Birding in Jamaica – Forty Minutes, Fifteen Endemics

As we spend more time birding Green Castle Estate, our recognition of its importance as a birding destination grows. Certainly the fact that 118 species have been identified on the grounds is impressive—we know of no other property in Jamaica that can approach this total. Naturally, an extensive checklist is bound to include many species that are only rarely recorded.

So realistically, what could you hope to see? Here, too, Green Castle Estate shines. Though too low for some Jamaican mountain specialties, Green Castle’s varied habitats and extensive woods shelter most of the lowland endemics.

Case in point: On Sunday morning, December 6, two visitors birded a portion of the Waterfall Trail. This was no early dawn walk—they didn’t start down the trail from the Estate House until 8 a.m.  In 40 minutes, they saw15 endemics: Jamaican Woodpecker, Tody, Euphonia, Becard, Lizard-cuckoo, Mango, Elaenia, Vireo, and Spindalis, White-chinned Thrush, Orangequit, Yellow-shouldered Grassquit, Sad and Rufous-tailed flycatchers, and Streamertail. They also had 3 Caribbean endemics and 5 species of warblers.

To see so many of Jamaica’s specialty birds with so little effort is quite remarkable. Of course, every birding experience is different, so there are no guarantees that all guests will have such good fortune. But it illustrates that the birds are here and waiting to be found!

http://gcjamaica.com

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Birding in Jamaica, Vacationing in Jamaica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.