by Ray Robles).Least Sandpipers will often flock together in a loose group. Listen out for their rolling “cheep” call as they take flight (Photo by Maikel Canizares).
A Least Sandpiper searches for food on the mud. Least Sandpipers often feed further from the water on dryer parts of the mud, compared to other ‘peeps’ (Photo by Ted Lee Eubanks).
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Test your shorebird ID skills with our “Spot the Least Sandpiper” challenge! Small sandpipers or ‘peeps’ as they are known can look very similar to each other. As well as their small size they share other features such plumage that is brown or grey above and white below, pointed black-coloured bills and a habit of feeding in muddy wetland areas. But Least Sandpiper so have things that help you pick them out from the crowd, read the text above and look closely at the pictures of Least Sandpipers we have shared. Once you’ve done this take a look and see if you can pick out the Least Sandpiper! (there are some extra tips for you on the second page if you get stuck). You can find the correct answer here.
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Don’t forget that from September 1 – 7 it is the Global Shorebird Count – with World Shorebirds Day taking place on September 6. Take part by heading to your local wetland and counting all the shorebirds that you see, then making sure to share your list with ‘worldshorebirdsday’ on eBird Caribbean. Need some extra help with your shorebird ID? No worries, we have you covered, check out our shorebird resources page here. Find out more about the Global Shorebird Count and World Shorebirds day below.
Cover of the new Raptors of the Caribbean Education & Conservation Resource Guide.
Marta Curti of the Peregrine Fund shares her thoughts on (and love for) our magnificent Caribbean raptors, including several threatened endemic species and subspecies; and introduces a brand new Resource Guide, which will help conservationists, educators, and community members understand raptors better.
I am just going to say it. Raptors are cool! Their laser-like eyesight, powerful hunting skills, acrobatic and graceful flight, coupled with their penetrating stare, have been a source of fascination for humans probably since the first time someone locked eyes with one of these spectacular birds. But they are so much more than attractive and awe-inspiring birds.
More and more research has shown the important roles raptors play in the ecosystems in which they live. They act as top predators, bio-indicators, and umbrella species. They provide important ecosystem services for humans, and many are keystone species. In short, their role in an ecosystem is large in comparison to their numbers and their removal from that system would cause a cascade of negative effects on numerous other organisms – including humans.
Despite this, raptors are one of the most threatened bird groups in the world. And raptors in the Caribbean are no different. Populations across the region are in decline and there are even several endemic species and subspecies that need our help. These include the Ridgway’s Hawk, Cuban Kite, Grenada Hook-billed Kite, and Puerto Rican Sharp-shinned Hawk. With this in mind, you would imagine that the study of raptors and conservation programs to protect them would be widespread. But sadly, despite the critical roles they play in our ecosystems, and the many threats they face, there are few research and environmental education programs focused on raptors across the Caribbean.
We set out to change all of that.
Together with support from BirdsCaribbean, we at The Peregrine Fund have written a 200-page training manual entitled “Raptors of the Caribbean: Education and Conservation Resource Guide.” The guide is divided into four chapters:
What are Birds of Prey,
Identification of Birds of Prey of the Caribbean,
Why Raptors Matter, and
How One Can Help Conserve Raptors.
Each chapter is followed by two learning activities and one evaluation activity, as well as additional learning materials. Though written in English, we are now in the process of translating it into Spanish and Haitian Creole (Kreyòl), so it will have greater impact throughout the Caribbean.
But the creation of the guide is just the first step. The next stage is to train conservationists, community leaders, and educators in its use. During the AOS-BirdsCaribbean Conference in Puerto Rico in June 2022, we held a condensed workshop for 12 participants. After a short presentation on birds of prey, the action started. We began by breaking into teams and building life-sized raptors out of recyclable materials. Participants created a Stygian Owl, a Ridgway’s Hawk, and even a massive Secretarybird out of nothing but cardboard, plastic bottles, newspaper, and some tape to hold them all together. Creativity took flight!
Close-up view of Secretarybird constructed of recycleable materials. (photo by Gabriela Diaz)
Group shares their Stygian Owl masterpiece (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
One group plans the activity they will teach to the rest of the workshop participants. (Photo by Gabriela Diaz)
Group works together to construct their Stygian Owl. (photo by Gabriela Diaz)
Team proudly shows off their completed life sized Secretarybird built out of recyclable materials plumes prey and all! (photo by Lisa-Sorenson)
One group is busy constructing a Secretarybird (photo by Gabriela Diaz)
For the next activity, groups reviewed the guide and chose an activity they were going to teach to the rest of us. We played games, wrote poems, and engaged in a “memory” challenge. One participant kept repeating “I am having so much fun!” A positive sign indeed!
We had carried out a pre- and post-evaluation and saw that in the four short hours of the mini-workshop, participants learned a lot about raptors that they hadn’t known before – such as what they eat, where they live, and the important functions they perform in their environment. It was an intense, hands-on learning experience.
Thanks to support from BirdsCaribbean and the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund, the manual is now completed. Our dream is to carry out extended workshops of two or more days in countries around the Caribbean. Participants will gain experience – including conservation-based lessons that use raptors to teach math, language, art, and even physical education in their programs.
One team proudly shows of their Ridgway’s Hawk, made of recyclable materials. (photo by Tahira Carter)
In these longer workshops, we aim to offer participants training in environmental education techniques and methods. These would include developing a guided nature walk; giving an impactful presentation; how to speak about sensitive issues one-on-one with community members; and utilizing whatever materials are available on-hand to create fun and dynamic learning experiences for participants’ target audiences. They would also learn about raptors in their countries, food chains, threats to wildlife, and possible conservation solutions.
Several participants from each country would then be trained to lead these workshops, so we can form a chain of raptor-based environmental education workshops throughout the Caribbean and help to promote interest in raptor research and conservation. From our understanding, this is the only raptor-based conservation-themed workshop in the region. We are excited to embark on these workshops and look forward to sharing our results!
We are currently raising funds to make these education workshops a reality. Ongoing training is so vital to ensure the long-term survival of these magnificent birds. If you would like to support this work, please click here.
The “Raptors of the Caribbean” Training Manual and Guide is currently undergoing a final review, and will be available for FREE download in late September, 2022. Stay tuned!
We are very excited to welcome several new endemic birds to the Caribbean! Every year the American Ornithological Society publishes their supplement to the Check-list of North American Birds which includes taxonomic (classification) updates to North American bird species. This year, we had not one, not two…. but three different species splits!
Hispaniolan Mango and Puerto Rican Mango
Hispaniola and Puerto Rico each acquired a new endemic with the split of the Antillean Mango. Mangos are large hummingbirds with decurved bills in the genus Anthracothorax. The Hispaniolan Mango (Anthracothorax dominicus) can be differentiated by males having a shimmering green throat, and entirely velvet-black underparts, whereas the Puerto Rican Mango (Anthracothorax aurulentus)has green flanks, black restricted to just a patch on the belly, and overall lighter underparts that are a brownish-gray. The female Hispaniolan Mango has a purplish tail base, whereas the female Puerto Rican Mango has a brownish tail.
In the early 1900s, the two mangos were formerly considered two separate species, but were lumped together (Anthracothorax dominicus) in the 1980s. Recent work looking through museum specimens has found that there are enough plumage and morphometric (size and shape) differences to split these two species once more! We now have the Puerto Rican Mango and the Hispaniolan Mango!
Hispaniolan Mango (female) feeding on hibiscus in the Dominican Republic. (Photo by Neil Hilton)
Hispaniolan Mango (male) perched in the Dominican Republic.(photo by Carlos-Gomez)
Puerto Rican Mango female feeding in Puerto Rico. (photo by Ken Pinnow)
Puerto Rican Mango (female) perched in Puerto Rico. (photo by Ryan Douglas)
Puerto Rican Mango (male) perched, Puerto Rico. (photo by Ryan Mandelbaum)
Black-billed Streamertail and Red-billed Streamertail
The Streamertail is a long-tailed hummingbird that is easily recognized as the iconic national bird of Jamaica. The country has gained another endemic with the split of the Streamertail into Black-billed Streamertail (Trochilus scitulus) and Red-billed Streamertail (Trochilus polytmus). The biggest difference between these now two distinct species is all in the name, the bill color. But the Black-billed Streamertail also has shorter wings and a more grass-like green plumage, lacking some of the coppery tones that Red-billed Streamertail has. Like the former Antillean Mango, these two hummingbirds were originally recognized as distinct species, but lumped together into the Streamertail (Trochilus polytmus) in 2010s; now they are split again.
Recent research has studied the hybrid zone (the area where two closely-related species interact and reproduce; their offspring are known as hybrids) between these two taxa, finding it has been relatively stable for the last 70 years. While genetically, the two species remain fairly similar, the hybrid zone is relatively narrow, meaning the two species only come into contact in a small area. It also looks like bill color is important to males that are displaying to females, making a good case for splitting these two charismatic hummingbirds once more. Additionally, the Red-billed Streamertail is widespread across the island while the Black-billed Streamertail is restricted to the eastern part of Jamaica.
A male Black-billed Streamertail in Jamaica. (photo by Dominic Sherony)
A female Red-billed Streamertail in Jamaica. (photo by Charles J Sharp)
A male Red-billed Streamertail, locally known as Doctor Bird, shows off his iridescence. (photo by Kaldari)
A male Red-billed Streamertail in Jamaica. (photo by Dick Daniels)
Cuban Kite split from Hook-billed Kite
The Cuban Kite, formerly considered a subspecies of the Hook-billed Kite, is now a full species. (painting by Nils Navarro, from Endemic Birds of Cuba Field Guide)
Cuba is also gaining another endemic with the split of the Cuban Kite (Chondrohierax wilsonii) from Hook-billed Kite (Chondrohierax uncinatus). The Cuban Kite was originally recognized as its own species in 1847, when it was first described, but was later lumped into Hook-billed Kite as they can show quite a bit of variation throughout their extensive range in Latin America. However, looking through specimens, the Cuban Kite shows a barred collar, which other Hook-billed Kites lack, overall smaller size, and a larger bill that is typically yellow. While genetically, Cuban Kite remains very similar to Hook-billed Kite, it is a species that is not known to disperse from or travel outside of Cuba, making a good case that there is relatively little connectivity between populations.
Unfortunately, the Cuban Kite is Critically Endangered and there have been very few sightings in recent years. Likely, there is a small stronghold left in the mountains of Eastern Cuba. Their decline has been attributed to habitat loss, loss of its main prey, the beautiful land snails, and persecution from the belief that they hunt domestic chickens. We hope that recognizing the Cuban Kite as its own distinct species will help gain some momentum to conserve this beautiful raptor.
Other taxonomic proposals not accepted
Other proposals that were unfortunately not accepted included: splitting Hispaniolan Elaenia from Greater Antillean Elaenia, recognizing the different subspecies of Red-legged Thrush as 2 or 3 distinct species, and splitting the Caribbean populations of House Wren into 7 distinct species. There’s a lot more work to be done for understanding our endemic birds in the Caribbean!
We are very excited to add a total of 3 new endemic species to the Caribbean! We look forward to continuing to learn more about our specialty Caribbean birds and maybe seeing more distinct species in the future!
Learn more about the Streamertail here (we will update this page soon to reflect the latest taxonomic update): https://www.birdscaribbean.org/2020/04/from-the-nest-day-9/
Over 700 species of birds live in the Caribbean. This includes 176 species that can be found nowhere else in the world! There is no doubt that birds add music and a splash of color to our lives. Many people enjoy watching wild birds since it distracts them from the pressures of their daily lives. Additionally, birds provide invaluable ecosystem services—they control insect populations, pollinate flowers, disperse seeds, and clean the environment. They continue to be important indicators of ecosystem health and can tell us if we are succeeding as stewards of our planet. Unfortunately, these services are almost always overlooked.
Vervain Hummingbird, Jamaica. (Photo by Sadik Kassam)
Birds are still threatened by development, agriculture, pollution, natural disasters, and hunting for meat or pets. For geographically restricted Caribbean birds, both resident and migratory, the effects can be disastrous leading to severe population declines, extirpation, or even extinction.
It’s up to all of us to take care of our birds, and to make sure they are around for future generations to enjoy. You can help birds thrive by taking a few simple, everyday actions.
Here are 10 ideas to get you started:
1. Keep Birds Safe from Pets
Unleashed dogs and outdoor cats can disturb, chase, and kill birds. Around the world, billions of birds die each year when they are caught by birds. Cats are natural predators, even if well fed. Outdoor cats also live shorter, harsher lives—they may suffer from injury or die if attacked by a dog or poisoned, can contract diseases and cause unwanted litters of kittens, if unspayed or unneutered. Keeping your cat indoors (or on a leash outdoors) is good for your cat and birds. Check this website for helpful resources.
Keep pets on a leash when outdoors. Cats kill millions of birds every year. This cat in Montserrat has killed a migratory shorebird, a Western Sandpiper. (photo on right by Alistair Homer)
2. Avoid Using Chemicals on your Lawn
Birds may accidentally eat pesticide and herbicide pellets or prey (e.g., insects) that have been poisoned. This can kill a bird or have toxic effects on their health. You can reduce your use of harmful chemicals by weeding by hand, landscaping with native plants, grasses and flowers that attract birds and provide food for them, and using organic insecticides like neem, and/ or make your own (try a mixture of white vinegar, salt, and dish soap for ridding your garden of weeds.
Keep your lawn pesticide free.
3. Leave Fledglings Where You Find Them
Young birds may spend a few days on the ground before they are able to fly well. Typically parents are nearby continue to care for them and feed them. You can help by keeping people and pets away. If you think a bird is truly an orphan, call a local wildlife rehabilitator for instructions.
Students from the St. Martin Primary School plant a tree, Dominica.
5. Share What You See
Citizen scientists such as yourself help us monitor our bird populations and environment. The observations entered into eBird Caribbean, from interested people across the region, provide data at an amazing scale and level of sophistication. If you’re interested in birds and nature, chances are there’s a BirdsCaribbean citizen-science project that can benefit from your participation. Caribbean Waterbird Census, Global Big Day, Global Shorebird Count
Coral Aviles entering the birds she saw in her Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC) count on eBird Caribbean, Blassina Canal Puerto Rico. (Photo by Eliezer Nieves)
6. Prevent Window Collisions
During the day, windows reflect plants and trees or the sky, making them look like places to fly into. Sadly, the bird often dies, even when it is only temporarily stunned and can still fly away. Many times these birds die later from internal bleeding or bruising, especially on the brain.The good news is that you can greatly reduce the danger your home’s windows pose to birds. You can explore options like decals, netting, or mosquito screens to keep birds away from your windows during the day. Check out ideas and resources here.
Glass panes that reflect trees and greenery can be problematic for birds.
7. Drink Coffee that is Good for the Birds
You might be looking to satisfy a craving but did you know you can preserve critical habitat for birds, and other wildlife, and support farmers that are committed to sustainable farming, by brewing a cup of coffee? The Smithsonian Bird Friendly certification ensures farmers follow strict growing standards to prevent irreversible damage to bird habitats by protecting tree diversity and foliage cover. Find a store or coffee shop near you, or have it shipped right to your door.
Bird Friendly Coffee.
8. Don’t Buy Illegally Caged Birds
Although trade is illegal, many Caribbean parrots, parakeets and songbirds are still harvested for both the local and international trade. Report the capture and sale of wild birds to the authorities. Learn more here about the Cuban songbird trade.
Hispaniolan Parakeets, native to Hispaniola, are illegally captured and sold for pets or smuggled out of the country for the pet trade.
9. Create Communities
Share your passion for birds with family and friends. And expand your backyard bird oasis into a larger neighborhood oasis by working with neighbors and managers of nearby parks, schoolyards, golf courses, and farms. Together you will help restore habitat and provide safe spaces for birds to find food, hide from predators and raise their families. Restoring bird habitat can also provide cooler spaces for people, absorb stormwater runoff, and combat the spread of invasive plants.
Kids planting trees in Haiti. (Photo by Anderson Jean)
10. Support BirdsCaribbean
At BirdsCaribbean, we’re committed to conserving birds and their habitats. We have been successful in empowering local people to enjoy, study, and monitor local birds, as well as alleviate threats to their survival and their habitats. However, there is still much more to be done for Caribbean birds, people, economies, and ecosystems that are under constant threat of development, agricultural expansion, pollution, climate change, and more. We’re a member-supported nonprofit and we rely on donations for our annual funding. We are extremely grateful to our generous and dedicated members and donors, and we invite you to join us as we continue to build a future where birds and people thrive.
Building capacity to study, monitor and conserve Caribbean seabirds
BirdsCaribbean booth at NAOC, 2016.
Serving on the BirdsCaribbean Board of Directors is an enriching experience, where you can really make an impact.
Group photo with Orlando at his home in Havana. BirdsCaribbean Cuba Bird Tour, January 2019.
Learning all about bird banding on WMBD, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Maria Paulino/ GAE).
Carefree Birding group enjoys the waterbirds in Sint Maarten with Binkie Van Es, BirdsCaribbean member and Caribbean Birding Trail trained guide. (photo by Carefree Birding)
Thanks to educators at the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), youth in Jamaica were treated to a field trip that included birding and a nature scavenger hunt using BirdSleuth Caribbean materials published by BirdsCaribbean. (photo courtesy of NEPA)
The results of our first Short Story and Poetry Contest are in! We would like to congratulate the winners of this year’s competition for their creativity and skill at conveying emotion. We received fantastic submissions from the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela and are extremely grateful to each writer and poet for sharing their personal encounters with some of the Caribbean’s best birds.
We decided to host this short story and poetry contest as a way to highlight this year’s Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival theme “Loving Bird is Human Nature” by documenting the powerfully innate connection we have with birds. The result was an overwhelmingly talented pool of writers and poets, and outstanding stories and poems to choose from.
Short Story Winners
We are pleased to announce that the short story winners are:
3rd Place: “The Root of the Murder” by Chloe Bramble (Antigua and Barbuda)
The following stories also captivated the judges and they received Honorable Mentions:: “Jairo y el Frailecito” by Yohana Rivero Pérez (Venezuela), “Hide and Seek” by Adriana Cintrón (Puerto Rico) and “Guerreras del aire” by Alicia Marlene Ríos Pérez (Cuba).
Poetry Winners
And the poetry winners are:
1st Place: “To Wonder At Birds” by Brianna Salmon (Jamaica)
2nd Place: “Paloma Querida” by Wanda I. Rodríguez López (Puerto Rico)
3rd Place: “Bird Love” by Yashid Charles (St Lucia)
The judges believed the following poets were also able to powerfully express their ideas and emotions, and they received “Honorable Mentions.”: “Up Close First Encounter” by Alliah Francis (Jamaica), “Las aves de paso” by Yamilaiki Osorio Sánchez (Cuba) and “Miradas al mar” by Génesis Parra Rivero (Venezuela).
The entire CEBF team offers a sincere thanks to everyone who submitted. We invite you to read all submissions, including the winning short stories and poems in both Spanish and English, at this link OR click on the book below. to view here!
We would love to see this collection of short stories and poems grow! Please contact Aliya.Hosein@birdscaribbean.org and info@birdscaribbean.org if you would like to contribute a short story, poem, or both!
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us! Our theme in 2022 is “Loving Birds is Human Nature”. 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: Cuban Pewee
Often seen darting from a perch to grasp insects from the air, the Cuban Pewee is full of energy and character. It is a species of flycatcher, a group of birds well known for catching their insect prey on the wing. Unlike other species with vibrant colors (think Western Spindalis, Yellow Warbler, and Painted Bunting) this small bird has rather drab olive-brown plumage with an olive-gray crown and tufted crest. Its underparts are lighter beige-gray with yellowish wash. Look for the bold white crescent behind the eye to distinguish this bird from other flycatchers.
Formerly called the Crescent-eyed Pewee, the Cuban Pewee is a Caribbean endemic, found in only two countries: Cuba and The Bahamas. There are four subspecies, three in Cuba and one in The Bahamas, which vary slightly in plumage. In The Bahamas, you can find them on the northern islands of Grand Bahama, Abaco, New Providence, Andros, Eleuthera and Cat Island. They are wide-spread throughout Cuba from the coast to moderate elevations. Their habitat includes pine and broad-leafed forests, forest edges, tree plantations, brushy scrub, mangroves, and swamp edges.
A great way to find this bird is to listen out for its song, Tswee-ooooooooo.” The first part is explosive and the second a long descending whistle. It’s call is a short “peep peep,” or the Bahamas, “peeep peep peep!”
Like other flycatchers, the Cuban Pewee typically uses a low perch from which it flies to catch insects on the wing. It mainly eats small insects, but will also eat fruits. Breeding is thought to occur in February-March in the Bahamas and March to June in Cuba. The nest is a finely-made cup of roots, hair, dried grass, lichens, and moss placed in the fork of a tree branch or shrub. Eggs (2-4) are pale with dark dots, crowned with lilac or grayish dots at the broad end.
Download our West Indies Endemic Bird colouring page. 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 #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the song of the Cuban Pewee
The song of the Cuban Pewee song is a “Tswee-ooooooo.” The short sharp initial “Tweee” is followed by a drawn-out descending whistle.
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!
A Cuban Pewee in the Bahamas. (Photo by Christopher Johnson)A Cuban Pewee. This small flycatcher live in open woodlands and scrub. (Photo by Sergey Uryadnikov)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: How much can you remember about the birds we have featured during the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival 2022? Test your memory of your newly gained knowledge of these wonderful birds with our 2022 Caribbean Endemic Bird Quiz! Today we have Part Two of a two-part Bird Trivia Quiz. Try to answer all the questions without checking back to our posts or looking up the answers online or in your bird guides! But just in case you do get stuck you or if you want to do some studying before you try the quiz you can read about all our featured endemic birds here or take a browse on ebird. Once you’ve finished the quiz you can click on the “View Score” link to see how many you got right and find out the correct answers! Note: the page might look blank when you finish, but if you scroll back up you should be able to find the link to “View Score”.
Now you’ve completed our quiz – enjoy this video of a Green-tailed Warbler the wild!
When the world seemed to stop at the behest of the pandemic, forcing most of us to remain at home, our BirdsCaribbean community kept going — birding, monitoring, and sharing our stories from safe spaces in our neighborhoods, community parks, and backyards.
Nearly three years and countless virtual meetings later, the anticipation of an in-person reunion was palpable. In partnership with the American Ornithological Society (AOS), and with invaluable support from local partners Para La Naturaleza and Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc. (SOPI), we successfully hosted our biggest conference to date — AOS & BC 2022— welcoming over 800 wildlife professionals from 34 countries to the tropical shores of Puerto Rico from June 27-July 2, 2022.
The conference, held under the theme “On the Wings of Recovery: Resilience and Action”, was a true celebration of the perseverance of our community featuring 146 poster presentations, 143 oral presentations across 14 symposia, 280 contributed papers, 8 roundtable discussions, and 93 student presentations.
Keynote speakers Dr. Howard P. Nelson, professor and wildlife biologist from Trinidad and Tobago and professor of conservation leadership at Fauna & Flora International, and Dr. Herbert Raffaele, retired chief of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of International Conservation, spoke to the importance of resilience and action as the Caribbean region faces the conservation challenges of the future. Speaking to packed auditoriums at the Convention Center in San Juan, Dr. Nelson addressed “Island Futures: Pathways to Resilient Conservation of Caribbean Birds,” and Dr. Raffaele outlined “Saving Our World’s Birds: A Plan for the Future.”
Plenary speaker, Dr. Kristen Camille Ruegg gave a fascinating talk on: “The Bird Genoscape Project — Unlocking the Secrets of Bird Migration Using DNA in the Tip of a Feather.” And Dr. Purnima Devi Barman received a standing ovation for her inspiring presentation to save the Greater Adjutant Stork, locally known as the Hargila: “The Rewilding Revolution: Using the Magic of Community Action to Save the Hargila,.
“Our international conferences are always special because they give members of our diverse community a chance to meet, network, and learn about cutting-edge research and conservation solutions,” commented Executive Director, Dr. Lisa Sorenson. “This year was exceptional because the pandemic added a new layer of complexity to our work and our plans for the future. Partnering with the AOS allowed us a unique opportunity to widen our network of enthusiastic conservationists. The high level of participation and engagement over these five days of learning in Puerto Rico augurs well for the future of the Caribbean region and the safeguarding of its natural resources, particularly its birds and their habitats.”
BirdsCaribbean Highlights at the Conference
Workshops
BirdSleuth Caribbean: Connecting Youth to Nature and Science through Birds
Birds are an engaging and fun way to get youth interested in nature, science, and inquiry-based learning. The BirdSleuth Caribbean Workshop sought to inspire participants to consider ways they, and their organizations, might support teachers and youth through educational programs in school as well as in camps and afterschool programs.Facilitated by Jennifer Fee, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Dr. Lisa Sorenson, BirdsCaribbean, the full-day workshop reviewed the innovative BirdSleuth Caribbean curriculum — a resource that engages kids in scientific study through fun activities, games, and real data collection through the eBird citizen-science project.
BirdSleuth Caribbean Workshop group photo.
Participants learn the basics of bird identification. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
BirdSleuth Workshop participants identify birds outdoors. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Ingrid shows off her drawing. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Participants sketch birds at the BirdSleuth workshop. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Raptors of the Caribbean: Education and Conservation Resources
This highly-anticipated workshop focused on teaching participants about raptors, one of the most threatened bird groups in the world. Globally, we recognize there to be a basic lack of knowledge about raptors, as well as a lot of misinformation about birds of prey in general. Although raptors in the Caribbean are suffering population declines, they often remain excluded from environmental education guides and outreach programs.
Through the use of a brand new, hot-off-the-press resource, Environmental Education Guide: Raptors of the Caribbean, workshop facilitators Marta Curti and Gabriela Diaz from The Peregrine Fund engaged participants in dynamic, hands-on activities, and group work to better understand the importance raptors play in the ecosystems where they live. These activities helped participants gain practice and increase their confidence in teaching others about birds of prey using/adapting the materials and activities presented in the education guide.
Participants in the Raptors of the Caribbean Workshop show off their bird of prey, made from recycled materials.
The Power of Film and Video to Drive Conservation Impact
In the age of social media, and faced with the phenomenon of rapidly declining attention spans, the importance of video as a tool for storytelling cannot be underestimated. New research shows that 83% of people prefer watching videos as a means to learn vs. reading text. In this workshop, Elijah Sands, Senior Communications Officer at the Bahamas National Trust, with support from Tahira Carter, Communications Manager at BirdsCaribbean, engaged participants on the use of the most dynamic form of digital communication — video — to inspire change and drive impact.
Inspirational message recorded especially for the group by Paul Nicklen, acclaimed Canadian photographer, film-maker, author and marine biologist. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Workshop Facilitator, Elijah Sands, from the Bahamas National Trust, uses videos from his portfolio to explain key concepts to the group. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Caribbean Landbird Monitoring Training Workshop
This workshop was held as part of BirdsCaribbean’s Landbird Monitoring Project, which seeks to inspire and facilitate landbird monitoring and conservation efforts in the Caribbean — including raising public awareness, alleviating threats, and managing and restoring habitats. Through a blend of classroom and field-based activities, workshop facilitators Jeff Gerbracht (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), Maya Wilson (BirdsCaribbean), Ingrid Molina (Our Coffee Our Birds), Holly Garrod (BirdsCaribbean), Coral Aviles (San Juan Bay Estuary Program), and Alcides Morales and Omar Monzon (Para La Naturaleza) introduced participants to landbird identification, monitoring techniques, and eBird data entry. The group practiced bird ID and counting techniques at Hacienda La Esperanza Nature Reserve and Cambalache State Forest. Participants will join a regional network of people involved in standardized monitoring and conservation of landbirds in the Caribbean.
Participants in the Landbird Monitoring Workshop look for birds in the forest. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Puerto Rican Emerald. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Participants in the Landbird Monitoring Workshop engage in classroom sessions before going out into the field. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Puerto Rican Woodpecker. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Participants in the Landbird Monitoring Workshop engage in classroom sessions before going out into the field. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Symposia
Puerto Rico Day: Bird Diversity and Conservation in the “Island of Enchantment”
As traditionally done by BirdsCaribbean, the first day of the conference launched with presentations of local ornithological work. This symposium consisted of two sessions with 11 presentations that included research, conservation, and education conducted by biologists representing different agencies and organizations. In the opening talk, Adrianne Tossas summarized the status and distribution of the avifauna throughout the island, emphasizing threats and current advances in habitat and species protection. Team efforts by the PR Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (PR DNER) and US Fish and Wildlife to save the charismatic and Endangered Puerto Rican Parrot were presented by Tanya Martínez and Thomas White, respectively. Also from PR DNER, Katsí Ramos spoke about the accomplishments of the Endangered Yellow-shouldered Blackbird Recovery Program, and Ingrid Flores focused on the agency’s numerous activities to increase local awareness on biodiversity conservation.
Joseph Wunderle from the USDA Forest Service, gave an overview of the increasing challenges bird populations face from climate change, as revealed from population responses to severe hurricanes across the region in recent years. University of Mississippi biologist, Francisco Vilella, summarized his contribution to the knowledge of the biology of the Puerto Rico Nightjar and raptor species. Marconi Campos, Rainforest Connection, shared recent collaborative work in bird conservation with technological advances that allow remote acoustic sampling of birds in over 600 sites in the island. Hana Weaver gave an update on The Peregrine Fund’s efforts to improve the reproductive rates of the Endangered Puerto Rican Sharp-shinned Hawk, while Laura Fidalgo talked about the contribution of members in bird monitoring programs of the Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña. Finally, Omar Monzón, from Para La Naturaleza, emphasized on the organization’s role in the protection of private lands and the engagement of volunteers in citizen science.
Francisco Vilella
Hana Weaver
Ingrid Flores
Joseph Wunderle
Katsí Ramos
Laura Fidalgo
Marconi Campos
Thomas White
Tanya Martínez
Omar Monzón
Shorebirds of the Atlantic Flyway:How Recent Work to Conserve Wetlands is Contributing to Species and Habitat Resilience in the Caribbean and Beyond
With 15 fantastic talks across three sessions this symposium moved from highlighting the importance of Caribbean and Atlantic Fly wetlands for migrating shorebirds, to the threats shorebirds and wetlands face, and on to the exciting outreach and restoration work. Presenters from 13 different countries shared their recent work and experiences. During the symposium, participants heard how the Caribbean Waterbird Census can highlight where the important places for shorebirds are and the threats they face; data from 12 years of the CWC were presented. We also learned about development that is having devastating impacts on Caribbean wetlands and mangroves, and ongoing battles to halt the destruction. But there were also inspiring stories of hope and community engagement, showing how outreach and education can inspire people to love shorebirds and value their wetlands. Even when all seems lost we learned that wetlands can be restored and created to provide havens for shorebirds, other wildlife and people to enjoy. It was clear that shorebird and wetland conservation in the Caribbean and throughout the Atlantic Flyway is full of challenges. However, working together with local communities we can help protect these beautiful birds and their valuable habitats.
Some of the presenters and organizers of the Shorebirds Symposia, from left to right: Benoit Laliberte, Juliana Almeida, Maxon Fildor, Alex Sansom, Elio Dortilus, Lisa Sorenson, Debra Baker, Ajhermae White, Elijah Sands, Devon Carter (photo by Chris Johnson)
Planning for Resiliency of Caribbean Island Endemics – Strategies for Post-2020 recovery
This symposium included two sessions with fantastic talks from 11 speakers covering the conservation perspectives on island endemics from across the Caribbean islands from The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Cayman Islands, and Jamaica in the north to Saint Lucia and Trinidad in the south. The symposium provided an opportunity for conservation practitioners to reflect on the status of the endemics on their islands, share insights on recovery patterns after disturbance, and reflect on the implications of the current post-2020 discussions at the Convention on Biological Diversity for the conservation of birds on their islands. Clear themes from these two sessions included the need for realistic targets, much greater financial and technical support for species management interventions, and sustained efforts on practices that are having an impact.
Seabirds in Peril: How Recent Knowledge is Contributing to Conservation Priorities and Species Resilience in the Face of Environmental Change
Organized by BirdsCaribbean’s Seabird Working Group, the seabird symposium included 14 presentations spread out throughout the whole day. Speakers presented exciting studies from North America to Antarctica, by way of the Caribbean. The day started with a heartfelt call for active restoration of imperiled seabirds globally. Following speakers shared tools to better assess the health of seabird populations, from survey methods using drones (in Puerto Rico) to cutting-edge artificial intelligence to analyze drone and airplane imagery, and from tracking studies of Caribbean seabirds to studies of links between oceanographic features, forage fish and seabirds in the western North Atlantic. participants closely listened when speakers shared about the importance of long-term studies on land (in Jamaica and Antarctica) and at sea (in Gulf Stream waters off the U.S. coast) to assess changes in seabird populations. Finally, conservationists shared inspiring conservation projects, from assessing the presence of predators in the Grenadines to addressing issues of plastic pollution in the Gulf of Maine, and about restoration success stories in Anguilla and Puerto Rico.
The Caribbean Seabird Working Group (with members representing Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, the Grenadines, Bonaire, and Curaçao) was able to use gaps in the schedule to discuss its push for a region-wide Seabird Census in 2023.
Working Group Meetings
Endemics and Threatened Species Working Group (ETSWG)
The BirdsCaribbean ETSWG meeting was attended by 15 members. The meeting reviewed the outcomes of the needs assessment survey prepared by the 2 co-chairs (Ellie Devenish-Nelson & Howard Nelson). Members were also briefed on the status of the Alliance for Zero Extinction by the participants from the American Bird Conservancy (Amy Upgren, Dan Lebbin, Dave Ewert). The participants also discussed key issues for the group including broadening participation across the islands in the working group, data management, funding, and key projects that the various members were working on including monitoring efforts on endemic and threatened species in their countries. The group reviewed the chairmanship and there was unanimity that the current co-chairs would continue to chair the group until the next BirdsCaribbean conference. The Chairs also discussed the development of group activities in the intervening year, and agreed to improve its presence on the BC website and the frequency of members contribution to a working group blog.
Bird Education & Festivals Working Group and Educators’ Awards
Caribbean Bird Educators reconnected and discussed the themes and activities for this year’s World Migratory Bird Day and Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival. WMBD Coordinators, Laura Baboolal and Miguel Matta, gave a brief overview and handed out Happy Kits to all educators—a wonderful set of materials to educate about this year’s theme—Dim the Lights for Birds at Night. Participants also received a fabulous set of nine different sticker sheets featuring the artwork of talented artist, Josmar Esteban Marquez. The stickers include a variety of Caribbean birds (endemics, residents, waterbirds, shorebirds, migrants, etc.) to use in the next Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival and other bird education activities. Thanks to Daniel Serva for his incredible efforts to carry two heavy suitcases on a long journey from Venezuela to Puerto Rico – he shared the incredible tale of his journey that included a harrowing 6 hour interrogation by US Customs when he arrived in San Juan, who were convinced that Daniel was transporting drugs on the stickers!
Educators group photo at the Bird Education-Bird Festivals Working Group Meeting at the conference.
A highlight of the meeting were the awards given to ten different educators who did a fantastic job celebrating WMBD and/or CEBF in the last two years, consistently organizing creative and fun activities for youth and local communities, and also sending in their reports and photos. All recipients received binoculars and a certificate of recognition. Educators’ Awards went to Shanna Challenger (Environmental Awareness Group, Antigua and Barbuda), Maria Paulino (Grupo Acción Ecológica, Dominican Republic), Josmar Esteban Márquez (AveZona) Inés Lourdes Fernández (La Empresa Flora y Fauna Santiago, Cuba), Ingrid Flores (DRNA, Puerto Rico), Carla Montalvo (Roots and Shoots, Puerto Rico), Ajhermae White (Dept of Environment, Montserrat), Monika Gomez (DR), Natalya Lawrence (Antigua and Barbuda), Shirley Droz (post-humous award, Puerto Rico), and Marisa Awai (Bahamas). Congratulations to all the winners!
Laura Baboolal presenting a posthumous Educators’ Award to Carla for Shirley Droz(Puerto Rico). (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Laura Baboolal and Lisa Sorenson presenting an Educators’ Award to Ingrid Flores (Puerto Rico). (photo by Daniel Serva)
Laura Baboolal and Lisa Sorenson presenting an Educators’ Award to Carla Montalvo (Puerto Rico). (photo by Daniel Serva)
Laura Baboolal and Lisa Sorenson presenting an Educators’ Award to Daniel Serva for Josmar Esteban Marquez (Venezuela). (photo by Daniel Serva)
Laura Baboolal presenting an Educators’ Award to Giselle Dean for Marisa Awai (Bahamas). (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Laura Baboolal and Lisa Sorenson presenting an Educators’ Award to Ajhermae White (Montserrat). (photo by Daniel Serva)
Daniel Serva telling the harrowing story of his journey bringing the stickers to Puerto Rico (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Laura Baboolal presenting an Educators’ Award to Joshel Wilson for Natalya Lawrence (Antigua). (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Laura Baboolal and Lisa Sorenson presenting an Educators’ Award to Maria Paulino (Dominican Republic). (photo by Daniel Serva)
Laura Baboolal and Lisa Sorenson presenting an Educators’ Award to Shanna Challenger (Antigua). (photo by Daniel Serva)
Laura Baboolal, Miguel Matta, Carla Montalvo, Sheylda Díaz-Méndez, and Lisa Sorenson. (photo by Daniel Serva)
Roundtables
Action Learning for Building Resiliency in Island Endemic Species Recovery
The roundtable on species recovery used an action learning approach to deliver on a specific need identified by the Endemics and Threatened Species Working Group’s needs assessment survey – more training on species recovery. The session consisted of two segments, the first enabled the 20 participants to learn from three guest speakers from The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, and Antigua and Barbuda, who shared their experiences undertaking species recovery actions on their islands. The second part of the round-table permitted all participants to interact directly with the speakers and each other in small working groups, which enabled workshopping the challenges each participant was experiencing with species recovery on their respective islands. Feedback from the participants suggested that the workshop provided an excellent forum for learning from each other’s professional experiences as well as improving the informal networks between species recovery practitioners.
The Journal of Caribbean Ornithology (JCO) at 34—an Open Discussion on How our Regional Journal can Best Meet your Needs
The JCO editorial team at the conference. From left: Editor-in-Chief Joe Wunderle, Lead Copy Editor Zoya Buckmire, Managing Editor Stefan Gleissberg, Development Editor Natasha Atkins, Review Editor Jen Mortensen, and BC Vice President Justin Proctor.
The JCO–BirdsCaribbean’s peer reviewed scientific journal–welcomed fellow editors, authors, and other conference participants for a brainstorming session about the role of our journal in the Caribbean research and conservation communities. Managing Editor Dr. Stefan Gleissberg opened up the discussion with an overview, and Editor-in-Chief Dr. Joe Wunderle was available throughout to answer questions. JCO occupies a rather unique niche serving a biodiverse region which at the same time is also culturally and politically diverse. To limit access barriers to critical information on Caribbean birds, JCO publishes in three languages, provides immediate open access, keeps a comprehensive online archive, and has only modest publication charges. A vital point of the journal’s work is to assist early-career and first-time authors, and those who’s research is not conducted with the support system of an academic institution, in order to achieve the highest-possible impact of their work. Roundtable participants contributed valuable ideas. Conversation points included ethical and permit compliance, and how these vary widely among islands and territories. Following a request by a participant, JCO now explores how abstracts from the conference can be published in the journal, increasing visibility.
The most prestigious award — The Lifetime Achievement Award — went to two conservation stalwarts (1) Dr. John Faaborg, Emeritus Professor, University of Missouri and (2) Mr. Eric Carey, Executive Director, Bahamas National Trust and Past President of BirdsCaribbean. This award honors individuals who have helped change the future of Caribbean birds and their habitats for the better through a lifetime of work and dedication.
Elijah Sands accepts the BirdsCaribbean Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of Mr. Eric Carey, Bahamas National Trust.
Eight individuals, representing three organizations – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program, Terrestrial Ecology Division,Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources; and Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc. (SOPI)– were hand selected by our President Dr Adrianne Tossas for the President’s Award. In choosing recipients several things are considered, particularly their ability to adapt in challenging times and master their skills ultimately raising the bar of service in conservation. This year’s Founders’ Award recipient was Julissa Irizarry from Puerto Rico, for her outstanding paper entitled Evaluating avian biodiversity in Puerto Rico’s urban neighborhoods: A test of the “luxury effect”. And finally Russell Campbell received the Video Workshop Award for showing the most initiative in the field following the training session at the conference. Read all the details and award citations here.
Recipients of the BirdsCaribbean President’s Award: Ricardo López-Ortiz, Katsí R. Ramos-Álvarez, and Roseanne Medina from the Terrestrial Ecology Division of Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
Elijah Sands accepts Lifetime Achievement Award from Executive Director Dr Lisa Sorenson on behalf of Emma Lewis.
Ex-President of the Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc. (SOPI), Gabriel Lugo, receives the BirdsCaribbean President’s Award on behalf of SOPI President, Laura Fidalgo, and Executive Director Emilio Font.
BirdsCaribbean President Dr Adrianne Tossas and Executive Director Dr Lisa Sorenson with BirdsCaribbean President’s Award recipient Tanya Martinez of the Terrestrial Ecology Division in Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
Recipients of the BirdsCaribbean President’s Award, 2022, for their work in the conservation of the Puerto Rican Parrot and the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird.
Silent Auction
The Silent Auction is an important fundraising activity and always a fun event at BirdsCaribbean conferences. Among the many items donated by our members for auction this year was the once-in-a-lifetime experience to zipline with BirdsCaribbean Executive Director Dr Lisa Sorenson! It is worth mentioning that Lisa wasn’t even aware this item was up for bid until too late, but seized the moment and fulfilled her ziplining duties in great form for the birds!A huge thank you to our members who donated a record-breaking 600 items for auction this year, helping us to raise US$6,000! All proceeds from the auction support our ongoing conservation efforts and provide much-needed travel scholarships to help Caribbean wildlife students and professionals attend our meetings.
Dr Howard Nelson and Ellie Nelson consider which books they’d like to bid on. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Bidding at the Silent Auction. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Silent Auction organizer, Jennifer Wheeler, announces the start of the event with the traditional blowing of the conch shell. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
The excitement builds as the bidding comes to a close. (Photo by Adrianne Tossas)
Lisa finds out that she is the feature of a surprise auction item – a zipline experience! (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Tody Trot
This year’s 5k Fun Run, the Tody Trot, was named in honor of one of Puerto Rico’s most fascinating endemic bird species, the Puerto Rican Tody. 5k organizers, Maggie MacPherson and Justin Proctor, were excited to welcome 75 runners and walkers to the starting line. The course took participants along sandy beaches, beautiful ocean views, and even a castle, finishing in style on a rocky peninsula with waves crashing all around.
Tody Trot participants socialize after the race.
Tody Trot participants on the course.
Merchandise
This year, we partnered with award-winning biological illustrator, Arnaldo Toledo, and past president of Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña Inc. and Tour Operator for Wildside Nature Tours, Gabriel Lugo, to create a series of eye-catching designs! Arnaldo and Gabriel combined art, birds, and fashion to bring attention to Puerto Rico’s iconic bird species and the threats they face. The AOS-BC Conference collection included t-shirts, hats, buffs, stickers, and a poster that all featured the gorgeous illustrations of talented Cuban artist Arnaldo Toledo. These items and many others, such as local bird-friendly coffee and field guides from Puerto Rico and the West Indies, make great souvenirs from the conference and unique gifts for family and friends! Limited merchandise items from the conference are still available for purchase in Puerto Rico, please contact the Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña Inc. for more information (Gabriel Lugo and Emilio Font)
Endemic Birds of Puerto Rico T-shirt, AOS-BC Conference Merchandise.
Endemic Birds of Puerto Rico Hats, AOS-BC Conference Merchandise.
Tody Buff, AOS-BC Conference Merchandise.
Endemic Birds of Puerto Rico Poster, AOS-BC Conference Merchandise
Field Guides & Books on Puerto Rico and the West Indies by Dr Herbert Raffaele and Mark Oberle.
Endemic Birds of Puerto Rico Stickers, AOS-BC Conference Merchandise
Raffle
Fernando stylishly sells raffle tickets at the conference. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Thanks to our generous partners, we are hosting another amazing Raffle to support our ongoing conservation efforts. All proceeds directly impact scientific research and support programs and activities that build the capacity of Caribbean wildlife professionals — like our regional training workshops and conferences.The items offered this year are so good that we have two grand prizes — an original watercolor “Puerto Rican Tody” by award-winning Cuban Wildlife Artist and Illustrator, Arnaldo Toledo; and the Vortex Razor HD 8×42 Binocular, valued at US$1,279.99!
Other fabulous prizes include more stunning bird art — limited edition, high-quality giclee prints of Cuban endemic birds, signed and numbered by acclaimed Cuban artist and author, Nils Navarro.The grand prize drawing will take place on Saturday, 27 August 2022 so enter now for a chance to win! bit.ly/Raffle-2022 With each ticket purchase, you can help Caribbean nationals create better tomorrows for the birds and the communities that live alongside them.
Exploring Puerto Rico: Excursions and Endemics
We could not come to Puerto Rico, home to some of the region’s most stunning endemic birds, and not explore the beauty of our host island. Local hosts, Para La Naturaleza and SOPI ensured that conference attendees had the opportunity to discover as much of Puerto Rico’s rich flora and fauna as possible. Tours included visits to El Yunque National Forest in Río Grande, Medio Mundo y Daguao in Ceiba, the Cabezas de San Juan Nature Reserve in Fajardo, the Antiguo Acueducto del Río Piedras and the Parque Central de San Juan.
Acknowledgements
A huge thank you to everyone that helped make this conference a tremendous success! It was a pleasure to work with our co-host, the American Ornithological Society, and our local partners, Para la Naturaleza and Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña to organize the conference. We are very grateful to all the conference sponsors and donors, including the National Science Foundation, Dept of Natural Resources and Environment, Puerto Rico, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Windmar Home, Audubon, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Para la Naturaleza, Richard King Mellon Foundation, US Geological Survey, American Bird Conservancy, Vermont Center for Ecostudies, and the US Forest Service – we could not have held this conference without you! We are especially grateful to all those that provided funding and donated to help us provide travel scholarships to 40 Caribbean wildlife professionals and students, including those that participated and donated to our 2022 Global Big Day teams fundraising event in May. As you can see in the photos and videos, the conference provided an incredible opportunity for learning and networking. It also helped us to reconnect, recharge, and become newly inspired to continue our vital conservation work, after a long period of covid isolation. Thank you to all of you from the bottom of our hearts!!!
Gallery
Hover over each photo in the gallery to see the caption or click on a photo to view as a slide show.
Justin zooms by on the zipline. (Photo by Edward Hernández-Lara)
Lisa is suited up and ready for her first-ever zipline experience! (Photo by Justin Proctor)
Lisa and Justin smile for a photo after their zipline experience. (Photo by Daniel Serva)
Holly helps customers at the merchandise table. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Group Photo of the Caribbean and US Delegation.
Lisa and Dr Birdy at the airport. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Justin Ziplining across the Convention Center courtyard. (Photo by Edward Hernández-Lara)
Volunteers pause for a photo at the BirdsCaribbean merchandise table. (Photo by Adrianne Tossas)
Participant group photo. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Caribbean group jumping for joy! (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Ingrid Flores Vallejo manages the DRNA & NOAA table. (Photo by Christine Schmidt)
Caribbean colleagues from our Endemic and Threatened Species Working Group discussion at AOS-BC 2022 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rican Woodpecker. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Adrianne, Ingrid and colleagues take a photo frame pic. (Photo by Adrianne Tossas)
Zoya Buckmire at her poster. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Carlos, Luis and JC take a selfie. (Photo by Juan Carlos Fernandez)
Participants in the Landbird Monitoring Workshop engage in classroom sessions before going out into the field. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Dr Herbert Raffaele delivers Keynote Address. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Lisa Sorenson, Mike Webster, Bruce Lyon, and Andre Dondt.
Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc. (SOPI) table. (Photo by Christine Schmidt)
Caribbean men group photo.
Group photo of Caribbean delegates at AOS-BC Conference 2022 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
JC and Joshel help Chris select an endemic birds of Puerto Rico hat. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Ingrid, Ivelisse and JC pose for the camera in our fun AOS-BC photo frame. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
JC manages sales at the BirdsCaribbean Merchandise Table. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Tahira and Jennifer manage sales at the merchandise table. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Ellie Devenish-Nelson and Howie Nelson chat with Chris Mulvaney at the Merch table.
Participants in the Landbird Monitoring Workshop, Puerto Rico, look for birds in the forest. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Various items for sale at the BirdsCaribbean merchandise table. (Photo by Adrianne Tossas)
Tyrone, Ellie, Howie, Jordan, Lisa and Zoya. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson(
Josh Pergola and Justin Proctor show off their new endemic birds of Puerto Rico t-shirt. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Handmade wooden and crochet birds, from Cuba and Venezuela respectively, are displayed at the merch table. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Keynote Speaker Dr Herbert Raffaele delivers address at AOS-BC Conference in Puerto Rico. (Photo by Christine Schmidt)
Participants in the Landbird Monitoring Workshop pause to discuss what they’ve observed. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Howie, Yvan, Lisa, Christopher and Ellie at the Closing ceremony after party.
Justin and Giselle show off the Puerto Rican Tody Buff. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Dr Howard P. Nelson delivers Keynote Address. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Lisa and Justin are ready to zip! (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Jose Colon stands next to his Silent Auction donation – a vintage Society of Caribbean Ornithology T-shirt. (Photo by Adrianne Tossas)
Shoppers make their final bids at the Silent Auction jewelry table. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Adrianne and colleagues take a group photo. (Photo by Adrianne Tossas)
Dr Herbert Raffaele delivers Keynote Address. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Dr Adrianne Tossas delivers remarks at the AOS-BC Conference opening ceremony. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
View of the Convention Center that shows the zipline. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Recently constructed Motus Station. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Silent Auction offer to zipline with Lisa Sorenson. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Bird-friendly Coffee and a Puerto Rican Tody Mug – the perfect gift package! (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Caribbean women group photo.
Adrianne and Lisa take a group photo with students.
Lisa takes a photo with students after the closing ceremony. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Laura Baboolal participates in the Tody Trot.
All eyes on that vintage Society of Caribbean Ornithology T-shirt. (Photo by Adrianne Tossas)
Dr Herbert Raffaele delivers Keynote Address. (Photo by Christine Schmidt)
Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Field Guides on display at the BirdsCaribbean merchandise table. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Alex Sansom presenting author of a talk by Jessica Cañizares on the Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC) – what we have learned from the last 12 years. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Photo frame fun with Lisa, Adrianne, Delores, Tahira and Ann.
Jordan, Tyrone, Zoya, and Lisa. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Lisa introduces keynote speaker Dr Herbert Raffaele. (Photo by Christine Schmidt)
Photo frame fun: Adrianne, Shanna, and Lisa.
Tyrone, Jordan, Zoya at their posters. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Participants in the Raptors of the Caribbean Workshop show off their bird of prey, a Secretary Bird, made from recycled materials. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Photo frame fun: Christine Schmidt and Lauren Gates.
Adrianne and Adolfo pose for a photo. (Photo by Adrianne Tossas)
Lisa and Justin spot a Puerto Rican Parrot on the way up. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Meeting up with colleagues at the Opening Reception on the Terrace – Maya Wilson, Junel Blaise, Dodly Prosper, Howard Nelson (photo by Tahira Carter)
Puerto Rican Emerald sits on a branch. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Dr Herbert Raffaele delivers Keynote Address. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Dr Howard Nelson delivers Keynote Address. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Ajhermae White poses for a photo in the conference photo frame. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Lisa Sorenson, Herbert Raffaele, Ann Sutton, and Justin Proctor sending love to our Cuban colleagues.
Reunion of Caribbean colleagues at the Opening Reception of our AOS-BC Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico (27 June-1 July 2022).
Natasha helps a customer at the BirdsCaribbean merch table. (Photo by Christine Schmidt)
Lisa Sorenson and team present their Ridgeway’s Hawk, “Enriquillo”. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Group photo with the AOS-BC Photo Frame. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Lisa, Emilio, Omar and JC take a selfie at the Para La Naturaleza welcome ceremony. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Keynote Speaker Dr Howard P. Nelson addresses a packed ballroom at the AOS-BC Conference opening ceremony. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Safety first! Justin gets suited up for the zipline experience. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Photo frame fun: Adrianne, Ingrid, and Lisa.
Adrianne and colleagues. (Photo by Adrianne Tossas)
Participant gets ready to head into the field, with a new friend. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Lisa Ziplining across the Convention Center courtyard. (Photo by Edward Hernández-Lara)
Delores, Josh, Justin, Adrianne and Lisa pause for a photo during conference prep. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Lisa finds out about the surprise ziplining experience at the Silent Auction. (Photo by Tahira Carter)
Lisa, Ivelisse, Farah, Shanna, and Ingrid at the Closing ceremony after party. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Justin helps out with sales at the merchandise table. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Browsing books at the Silent Auction. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Environment of the Americas table. (Photo by Christine Schmidt)
Adrianna, Purnima and Lisa.
Shoppers browse items at the Para La Naturaleza table.
Lisa Sorenson, Maya Wilson, Lisa Kiziuk, and Holly Garrod.
Yvan, Lisa and Christopher at the Closing ceremony after party.
Lisa and Jennifer send love to our Cuban colleagues (note the bracelet!). (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Branded BirdsCaribbean shirts on sale. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Jose Colon assists with sales at the BIrdsCaribbean merchandise table.
The Silent Auction jewelry table is busy with bidders! (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Dr Howard Nelson delivers Keynote Address. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Lisa Ziplining across the Convention Center courtyard. (Photo by Edward Hernández-Lara)
Elijah Sands, from the Bahamas National Trust, reviews technical elements of video production at The Power of Video Workshop. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us! Our theme in 2022 is “Loving Birds is Human Nature”. 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: Blue-headed Hummingbird
Arguably the most beautiful hummer in the Lesser Antilles region, the Blue-headed Hummingbird is not to be missed! If you find yourself in high elevations of rainforest to elfin woodlands on Dominica and Martinique, be sure to look out for this naturally bold bird. During the breeding season, you may be treated to a special sight as females will sit on their nests just inches away from people! This medium-sized hummer is ~9-11cm. Males are deep blue all over with some metallic green on their back and underparts, and a sparkling “gem blue” color on the head. Females are slightly shorter in length and resemble a bigger version of the Antillean Crested Hummingbird, with pale underparts, green head, more green on the back, and longer beak. She carries a white tip on her tail, which looks like a little lady wearing a skirt.
Polygynous in nature, the male will mate with several females but guards specific small groups of flowers for different females. He keeps busy trying to prevent other birds from coming to these flowers, though he is often unsuccessful. The male prefers a variety of flowers, which include Palicourea crocea, Psychotria urbaniana, and Rudgea citrifolia—all belonging to the coffee family (Rubiaceae). Males and females feed on the same flowers, but females are often seen at the fringe edges of forests, adjacent to citrus and coffee plantations, feeding.
From February to June, the female engages in nesting with no assistance from the male. On her own, she constructs an intricate cup nest with very fine plant fibers, which include fluff from silk cotton trees and the furry part of tree ferns. Spider webs are used on the inner part of the cup, which becomes elastic as the chicks grow. The outer part of the nest is walled with lichens, which creates a camouflage effect. This is useful given that she nests in very small trees that are at eye-level for most humans. Clutch size is two small off-white eggs.
The voice of the male Blue-headed Hummingbird is a strong click-click-click which sounds like snapping of the fingers. The female is somewhat softer and often drags the syllables especially when nesting.
The Blue-Headed Hummingbird is high on the list of birders who visit Dominica for birding. They are not globally threatened but are a restricted-range species occurring on just two islands. Their populations should be monitored carefully as they are highly vulnerable to and recover slowly from severe hurricanes which are increasing in the Caribbean with climate change.Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Blue-headed Hummingbird
Download our West Indies Endemic Bird colouring page. 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 #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the calls of the Blue-headed Hummingbird
The calls of the Blue-headed Hummingbird include a metallic-sounding trill.
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!
A Blue-headed Hummingbird on Dominica. (Photo by Gabriel Kornbluh -Macaulay Library- ML393651351)A female Blue-headed Hummingbird on her nest. (Photo by Paul Reillo)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: How much can you remember about the birds we have featured during the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival 2022? Test your memory of your newly gained knowledge of these wonderful birds with our 2022 Caribbean Endemic Bird Quiz! Today we have Part One of a two-part bird trivia quiz. Try to answer all the questions without checking back to our posts or looking up the answers online or in your bird guides! But just in case you do get stuck you or if you want to do some studying before you try the quiz you can read about all our featured endemic birds here or take a browse on ebird. Once you’ve finished the quiz you can click on the “View Score” link to see how many you got right and find out the correct answers! Note: the page might look blank when you finish, but if you scroll back up you should be able to find the link to “View Score”.
Now that you’ve completed our quiz – enjoy this short video of a Blue-headed Hummingbird in the wild!
The core committee of the BirdsCaribbean Seabird Working Group (SWG) continues its series of webinars to help conservation practitioners across the Caribbean prepare for engagement in a 2023 regional seabird census.
The second webinar in the series, Basic Concepts in Seabird Monitoring and Census Design, will be held on Thursday, June 7 from 4–5PM EDT. Seabird biologists and conservationists Ann Sutton and Hannah Madden will review the key issues and considerations when heading to the field to survey seabirds.
The SWG webinars are designed to be interactive, with question and answer sessions at the end of each event. Participants have the opportunity to meet renowned seabird specialists and learn from their knowledge and experience.
Topics for the webinars include design, preparation, logistics, and protocols of seabird surveys; data management; and other needed skills for monitoring seabirds.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic we should cover? Let us know your ideas, the SWG welcomes your input! Contact: Juliana Coffey (juliana@grenadinesbirds.com) and Hannah Madden (hannah.madden@cnsi.nl).
As islands across the Caribbean began to ease restrictions on gatherings due to COVID-19, we were finally able to take a break from our screens and meet, in-person, with our friends and colleagues! At events across the region, we saw people of all ages coming together to celebrate birds – in cities, botanical gardens, and nature reserves. The events were part of the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF), organized by BirdsCaribbean. The festival highlights endemic birds—the ones found only in the region—and how to protect them.
This year’s festival theme was “Loving Birds is Human Nature.” Our Media Working Group wanted the theme to express our understanding that a close relationship with our environment is natural, and that the best version of ourselves appreciates and sustainably uses what nature provides for our survival. Birds in particular, with their beautiful colors and songs, bring us much joy and they provide us with so many ecosystem services and other benefits. Coordinators embraced the theme with many activities featuring birdwatching trips, tree planting, cleanups, and learning to know and love birds while also taking care of our environment. This year’s theme also inspired our first Short Story & Poetry Competition highlighting human experiences with birds from across the region.
Activities Across the Region (by island)
Antigua and Barbuda
In Antigua, the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG), hosted multiple events, including a bird-masquerade at the Salvation Army PreSchool, field trips; to McKinnon’s Salt Pond with Gospel Light Academy Elementary and Great Bird Island (an offshore island) with the Antigua State College, and a backyard bird identification training session. They ended the CEBF with much flare by hosting a members exclusive ‘Birding in the Barracks’ in collaboration with the Nelson’s Dockyard National Park – a World Heritage Site. You can check out their Instagram reels and relive the festivities. Members of the CEBF coordinating committee at the EAG also made appearances on local media outlets.
We must commend the EAG for making their festivities inclusive to all. They provided a step-by-step presentation on the methods to identify birds at the Antigua and Barbuda Association for Persons with Disabilities (ABAPD) garden. After this presentation, local birding expert Joseph Prosper took the group outside to identify the different types of birds that reside in the Belmont, St. John area.
Student of Gospel Light Academy checking out the Endemic Birds colouring book, Antigua. (Photo by the Environmental Awareness Group)
Identifying birds at-McKinnon’s Salt Pond, Antigua. (Photo by the Environmental Awareness Group)
Students of Gospel Light Academy with their copies of the Endemic Birds colouring book, Antigua. (Photo by the Environmental Awareness Group)
Cuba
In Cuba, Flora and Fauna Company Santiago de Cuba attracted over 70 participants, comprising adults, teenagers, and children to birdwatching trips, workshops, games, poetry, and art contests. Beyond the school outreach, the NGO reached a wider audience by appearing on several Cuban radio stations to speak about the CEBF and the illegal bird trafficking problem. The coordinators helped participants to examine their personal relationship with birds through group discussions. They were asked about the role of birds in local Cuban culture, what they thought about birds, their most recent experience with birds, a popular saying that has to do with birds, and to recall a movie or cartoon that involved a bird. This was done to help them to appreciate the close relationship between humans and birds, the environmental services birds provide, and, most importantly, to understand why birds should not be caged, hunted, or killed. Learn more about the escalating illegal bird trafficking problem in Cuba here.
Colleagues from the University of Havana and Cuban Zoological Society hosted a public outreach event in Havana providing; games, information about Cuban birds and opportunities to learn how to identify the birds around them.
Student builds a bird puzzle as part of the CEBF activities in Cuba. (Photo by Daniela Ventura)
Children learning about birds as part of the CEBF activities in Cuba. (Photo by Daniela Ventura)
Clean-up activity held as part of the CEBF festivities, Cuba.
Students learn about bird identification as part of outdoor CEBF activities in Cuba.
Students take a group photo holding their bird drawings during the CEBF festivities, Cuba.
A student shows off bird illustrations during the CEBF festivities, Cuba.
Haiti
Similar to Cuba, CEBF coordinators in Haiti visited both schools and churches to speak about the important roles birds have in maintaining a healthy environment and the uniqueness of the birds that can only be found in Haiti. The coordinators also reported that the people at the church listened attentively, asked questions, and requested for more information to be shared with them. While at the schools, the students who typically kill birds with traps pledged to not trap or kill birds.
Dominican Republic
In the nearby Dominican Republic, Simón Guerrero, took a more scientific approach. With the support of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, the Ministry of Environment, and Ministry of Defense, he was able to install nests for Hispaniolan Woodpeckers and Hispaniolan Parakeets. The Hispaniolan Parakeet is one of two endemic but threatened parrot species on the island and has a breeding population on the university campus, but not enough cavities. Across at the Ministry of Defense’s compound, firebush or hummingbird bush (Hamelia patens) – a plant whose flowers and fruits are very attractive to native, endemic, and some migratory birds – were planted.
We are also proud to share that Simón and his colleagues worked alongside the National Board for the Blind to give a talk about the endemic birds of Hispaniola to blind and sight impaired people, using recordings of birdsongs. This was followed by a walk in the National Botanical Garden, where playback was used to get the wild birds that live in the Garden to sing. This allowed participants to learn to identify the birds through song. Following this the participants created a WhatsApp group named “Cuidemos las Aves (Let’s take care of birds), and already have a birdwatching trip planned for the city of Santiago. Simón has also proposed to include birding among the activities of school curriculum for the blind (Patronato Nacional de Ciegos).
At the same botanical garden another NGO- Grupo Acción Ecológica organized a birdwatching tour of the grounds as well as a bird art exhibition using artwork created by high school students.
Students engage in a birdwatching activity in the Botanical Gardens, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Grupo Acción Ecológica)
Group photo at the Botanical Gardens, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Grupo Acción Ecológica)
Tree planting in the Botanical Gardens, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Grupo Acción Ecológica)
Cayman Islands
Cayman Birding – a local bird conservation group on the Cayman Islands, hosted a local kids art contest to highlight their endemic birds. The primary goal was to challenge the talented young artists to research and draw a bird that is only found on the Cayman Islands. They received 27 stunning entries in two age categories and the artwork was so amazing that two winners were chosen from each category instead of one. The judges shared that “Not only was the artwork beautiful but many of the pieces were very well thought out and we could see the research of each species executed perfectly into a work of art. We saw entries that depicted a range of habitats, threats to our endemic species, diet, facts and more!” You can view the winning entries in the photo gallery below.
Winning submission by Vera Rodriguez for the Kids Art Contest (8-12 years) titled “Living in the trunk of the tree.” (Image courtesy Cayman Birding)
Winning submission by Scarlett Evans for the Kids Art Contest (8-12 years) titled “Yellow Belly.” (Image courtesy Cayman Birding)
Special Mention Submission by Ethan Soto for the Kids Art Contest (8-12 years) titled “By the House.” (Image courtesy Cayman Birding)
Winning submission by Shristie Singh for the Kids Art Contest (under 7years) titled “Bananaquit at Carib Sands.” (Image courtesy Cayman Birding)
Winning submission by Aria Irons for the Kids Art Contest (under 7years) titled “Birds are Like Gems.” (Image courtesy Cayman Birding)
Jamaica
In Jamaica, the Caribbean Coastal Area Management (CCAM) Foundation took a hybrid approach providing both online and in-person presentations. They hosted five days of activities with participants from communities and schools within the Portland Bight Protected Area, as well as the youth group Positive Pathways. Students and teachers from Mitchell Town Primary and Infant, Watsonton Primary School, Alley Infant, Banks Basic School and Kemps Hill High School received an introductory presentation followed by birdwatching. Additionally the primary schools created different bird related arts and crafts whilst the high school participated in a bird jeopardy.
Social media accounts, particularly Instagram, were also buzzing. Numerous photographers on the different islands took the opportunity to showcase their incredible skills and the beauty of their one-of-a-kind birds. Use the hashtags #CEBF #endemicbirds #FromTheNest #LovingBirdsIsHumanNature to find these jaw-dropping photos.
Infants and primary school students create bird crafts as part of the 2022 CEBF activities, Jamaica. (Photo by Caribbean Coastal Area Management)
Students and teachers birdwatching from a bird hide in Jamaica. (Photo by Caribbean Coastal Area Management)
Presentation being given by Caribbean Coastal Area Management (CCAM) staff to secondary school students in Jamaica. (Photo by Caribbean Coastal Area Management)
Endemic Birds of the West Indies Coloring Book – Spanish Version
Our Spanish-speaking partners and supporters in the Caribbean, and worldwide, can now relax their minds and increase focus all while coloring and learning about the Caribbean’s fabulous endemic birds. The Spanish version of our Endemic Birds of the West Indies coloring book is now available for free download from our Resources page!
A Google order form will be available soon for NGOs and government agencies who wish to distribute hard copies, during bird and nature events, on their respective islands.
We are extremely grateful to Juan Carlos Fernández-Ordóñez (Fundación Científica ARA MACAO) and Maydiel Cañizares for translating the original English text by Mark Yokoyama (Les Fruits de Mer). Bird illustrations are by the talented naturalist, scientific illustrator and long-time partner of BirdsCaribbean – Christine Elder. You can catch Christine’s past CEBF ‘Learn to Sketch’ webinars on our YouTube channel.
We need your help to ship this book to the islands. If you would like to help,please click here. No donation is too small!!
Back and Front Covers of the Endemic Birds of the West Indies Colouring Book in Spanish.
Endemic Bird of the Day
Each day we featured an endemic bird on our website and across BirdsCaribbean’s socials. The list of endemic birds was carefully curated to include species that are masters of disguise, like the Puerto Rican Nightjar; species which keep birders’ ID skills in check, like the St Lucia Warbler; those that feature, prominently, in local folklore, like the Jamaican Owl; and some of the forest’s greatest singers, like the Cuban Bullfinch. You can find the complete list of birds here.
Each endemic bird profile was accompanied by a beautifully drawn image by Josmar Marquez of AveZona, stunning high quality photos and videos, online puzzles tailored for different levels (between six and 1,024 pieces), and bird calls. Fun, free and engaging activities were also provided for both kids and adults, including downloadable coloring pages; trivia quizzes (How Well Do You Know Caribbean Birds Pt. 1 and Pt. 2); outdoor games for the entire family, Bug Hunt and Hide and Squeak; and crafts (Upcycled Hummingbird Feeder and Tomato Cage Bird Bath).
https://youtu.be/lJDVtWxaBf8
Poetry and Short Story Contest
This year, we held a Poetry and Short Story Contest as a way to highlight the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival theme “Loving Bird is Human Nature” and to document the powerfully innate connection we have with birds. We received fantastic submissions from Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. All poems and short stories, including winning entries, are now stored in this e-book “Loving Birds Is Human Nature: An Anthology of Short Stories and Poems in English and Spanish”. We invite you to read the wonderfully expressive poems and short stories we received. We would love to see this anthology grow! Please contactinfo@birdscaribbean.org and Aliya.Hosein@birdscaribbean.org if you would like to contribute a poem or story, or both!
Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) 2023
Theme
This year’s CEBF is over – but don’t worry, we still have plenty of bird content for you to enjoy! Make sure you are following us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and havejoined the BirdsCaribbean mailing list, to ensure you are kept up to date with our latest news via our monthly newsletter.
The Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival will return next April 2023 – but we need help coming up with a theme. We would love to hear your ideas for next year’s theme, which should allow us to highlight a critical problem that affects birds throughout the region. Please email your theme and a brief explanation (1-3 sentences) on why it should be the 2023 CEBF theme to CEBF@birdscaribbean.org, info@birdscaribbean.org and Aliya.Hosein@birdscaribbean.org
French version of Endemic Birds of the West Indies Coloring Book
Both the English and Spanish versions of our popular Endemic Birds of the West Indies Coloring Book are already available for free download from our Resources page. In 2023, we intend to share this valuable educational resource in French, but this can only be made possible with your help!
Your support ensures that our resources, which help both adults and children learn about and how to protect birds, remain free and accessible.
If you would like to contribute, please click here.
Volunteer couriers for materials
We need help distributing educational materials to our partners in the Caribbean for next year’s CEBF.
In addition to high shipping costs, it can be difficult to get the materials to individual islands on-time and in good condition. If you, or a close friend or relative, will be traveling between the US and the Caribbean during the months of December, January and February and have extra room in your suitcase, please get in touch with us; CEBF@birdscaribbean.org, info@birdscaribbean.org and Aliya.Hosein@birdscaribbean.org. Your support will help ensure that bird education remains accessible to all in the Caribbean.
Acknowledgements: Thank you to all of our partners and friends across the region for participating so enthusiastically and making this another memorable CEBF.
Gallery
Enjoy more photos from the CEBF 2022 below. Click the images to enlarge and see their captions.
Children play bird games as part of the CEBF activities in Cuba. (Photo by Daniela Ventura)
Students take a group photo holding their bird drawings during the CEBF festivities, Cuba.
Student bird poster on display at the Botanical Gardens, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Grupo Acción Ecológica)
Students play bird-themed games as part of outdoor CEBF activities in Cuba.
Students participate in CEBF festivities in Cuba. (Photo by Daniela Ventura)
Children learning about birds as part of the CEBF activities in Cuba.
Black-necked Stilts, Cuba.
Children learning about birds as part of the CEBF activities in Cuba.
Student drawing of a Cuban Parrot.
A student shows off bird illustrations during the CEBF festivities, Cuba.
Student drawing of birds in nature as part of the CEBF activities in Cuba.
Group photo of students during the CEBF festivities, Cuba.
Students look for birds at a beach during the CEBF festivities, Cuba.
Clean-up activity held as part of the CEBF festivities, Cuba.
Kids Art Contest Flyer, Cayman Islands. (Image courtesy Cayman Birding)
Puerto Rican Spindalis Sketch shared on Instagram. (Photo by Sarita Emmanuel)
CEBF bird count at Lagos de Ponce, Puerto Rico. (Photo by Carla Montalvo)
Pearly-eyed Thrasher spotted by Natalya and Jordan, Antigua. (Photo by Natalya Lawrence)
Lago de Ponce, Puerto Rico. (Photo by Carla Montalvo)
Holly Garrod, one of the BirdsCaribbean’s trainers at this year’s bird banding workshop in The Bahamas, describes some highlights of the event. Wildlife professionals and students from 7 Caribbean countries had the opportunity to get together in person for hands-on learning in the science and skill of banding birds.
Our first Caribbean Bird Banding Training Workshop took place in The Retreat Garden in Nassau, The Bahamas, from March 8-12, 2022. The workshop was part of our newly launched Caribbean Landbird Monitoring Project and was organized in collaboration with The Bahamas National Trust. Wildlife professionals from all skill levels arrived from across the region for non-stop learning on the many ways bird banding serves as a valuable tool for monitoring birds. Some participants came to the workshop having already banded thousands of birds, while others had never even held a wild bird before. Our skilled facilitators ensured, however, that everyone left learning something new about birds in the hand. In the perfect green oasis of The Retreat Garden, participants went directly from the field to the classroom to learn all about what it takes to band birds.
The group observes a bird banding demonstration. Workshop Facilitator, Claire Stuyck, bands a Cape May Warbler.
Bird banding is a complex field technique that involves catching birds passively (no lures or bait to attract them) by using thin nets set up throughout vegetation. Bird banders check the nets every half hour (much like fishing), untangle any birds and place them in small bird bags to help them keep calm. The bird bags are then carried to the banding table.
At the banding table, birds are given unique, numbered bands that identify each individual for the rest of their life. Banders then proceed to take a variety of measurements; they look at bird fat scores and reproductive characteristics, they measure different bird body parts like bill and wing length, and they open up the wing to look at molt patterns, which is used to help determine age. These differences between young and old feathers are called molt limits, and there’s still a lot we’re learning about molt patterns in Caribbean birds! After this short inconvenience, birds are safely released to go about their business. But how can catching and banding these birds help us to understand bird populations?
Examining the molt on a Caribbean Dove. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Measuring the bill length on a Caribbean Dove. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Weighing a Caribbean Dove. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Bird banding gives us the opportunity to learn first-hand how birds are doing. We can use molt patterns and plumage characteristics to age birds, allowing us to better understand demographic patterns. Older birds and younger birds may take different migratory routes or have access to different resources. Banding also gives us insights into the lives of birds.
Recoveries of bands have allowed us to understand just how long some of these birds live – some migratory warblers can live 10-11 years! Most importantly, birds are indicator species—their presence, absence, or abundance reflects environmental conditions. Using bird banding data, we can look at the health of birds using metrics like fat scores and weight, allowing us to better assess habitat quality, especially for breeding residents and migratory birds.
Red-legged Thrush is examined. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Bird banding data sheet. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Within the Caribbean, there are very few active banding operations. Through the Caribbean Bird Banding (CBB) Network, we are aiming to expand and unite banding programs in the region. Workshops like this one provide the opportunity to learn about this valuable monitoring tool and can contribute toward gaining the necessary experience to safely band birds.
A truly international collaboration
Workshop Facilitator, Juan Carlos Fernández Ordóñez, explains bird banding basics.
Our first CBB Training Workshop was truly an international affair! Participants came from 7 different countries/islands — Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Grenada, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, and Venezuela. Trainers came from highly reputable organizations in the U.S. with stellar training programs, including Klamath Bird Observatory and the Institute for Bird Populations.
Following this workshop, we are very proud to announce that the CBB Network has our very own North American Banding Council (NABC) certified banding trainer, Juan Carlos Fernández Ordóñez! The NABC certification has three levels: assistant (qualified to assist a banding operation), bander (qualified to band independently), and trainer (qualified to train people how to band birds). This certification is a rigorous process where banders are tested on a full suite of bird banding knowledge. The NABC certification helps ensure that everyone banding birds upholds the highest quality bird banding technique—prioritizing people safety, bird safety, and ethical data collection. As part of our goals for the CBB Network, we hope to certify more Caribbean residents so that we can continue to build capacity in the Caribbean! Congratulations JC!
What are the next steps?
Workshop participant from Antigua and Barbuda, Shanna Challenger, checks the fat on a Bananaquit. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Everyone came away learning something from this workshop, whether it was a new molt pattern of a Caribbean resident bird or banding their very first bird. These workshops provide a great jump-start into the world of banding, but they always leave participants wanting more.
To quench their thirst for molt limits, we are facilitating bird banding internships to select participants that are able to migrate northwards for a bit. Participants will be spending time at long-standing, internationally renowned programs to continue honing their banding skills. They will need to pack their sweaters, as these programs include Long Point Bird Observatory and Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory in Canada, Klamath Bird Observatory in Oregon, Audubon Rockies in Wyoming, and the Willistown Conservation Trust in Pennsylvania. And once the winter really starts to hit, they’ll migrate back south to work with NABC certified trainers and practice banding birds on their home islands.
Then, get ready because we have another upcoming Bird Banding Workshop! We’ll be returning to the beautiful ecolodge of Rancho Baiguate in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic (the same place we held our Landbird Monitoring Training Workshop, if it sounds familiar) in early 2023.
We’re also getting ready to share our brand new bird banding database and Caribbean bird bands. Stay tuned!
Acknowledgments: Special thanks to our Workshop Facilitators John Alexander, Claire Stuyck, Holly Garrod, and Steve Albert. Huge thanks also to The Bahamas National Trust for their support in making this workshop a success.
Testimonials
Participants shared their thoughts on the workshop and how the practical knowledge shared will augment their conservation efforts.
Carlos Peña, Center of Investigation and Environmental Services, Holguín, Cuba
This workshop exceeded my expectations and allowed me to incorporate knowledge related to the techniques of the whole process of bird banding: set up of mist nets, safe extraction of birds from the nets, and biometric measurements.
One of the most valuable experiences was related to the learning of molt cycles and plumage sequences, this experience has encouraged me to get involved in their knowledge, to use it as another tool for the study of bird communities and particular species. The workshop has given me the opportunity to broaden my knowledge, it has encouraged me to improve it and to participate and contribute to bird banding.
Daniela Ventura del Puerto, Student at Havana University, Cuba
Muchas gracias a BirdsCaribbean and The BahamasNational Trust for organizing and hosting this fantastic workshop! I’m so happy and honored to be part of the Caribbean Banding Network with so many enthusiastic and well-prepared people! Looking forward to more enjoyable days in the field at the beautiful Retreat Garden in Nassau, more molt talks and fabulous discussions among participants. Can’t wait to see how this effort will translate into more knowledge and conservation actions of our Caribbean birds.
Scott Johnson, Environmental Officer at BRON Ltd, The Bahamas
Spent the week with BirdsCaribbean, The Bahamas National Trust, and an amazing group of people from across the Caribbean, learning about bird molts and proper bird banding etiquette. BirdsCaribbean continues to shape Caribbean bird conservation through stellar workshops, conferences, and materials to foster a greater appreciation for our bird fauna. Thanks to the BNT for hosting such an amazing event. Now to put what I learned to good use.
Shanna Challenger, Offshore Islands Conservation Program Coordinator, Environmental Awareness Group, Antigua and Barbuda
Just came back from BirdsCaribbean’s regional capacity-building workshop on bird banding and was able to use my new skills to rescue this sweet little Lesser Antillean Bullfinch who got stuck in our museum! I couldn’t resist checking his plumage for molt limits (my new obsession thanks to Workshop Facilitator Holly Garrod).
Gallery
Enjoy more photos from the Bird banding Workshop below. Click the images to enlarge and see their captions.
Participant Josmar Marquez in the process of examining and banding a bird. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Looking for molt limits on a Caribbean Dove. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Workshop participant from Grenada, Zoya Buckmire, checks the fat on a Red-legged Thrush. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Group photo after certificate ceremony.
Classroom session. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
A juvenile Bananaquit is observed before banding. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Mist net set-up activity with the group. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Thick-billed Vireo is observed in the hand. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Workshop participants Josmar Marquez, Adrianne Tossas, and JC-Fernandez Ordonez.
Participant selfie at Bird Banding Workshop. (Photo by Scott Johnson)
Workshop facilitators. From left to right: Claire Stuyck, John Alexander, Holly Garrod, and Steve Albert.
Tools used to band birds. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Red-legged Thrush is examined before being banded. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Red-legged Thrush is examined before being banded. (Photo by Holly Garrod)
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us! Our theme in 2022 is “Loving Birds is Human Nature”. 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: Green-tailed Warbler
The Green-tailed Warbler has an understated beauty, without bright colors or a melodious song. This small, somewhat secretive, bird is an endemic species of the island of Hispaniola and can only be found on this island. Green-tailed warblers typically inhabit mature broadleaf forests, thickets and scrub in both wet and semi-dry areas. While mostly in the central mountain ranges in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, they can also be found at any elevation from sea level to the highest peaks (although not much in pine forests) over most of the central part of the island.
Sightings of this bird have been reported from a wide range of habitats, such as desert-scrub close to the coast of Puerto Alejandro near Barahona; the Guaraguao trail in Cotubanamá National Park; and in the rain forest on the coast in the Los Haitises National Park. It is also a regular sight in places like Ebano Verde Nature Preserve in the Central Mountains, and its stronghold anywhere in the Sierra de Bahoruco.
The gray plumage of the body and head has a soft, silky appearance, and contrasts with the back and wings which are a fairly bright olive-green. The irises are red with a black pupil, and it has a notable split white eye-ring which takes the form of crescents above and below the eyes. The tail is fairly long for its 12 to 14 centimeter total length. The bill is gray and is slightly chunky. Its diet consists mainly of insects.
The Green-tailed Warbler’s scientific name, Microligea palustris alludes, first, to its voice: Micro means small, and Ligea means shrill or high pitched. This describes the sharp, squeaky notes this bird makes. The word palustris means swamp or wetland, which is not the best suited since this bird is not restricted to wet habitats.
Breeding occurs from May to June, in the mountains, and possibly earlier than May, in the lowlands. Nests are cup-shaped and clutch size is 2-4 pale green, spotted eggs.
This species was classified with the New World Wood Warblers for many years, but recent studies have confirmed that it is not closely related to that large group of birds.Rather, it is part of a small family on Hispaniola – including the two palm-tanager species and the White-winged Warbler, which it resembles somewhat and can be found within mixed-species feeding flocks.
While the White-winged Warbler is considered Vulnerable due to its more restricted range, the Green-tailed Warbler population is not considered to be threatened. The destruction of broad-leafed and midrange forests, mainly from uncontrolled logging and the clearing of forests for agriculture, however, still pose a threat to the continued well-being of this species in the wild.
Download our West Indies Endemic Bird colouring page. 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 #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the calls of the Green-tailed Warbler
The Green-tailed Warbler makes repeated sharp “tsip” calls.
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!
Green-tailed Warbler in Parque Jaragua, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Dax Roman)Green-tailed Warbler. (Photo by Dax Roman)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Get out your colouring pencils, pens, or paints and get ready to be creative with our “My Caribbean Bird” art activity! Choose your favourite endemic Caribbean bird and draw or paint its portrait.
You can download our colourful frame and get started. Not sure which bird you want to draw? want to check where your bird lives? or what its call is? Check back to all our featured Caribbean endemic birds here. OR let you imagination run wild and create your very own imaginary endemic bird using other endemic Caribbean birds as your inspiration!
Have fun making up a name for your ‘new’ Caribbean endemic bird! Where do you think your imaginary bird might live? And what sound does it make?
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a Green-tailed Warbler the wild!
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us! Our theme in 2022 is “Loving Birds is Human Nature”. 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: Jamaican Woodpecker
In Jamaica, most early mornings boast the iconic soundtrack of the Jamaican Woodpecker at work – boring holes in dead trees or light poles.
Endemic to Jamaica, this bird can be found throughout the island, from the coast to the highest point, 2256m in the Blue Mountains. They are also tolerant to human disturbance, often found in gardens in more urban areas, such as the capital Kingston.
The Jamaican Woodpecker has a red hind neck, white face, and pale underparts with a yellow wash, upperparts and wings are generally black and densely streaked with white and the tail is blackish. Males and females can be easily identified by their forecrown. Males sport a striking red forecrown, while females have a brownish-olive forecrown. Size ranges from 24 to 26 cm. Jamaican Woodpeckers tend to travel alone, but are also observed in pairs or small groups. Their main diet consists of insects on the surface of trees or fruits. They are often seen feeding on the Ackee (Blighia sapida), the national fruit of Jamaica, and commonly also foraging in epiphytes for insects.
Breeding typically occurs from December to August, sometimes in other months. Nests are excavated at ~5–15 m in the trunk or branch of a dead tree or in a utility pole. Clutch size is usually 3–5 white eggs, laid at daily intervals. Incubation is performed by both sexes.
Jamaican Woodpeckers are very loud and vocal, making an auditory detection perhaps more frequent than a sighting. The main call is rolling churp churp churp, however, one call given frequently is very similar to the crok! of a Black-crowned Night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax).
Download our West Indies Endemic Bird colouring page. 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 #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the calls of the Jamaican Woodpecker
The calls of the Jamaican Woodpecker emphatic, slightly rasping “urp“
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!
Male Jamaican Woodpecker. (Photo by Tim Avery- Macaulay Library- ML87028941)Female Jamaican Woodpecker. (Photo by Larry Therrien)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: We hope that you have enjoyed learning all about our Caribbean endemic birds! Sadly some of the birds we have featured are endangered and many others are under pressure, often from human activities. This means our special endemic birds and many of the other beautiful birds that live in or visit us in the Caribbean need your help. Even simple things like picking up litter or being sure never to disturb birds when they are feeding, resting and nesting can make a difference.
You can download and print our pledge to help birds. Then sign your name and get started helping our birds by following some of the simple actions listed in the pledge. You can also colour in the picture on the pledge and perhaps hang it up somewhere at home to remind you and others of how you can help birds.
You can look at all the Caribbean endemic birds we have featured so far, from all our Caribbean Endemic Bird Festivals here.
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a Jamaican Woodpecker the wild!
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us! Our theme in 2022 is “Loving Birds is Human Nature”. 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: Yellow-shouldered Blackbird
If you find yourself birding near the coasts of Puerto Rico, you may be lucky enough to witness the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird (Agelaius xanthomus) showing off its golden epaulets on the base of its wings. The yellow feathers that give it its name contrast beautifully with the shiny dark plumage that covers the rest of its body and boldly announces its rank as the “capitán” (Spanish for “captain” and one of its common names in Puerto Rico) of Puerto Rican birds.
Their size ranges from 20 to 23cm with males usually slightly larger than females. However, both sexes are identical when it comes to plumage. Their common call consists of a short “check” or nasal “chwip,” usually performed while perched on a branch and flicking their tail. Although considered by some as mostly insectivorous (feeding mainly on insects), Yellow-shouldered Blackbirds have a diverse diet that includes mollusks, fruits, seeds, nectar, animal feed, and processed food such as granulated sugar.
At the end of the 19th century, the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird was found throughout the entire archipelago of Puerto Rico. However, it is currently classified as Endangered, its decline due to loss of habitat and brood parasitism by the invasive Shiny Cowbird. Introduced predators like rats and the Indian Mongoose have also had a serious impact on the blackbird’s population size. Currently, due to all these threats, the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird can only be found on coastal habitats scattered throughout the main island of Puerto Rico and Mona Island. The largest population resides in southwestern Puerto Rico with approximately 500 individuals.
The Yellow-shouldered Blackbird’s breeding season typically occurs between the months of March and September but can stretch through November in rainy years. They make a nest in the form of a cup where the female lays between 2 to 5 speckled, light-blue eggs. Nests are commonly built on branches of mangroves or cavities of dead trees. However, they may also place their nests on palm leaves, coastal cliffs, and manmade structures. In southwestern Puerto Rico, to help conserve the species, biologists have been experimenting with providing Yellow-shouldered Blackbirds with PVC structures in which to place their nest. It was hoped that these structures would reduce the risk of predation by mammals and simplify the monitoring and control of brood parasitism. These have been highly successful at helping increase this species’ reproductive success. Nevertheless, multiple studies are being conducted to determine how these could be modified to further increase the reproductive success of this unique species.Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird
Download our West Indies Endemic Bird colouring page. 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 #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the calls of the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird
The calls of the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird include a sharp “chulp” sound.
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!
Yellow-shouldered Blackbird. These almost entirely black birds can look a bit like Shiny Cowbirds when their yellow wing-patches are hidden! Remember that Shiny Cowbirds have glossier plumage and shorter, thicker bills. (Photo by Beny Diaz)Yellow-shouldered Blackbird in flight where you can clearly see the distinctive yellow wing patches which give this bird its name. (Photo by Mike Morel)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Todays featured endemic bird, the Yellow-shouldered Blackbird, builds its nests in on branches of isolated mangroves, in crevices or hollows of dead trees, and sometimes in palm trees. The females build the nest using dried grass, twigs and leaves, making the perfect place in which to lay their eggs and raise their chicks. You could give the birds nesting near your house or in your garden a helping hand with making their perfect nest, with our nest-material activity.
With an adult helping you can gather twigs, grasses and other safe things birds like to use for their nests from around your home and garden. Put out these materials, and see who arrives to make use of them! You can download full instructions here.
Be sure to follow our suggestions for nest materials, these have been selected especially to be suitable for bird nests, some things might be dangerous for birds and their chicks if they put them in their nests. You can keep note of who visits and which things they choose to include in their nests – do some birds have a favourite type of nest material?
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Watch this report from Puerto Rico below about how using man-made nest boxes can help Yellow-shouldered Blackbirds!In this video you can find out about the PVC “drainpipe” like structure that biologists are providing for Yellow-shouldered Blackbirds to nest in. These nest boxes have be very successful in boosting the numbers of Yellow-shoulder Blackbird chicks that fledge! They also make it easier for biologists to monitor Blackbird nests and chicks. For example, via the David S. Lee Fund for the Conservation of Caribbean Birds, BirdsCaribbean are funding Jean Gonzalez Crespo track Blackbird chicks after they fledge from the nest and estimate their survival during this critical period. His work will help local and federal agencies determine whether survival rates before breeding are contributing to population declines, and identify the factors that influence survival.
You can also enjoy this video of a Yellow-shouldered Blackbird the wild!
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us! Our theme in 2022 is “Loving Birds is Human Nature”. 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: Cuban Black Hawk
If you’re lucky enough to visit the beautifully preserved wetlands of the Cuban archipelago, you may be surprised by the call of a large, dark bird of prey that seems to say “Ba-tis-ta.” This call explains why the Cuban Black Hawk is known locally as “Gavilán Batista,” although for English speakers it seems to say “uiit-uiit-uiu.” Although the Cuban Black Hawks is a bird of prey, it is possibly the tamest wild bird in Cuba. If you wait for it to perch, you can approach and observe it – sometimes as close as five meters away – an opportunity rarely offered by birds of prey, which are generally very elusive.
The Cuban Black Hawk ranges between ~43 to 52 cm in length (17-20.4 inches) and weighs ~650 g (22.5 oz). It has broad wings with white patches below and a short and wide tail with a very visible white band. Bill, legs, and feet are orange-yellow to yellow. Juveniles are mostly brown above and pale streaked below. This raptor, endemic to Cuba, prefers to live in wetlands such as mangroves, coastal lagoons, beaches, estuaries and swamps.
It breeds from January to July and both sexes build a cup-shaped nest with sticks and leaves, usually from mangroves, at a height of ~3 to 8m. It lays one to two grayish-white eggs with a bluish-green tint and some dark or reddish-brown blotches. It feeds on crabs, centipedes, lizards, rats, and is even known to hunt some birds.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers it Near Threatened. However, in Cuba the bird is considered Threatened due to a 75% reduction in its original distribution range and, above all, because its habitats are threatened by tourism development and the rise in sea level caused by climate change.Learn more about this species, including its range, photos, and calls here.
Colour in the Cuban Black Hawk
Download our West Indies Endemic Bird colouring page. 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 #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the calls of the Cuban Black Hawk
The calls of the Cuban Black Hawk are a loud, high-pitched, thin “weet-WEET-whew”
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!
A Cuban Black Hawk calling- listen out for the squeaky “weet-WEET-whew” or the harsh scream they sometimes make. (Photo by David Ascanio).
An adult Cuban Black Hawk in flight. You can see the white patches below on the wing and the clear white band on it’s short, wide tail . (Photo by Rafy Rodrigues)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: The Cuban Black Hawk is in a group of birds often known as birds of prey or “raptors”. They feed by catching other animals, often using their strong and powerful feet which have sharp talons. In fact, the word “raptor” means “to seize” or “grasp” in Latin! Can you Match the Feet to the correct Raptor in our fun activity? Look at the size and shape of the talons and think about what types of things each bird eats to help you pick the right answers
Once you think you have matched them up you can check your answers here. When you’ve checked your answers you can also learn a bit more about who each bird pictured in this activity is and what their favourite foods are.
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a Cuban Black Hawk in the wild!
Jen Valiulis, Executive Director, St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA) shares her recent experience hosting a BirdSleuth Caribbean Workshop in St Croix, US Virgin Islands, April 5 & 6, 2022. Follow along for a vicarious experience of the workshop, and see what the educators discovered and how they are putting what they learned to use!
Through workshops at BirdsCaribbean conferences, I had learned some BirdSleuth activities already and several of them have become staples in my Environmental Education Toolkit. Bird Bingo and the Habitat Scavenger Hunt are always favorites! I was excited to go through the full training, and even better, to be able to offer it to other educators on the island. As we transition back to in-person learning, but still have to deal with periodic COVID outbreaks, having so many activities that can be done outdoors is especially valuable to teachers. A dozen educators spent two days exploring the BirdSleuth Caribbean curriculum and re-envisioning their island as a birding hotspot.
Finding birds in a nearby forest. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Day One: Back to School!
Training aptly began on the 34-acre campus of the Good Hope Country Day School in Kingshill – a pleasant and spacious setting for some birding. We started with some Birding 101. We learned how to use binoculars and how to become more comfortable and confident as birders. Some participants soon realized that they knew more about birds than they thought; they were able to identify a surprising number of common species.
Lisa shares tips for using binoculars and finding birds with teachers. (Photo by Jennifer Fee)
Participants were introduced to bird basics and fantastic tools that could be used to identify and collect data on birds, such as eBird and Merlin. These are critical tools in the hands of “citizen scientists” and for crowd-sourced research. Whether you are an individual, in a classroom, or a community member, this can have impact well beyond a single activity or learning. The BirdSleuth Caribbean curriculum was unveiled as the training team used it directly with participants in lessons such as “What makes a bird a bird?” Teaching teams tried out the lesson plans and hands-on activities themselves – and had a great deal of fun becoming “students” for a while!
In the afternoon, participants went outside and practiced using their binoculars and identifying birds with the Bird Detective game – laminated birds hidden in the forest! “Sound Map” and “Tall to Tiny,” showed teachers how they could help students build their observation skills by being quiet and focusing on the sites and sounds around them.
Recording birds in the nearby forest. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Finding and identifying birds in the school grounds forest. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Finding and identifying birds on school grounds. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Finally, using senses other than the sense of sight, participants tried to identify the birds in their surroundings. This activity revealed several warblers singing in the canopy. The group also experienced the unique challenge and excitement of identifying warblers that just wouldn’t sit still! Our patience and teamwork paid off, however, and we identified themas a Northern Parula (uncommon on St. Croix) and an American Redstart. It was a satisfying end to the day!
Day Two: BirdSleuth Trainees At Large
On the second day we ventured out in the field, starting bright and early with a visit to the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge. We all worked to hone our birding skills at the newly constructed bird blind (a structure that lets you watch birds without being seen) along the shores of the largest salt pond in the territory. Peering through the slots with binoculars raised, we identified a large flock of Black-bellied Plovers, Royal Terns, and Black-necked Stilts – a crowd favorite. Black-whiskered Vireos singing their monotonous song “sweet-john-chewit, sweet-john,” and Yellow Warblers singing “sweet-sweet-sweet-sweeter-than-sweet” were also identified and viewed. We then moved on to check out the avifauna on the beach, and test out some of the BirdSleuth activities, including Bird Bingo.
Participants identify waterbirds at Sandy Point bird blind. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Our next stop was the St. George Village Botanical Garden. This was a dramatic change of scenery and an opportunity to not only enjoy the resident birds but also many unusual and important plants that provide habitat for biodiversity. The Green-throated Carib and Antillean Crested Hummingbirds were the highlight at this stop.
Observation deck at Fredensborg Pond, Buddhoe Farms. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Our field day ended at Buddhoe Farms, an organic farm and the site of one of the largest freshwater ponds on the island—Fredensborg Pond, an ideal spot to test out all that we had learned over the last two days. We put our birding skills to work and identified the diversity of birds at the pond. This included Blue-winged Teal, White-cheeked Pintails, Pied-bill Grebes, Scaly-naped Pigeons, White-winged Doves, Common Gallinule, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Red-tailed Hawk, Gray Kingbird, Barn Swallow and Bananaquits. Working together to register our sightings on the all-important eBird list, we fledgling citizenscientists capped it off with a round of the Bird Migration game, where birds (us humans!) tried to navigate the many challenging “obstacles” to arrive safely at their breeding grounds. It was great fun and a good cardio workout too!
Participants engage in the “Migration Obstacle Course” where they gain a deeper understanding of the daily challenges birds face during migration – such as collisions with glass buildings and the dangers of power lines, hunters, and hurricanes.
Bonus Day! Caribbean Waterbird Census Training
It was “BirdSleuth Plus”!
On the day following the BirdSleuth workshop, BirdsCaribbean Executive Director, Dr. Lisa Sorenson, led a one-day training on the Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC). Practitioners from many agencies and organizations from all three of the major islands in the Virgin Islands improved their birding competencies through field observations and focused presentations on some of the more challenging species (those confusing sandpipers, for example!).
Classroom learning on the Caribbean Waterbird Census. (Photo by Jen Valiulis)
Birding for the Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC). (Photo by Jen Valuilis)
This rare opportunity to bring together so many conservation professionals to focus specifically on birds sparked important conversations about conservation practices and concerns. We wanted to keep the conversation going, and maintain our excitement about birds after the workshop, so we created a Whatsapp Birders group! Here, we share our observations, identification questions, and anything else bird-related across the territory. So far, it has been exciting to share and comment on what everyone is seeing. The highlight for me, thus far, has been the observations of the pelagic birds that some members of our group see when they go fishing.
The importance of the CWC was emphasized by challenges we had in finding wetland sites for our workshop. A multi-year severe drought coupled with hurricane damage to wetland sites have meant that some of the local hotspots have been so altered that birds are few and far between. For example, Great Pond, formerly the best site for waterbirds on the island, and home of Hope” the Whimbrel for many years, has dried up due to drought and other issues and most of the mangroves are, sadly, now dead. CWC surveys have documented the decline in diversity and overall numbers at these sites and this data will be used to inform upcoming wetland restoration projects.
We need to reclaim our wetlands, for the birds!
BirdSleuth Springs Into Action!
BirdSleuth is not about sitting still. Since the workshop in April, we hit the ground running by engaging well over a hundred students in BirdSleuth activities. Students at the Claude O. Markoe school in Frederiksted were especially excited when they found an active nest in a tree on campus and promised to watch it for any developments. A sixth-grade teacher who attended the BirdSleuth training was inspired. She has used the activities to nurture a new-found enthusiasm for birds amongst her students, getting her class involved in creating a guide to the common birds on the school campus.
Jennifer Fee introduces the BirdSleuth Caribbean curriculum. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Many other educators have approached us about offering further training, so we are working to make that happen! We are on a BirdSleuth mission!
In the meantime, the BirdSleuth Caribbean curriculum and supporting materials are available for free download in English, Spanish and French. Click here to download.
Acknowledgements: This workshop was funded by a grant from the VI Department of Planning and Natural Resources to Horsley Witten Group. Many thanks to the Company House Hotel for providing discounted accommodations, the Good Hope Country Day School for providing the venue for the BirdSleuth training, the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge for providing the venue for the CWC training, Buddhoe Farms for welcoming us to their property for birding, Brian Daley for logistical support, Workshop facilitators, Lisa Sorenson (BirdsCaribbean) and Jennifer Fee (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), and Lisa Yntema for assisting with the CWC training.
Testimonials
Participants shared their thoughts on the training and how the practical knowledge shared can be implemented in their respective classrooms.
Olivia Walton, Education Coordinator, St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA)
“I really enjoyed the BirdSleuth training. It gave me a chance to connect with a lot of local like-minded experts and opened up opportunities for collaboration. The flow of the activities and the type of activities created a great sense of bonding between all of the educators and this made it easier to form those connections. I really think that we will stay connected after this, which really has been a great opportunity.”
Maranda Wood, Secondary Science Teacher, Good Hope Country Day School, US Virgin Islands
“I really enjoyed the BirdSleuth activities because my school has 3 year olds all the way to 12th grade students, so my mind is going crazy with the number of things I can incorporate and share with my fellow teachers. The kids are going to love it! This training has been so wonderful and I can’t wait to share the plethora of knowledge that I learned.”
Ky Reale-Munroe, Environmental Scientist
“I attended the BirdSleuth training to learn more about birds and it was awesome, especially the hands-on activities. This training was definitely memorable and very useful, thank you!”
Jane Coles, Middle-school Science Teacher, Good Hope Country Day School, US Virgin Islands
“I am going to use the BirdSleuth Curriculum with my middle school students and I’m going to help them to carry the program to the other students on our campus.”
Jahnyah Brooks, Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife
“Following this workshop, I feel very empowered to go out and identify birds. I understand the steps it takes and the scientific way of going out and doing it. I work with arthropods and I went through a similar process – from the microscope to the field and seeing the different species. It really does all come together. I think this workshop does empower local scientists like myself and everyday citizens who may not be as comfortable in the wild. It gives us a really strong foundation to actually go out and identify these birds.”
Haley Jackson, St. Croix Sea Turtle Project
“This workshop was very informative. The different activities are applicable not only to birding, but can also be updated and used for many other species and habitats. I thought the training was really awesome. We learned a lot of really great tools and ideas on how best to get kids engaged with the environment.”
Gallery
Enjoy more photos from the BirdSleuth training below. Click the images to enlarge and see their captions.
Observing biodiversity close-up at the Botanical Gardens. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Team 1 leading a lesson on habitat characteristics. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Finding birds in a nearby forest. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
A large tree covered in epiphytes seen at the Botanical Gardens in St. Croix. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Teachers create their bird journals. (photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Participants getting ready for our point count at Fredensborg Pond, Buddhoe Farms. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
National Park Service staff practice using binoculars. (Photo by Jen Valiulis)
Participants try out the ‘Tall to Tiny’ BirdSleuth Activity. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Bird blind sign on the road at Sandy Point, National Wildlife Refuge, St. Croix. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Jennifer Fee leads a discussion on the benefits of spending time outdoors. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Jen Valiulus shares insights on shorebird ID at the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge bird blind. Note-the shorebird poster is available for free download on our website.(Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Claudia shares her bird journal art of a Magnificent Frigatebird. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Spotting birds at Sandy Point, St. Croix. (Photo Lisa Sorenson)
Group photo, BirdSleuth Caribbean training in St Croix, US Virgin Islands.
Magnificent Frigatebird flying in to Fredensborg Pond, Buddhoe Farms. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Participants engaged in the ‘Sound Map’ BirdSleuth Activity. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Staff members of the St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA) and BirdSleuth trainers. L to R- Jennifer Fee, Jen Valiulis, Jade Algarin, Olivia Walton, Lisa Sorenson
Zenaida Dove perched in a tree at the Botanical Gardens, St. Croix. (Photo by Lisa Sorenson)
Lisa getting birds ready for the Bird Detective game. (Photo by Jennifer Fee)
Celebrate the Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF) with us! Our theme in 2022 is “Loving Birds is Human Nature”. 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: Thick-billed Vireo
The raspy, hoarse call “zzhhe” of the Thick-billed Vireo (Vireo crassirostris) can be heard echoing throughout the coppice and pine forests of the Greater Antilles. The song is also unmistakable—a bubbly, scratchy, jumbled “chick, didderwid-weee-zhee, chip” repeated over and over.
The distribution of the Thick-billed Vireo is limited to specific islands in the Caribbean basin: The Bahamian Archipelago (where they can be found on all islands); Turks and Caicos Islands (found only on the Caicos islands); the Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac); Tortuga Island (Haiti); Cuba; and can be a vagrant/accidental to Florida.
The Thick-billed Vireo can be identified by two white wing bars, yellow spectacles, grayish bill, and underparts varying from dull olive to yellow. This species can be distinguished from the similar migratory White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus) as the White-eyed Vireo’s throat and breast color are dull gray, flanks are yellowish, and the silvery-white iris that the Thick-billed Vireo lacks.
These energetic birds are typically found in dense scrubby habitats, as well as mixed pine forests with second-growth understory. They mainly eat insects, gleaning them from leaves and branches. They also eat some fruits such as Gum Elemi (Bursera simaruba).
Thick-billed Vireo nests are primarily made of leaves and grass, although small twigs and spider webs can also be utilized. Nests are typically cup-shaped and positioned in the forks or crooks of trees and bushes. Females usually lay 2-3 eggs and incubation is shared between both the male and female.
Download our West Indies Endemic Bird colouring page. 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 #CEBFfromthenest
Listen to the song of the Thick-billed Vireo
The song of the Thick-billed Vireo consists scratchy jumbled variations of “chick, didderwid-weee-zhee, chip”
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!
Thick-billed Vireos can be found in scrubland, thickets, and brushy forest edges where they will look for food within dense cover. (Photo by Chris Johnson)
Thick-billed Vireo, on the Bahamas. (Photo by Spencer Jablonski-Macaulay Library-ML100342241)
Activity of the Day
FOR KIDS: Thick-billed Vireo, and many other birds, enjoy munching on insects. Encourage more insects into your backyard or garden by making our Butterfly Feeder! As well as providing food for birds, some insects can help reduce pests like aphids and caterpillars. They also help to pollinate your plants!
Print out out the template and follow our easy instructions. To make this feeder you will need an adult to help you find and use the following:
An old postcard or any other sturdy material that is easy to draw on and cut (cereal box, shoebox)
A Pencil, Coloring pencils, markers
Screw bottle cap
Straw or craft stick
Glue
Scissors
Sponge or cotton balls
Flower template (optional)
Sugar
Water
FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Enjoy this video of a Thick-billed Vireo in the wild!
Swainson’s Warbler isn’t known to be one of the brightest or more eye-catching warblers. In fact on first appearances it’s a pretty plain little bird with a brown back, buffy-white chest, rusty cap, and white eyebrow. However plain this bird may be it is still an exciting find for many birders due to their very secretive nature. 
FOR KIDS: Swainson’s Warblers catch insects to eat. They feed in the forest canopy and on the ground. Sometimes, in dry weather, they dig under the leaf litter in search of insects. Imagine you are a Swainson’s Warbler in search of food and find out what bugs there are in your backyard in our fun bug hunt! Follow our instructions and see how many different types of bugs you can find! Perhaps you will spot a butterfly or a bee flitting past? Remember just to look at the bugs and not to touch or collect them. You can check the ones you see off on our list and perhaps take some photos of them?
