Puerto Rico

We spent last week birding in Puerto Rico. We ranged all over the island, traveling to the furthermost NE, NW, & SW corners, the rain forest in the northeast (where it rained), then down over the central mountains to the dry south coast where we birded in forests, lagoons, and salt flats. 76 species for the week, 29 life birds, 11 endemic species, and 13 year birds.

Study in Black, Gray & White

The first bird I saw was a GREAT EGRET in a ditch on the side of the highway from the airport.  In the parking lot of our hotel there were 3 NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS chasing each other. It was there that I notched my first life bird—GREATER ANTILLEAN GRACKLE. Shari was registering for us while I watched the car. When I told her I saw the grackle she was upset to have missed it, but I assured her that they wouldn’t be hard to find. I was right. They were all over the grounds. They’re real clowns, hanging around the outdoor cafés hoping to cadge some food, or just sitting on the ledge of your balcony to check you out.

The resort we stayed at is on a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic, so as soon as we were settled we took a walk around and almost immediately started to see great birds: Brown Pelicans & Royal Terns flying by, Gray Kingbird perched in a tree, a BANANAQUIT in a bush, and 2 more lifers on the lawn—ZENAIDA DOVE & PIN-TAILED WHYDAH. There was a flock of whydah picking at the grass, but since it wasn’t breeding season the males didn’t have their distinctive long tail feathers, which was a little disappointing. On the other hand, it is an amazing transformation, losing feathers that are twice the body length to become what looks like a sparrow with a red bill and white eyestripe.  

So I felt we were off to a good start, but things slowed down for a few days. We birded a pine forest along the north coast and saw a Magnificent Frigatebird and we drove to the rain forest in the Luquillo Mountains. We were supposed to have a guide there the next day, but we wanted to check the place out beforehand. It was windy and rainy (it is a rain forest after all) but we managed to find 4 lifers on 2 trails: PUERTO RICAN LIZARD-CUCKOO, PUERTO RICAN TODY, PUERTO RICAN TANAGER & PEARLY-EYED THRASHER.

The next day our guide cancelled the tour because the rain was too heavy and long lasting. Usually rain storms last 10 or 11 minutes there. These were off and on for hours at a time all day. We did meet her at the main building there briefly and I have to say, when it rains in the rain forest it is impressive! The day wasn’t a complete washout—we did get 2 ANTILLEAN MANGOS (hummingbirds) at the resort.  Still we were far behind where I wanted to be both in numbers of species and in lifers.

Thursday we drove to the south coast and what a difference—like traveling from humid Florida to arid Arizona in about 2 ½ hours. We checked in, put on our bathing suits and went to the pool. But we were restless, especially after I saw a PUERTO RICAN EMERALD sipping nectar from a flowering bush and Shari didn’t. Ooh, I felt bad about that. We looked around the grounds and found a couple of egrets, a LITTLE BLUE HERON, a few terns and a couple of Pearly-eyed Thrashers (these thrashers are definitely not rare or shy on the island) but didn’t find the hummer again.  

Coffee Contraption on Abandoned Plantation

On Friday I felt like we were finally seriously birding. Our guide took us first to the Bosque Estatal de Maricao, a forest high up in the mountains with trails that are accessed from a long loopy curving road and where the other drivers don’t seem to be too concerned about head-on collisions. She took us to a few places there, including an abandoned coffee plantation, as well as stops along the road where we able to pull off to the side. It was here that Shari was able to add the Puerto Rican Emerald to her list and where we also able to add PUERTO RICAN WOODPECKER, PUERTO RICAN BULLFINCH, PUERTO RICAN SPINDALIS, ANTILLEAN EUPHONIA, LESSER ANTILLEAN PEWEE and the extremely rare ELFIN-WOOD WARBLER, which until the last 40 years had not even been described and was most probably mistaken for the Black-and-White Warbler which it closely resembles. But we got excellent looks at the bird (as well as all the others) and being so familiar with black-and-whites on our home ground, it was easy to tell the difference; plus the EWWA has a distinctive call.

After lunch in a little bakery in Maricao, a town perched on the side of the mountain, where a ham and cheese sandwich cost $1.75 unless you wanted it con todo, in which case it cost $3.75, we went to the place I’d been looking forward to the entire time—Laguna Cartegena in the remote southwest part of the island. As the name implies it is an area of marshland and open water surrounded by fields. This is the kind of birding I really like—not straining your neck looking up in a tree for a little bastard determined not to be seen. Instead flocks of birds going this way and that to the point where you just have to start on the left and start ticking off what you see. Here we had BRONZE MANNIKIN, NUTMEG MANNIKIN, YELLOW-FACED GRASSQUIT (are these names amusing or what?) CAVE SWALLOW, ORANGE-CHEEKED WAXBILL, WEST INDIAN WHISTLING DUCK (come on, that’s a good name), and Purple Gallinule which was not officially a life bird for since we’d seen an accidental juvenile in Prospect Park years ago, but these were adults and they were purple.

Saturday we met our guide, Hilda, for the remaining half day of birding at Cabo Rojo which is a spit of land surrounded by salt flats and marshes in the extreme southwest. More of my kind of birding. While we were waiting for her near the observation tower (if we hadn’t had a GPS device we’d still be looking for her) an AMERICAN KESTREL with prey in its beak flew out of a bush and passed right in front of my face. As soon as Hilda arrived and asked what we had seen while waiting I saw a black bird with orange chest and wing patches and got very excited—it was the Venezuelan Troupial. It flew out of a tree into another and disappeared. I was afraid this might be a bird that Shari missed, but happily there were plenty of them around. We also saw a flycatcher called the CARIBBEAN ELAENIA and the best bird, endemic YELLOW-SHOULDERED BLACKBIRD, another bird I saw first and was worried Shari might miss. But we went to the area I saw one fly to and there were five by the time they all flew away.

View from Bosque Seco

We left Hilda after she took us to a little lemonade stand in a shack by the water and drove back toward where we staying, which was just outside the Bosque Seco de Guanica (Guanica Dry Forest). It was already 1 o’clock and the birds were hiding from the heat, but we did manage to spot our lifer PUERTO RICAN FLYCATCHER and the pretty little ADELAIDE’S WARBLER (You promise me this, you promise me that) as well as many TURKEY VULTURES cruising the skies.  

Hilda told us about a pond that was two minutes around the corner from our hotel that would be a good place to listen for the Puerto Rican Nightjar. It sounds like a little yipping dog. So we went at sundown and listened but all we heard were dogs. (As an aside, there are many stray dogs on the sides of the roads that have been left by their owners. Apparently, up until very recently, it wasn’t against the law to abandon your dog or cat like this. Now it is. Good move.)

While we didn’t hear the nightjar, the pond held dozens of BLACK-NECKED STILTS, a WILLET, WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAILS, and surprisingly, 4 GADWALLS which are very infrequently found on the island.

Next morning we went back to the pond and saw a BELTED KINGFISHER, the Gadwalls again, and a juvenile Little Blue Heron, along with even more stilts than the previous evening.

Guajataca Cliffs

We had flown into San Juan, but the airport we left from is a former air force base in the northwest corner of the island, Our flight wasn’t until the late afternoon, so Hilda suggested that we go to the Guajataca Cliffs to look for tropicbirds. We didn’t find any (I didn’t really expect to since it was a bit too early in the season for them) but there was another Puerto Rican Spindalis as well as a couple of Adelaide’s Warblers, more frigatebirds, and even 4 CATTLE EGRET flying across the bay.

List for 12/13-12/19. ALL CAPS is life bird, italic is year bird, * is endemic species.

WEST INDIAN WHISTLING-DUCK

Gadwall

Blue-winged Teal

White-cheeked Pintail

Pied-billed Grebe

Brown Pelican

Magnificent Frigatebird

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron

Tricolored Heron

Cattle Egret

Green Heron

Glossy Ibis

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

Clapper Rail

Purple Gallinule

Common Moorhen

CARIBBEAN COOT

Black-bellied Plover

Snowy Plover

Killdeer

Black-necked Stilt

Spotted Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Willet

Lesser Yellowlegs

Ruddy Turnstone

Royal Tern

Rock Pigeon

SCALY-NAPED PIGEON

Eurasian Collared-Dove

ZENAIDA DOVE

Mourning Dove

Common Ground-Dove

Mangrove Cuckoo

PUERTO RICAN LIZARD-CUCKOO*

Smooth-billed Ani

ANTILLEAN MANGO

PUERTO RICAN EMERALD*

PUERTO RICAN TODY*

Belted Kingfisher

PUERTO RICAN WOODPECKER*

CARIBBEAN ELAENIA

LESSER ANTILLEAN PEWEE

PUERTO RICAN FLYCATCHER*

Gray Kingbird

PUERTO RICAN VIREO*

CAVE SWALLOW

Red-legged Thrush

Northern Mockingbird

PEARLY-EYED THRASHER

Black-throated Blue Warbler

ADELAIDE’S WARBLER*

Palm Warbler

ELFIN-WOODS WARBLER*

American Redstart

Bananaquit

PUERTO RICAN TANAGER*

PUERTO RICAN SPINDALIS

YELLOW-FACED GRASSQUIT

Black-faced Grassquit

PUERTO RICAN BULLFINCH*

YELLOW-SHOULDERED BLACKBIRD*

GREATER ANTILLEAN GRACKLE

VENEZUELAN TROUPIAL

ANTILLEAN EUPHONIA

House Sparrow

ORANGE-CHEEKED WAXBILL

BRONZE MANNIKIN

NUTMEG MANNIKIN

PIN-TAILED WHYDAH