My word. It's been nearly a month and I'm terribly behind on my research schedule.
There has been so much to celebrate in February, from Chinese New Years, Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras and tomorrow is my Birthday! We are also preparing to get new flooring installed this week, so we have been a bit busy with juggling small children and trying to get all of our stuff off the floor and into the garage. But yet- we are now less then 400 days from sailing. Huzzah.
So onto my first research topic. Caribbean birds.
By no means am I even something that comes close to resembling a birder. However, like many... when the world was quieter during the height of covid, I began to notice the world around me a bit more, especially outside of our windows, since we were at home so much. My husband even got me binoculars for Mother's Day.
So I thought it would enhance our trip to be able to say:
"Look! A bananaquit! The official bird of the US Virgin Islands. In the islands, it is affectionately known as the sugar bird, because locals will set out a shallow dish of granulated sugar and the bird will help itself"
The bananaquit has a prominent place on the US Virgin Islands seal:
The Forest Service of the Virgin Islands has a lovely birding guide that you can print out and trifold to fit in your back pocket:
https://www.nps.gov/viis/learn/nature/upload/virginislandsbirdlist.pdf
I used it compile some pictures for myself, so I believe we have a good chance of seeing these birds in Tortola and St. Thomas.
These are birds that you won't really have to go looking for. Allegedly they are just abundantly part of the landscape:
(Those birds with a green border you are likely not to see in the US, they primarily live in the Caribbean and South America or Mexico. Those with a yellow border only have a range map of the Caribbean. So I would love to see some of these. Of the 564 Caribbean bird species, 148 (26%) are endemic–they exist nowhere else in the world. In fact, there are over 100 bird species in the Caribbean that only live on
one island.)
The turtle dove is the official bird of the British Virgin Islands. Local tradition claims that Christopher Columbus named Tortola after the Spanish word for turtle dove, but apparently he actually named it Santa Ana. (The local lore is so much sweeter). The turtle dove is featured on the official BVI territorial print, which depicts unique aspects of their culture: The turtle dove, oleander, hibiscus, soursop, sugar apple and the Virgin Islands sloop.
Although I'm not too sure that you will be seeing too many people wearing the dress. It doesn't seem terribly popular.
But nonetheless, you will see the dove on the territorial print and also among the Virgin Islands.
- The Booby is strong and agile flyer. It usually flies at speed of 24 miles per hour. However, due to clumsy appearance on the solid ground, the booby was labeled as "stupid" by the first European settlers. Its name is derived from Spanish word "bobo" which means "stupid". It often catches fish by plunging into the water from the height of 80 feet, at the speed of 60 miles per hour.
- When fishing, pelicans scoop up both three gallons of seawater and many fish. Then you will notice they drain out the water and toss their head back swallowing only the fish. Pelicans were once on the endangered species list, but they have recently been removed because most populations have recovered. The oldest pelican fossil on record is a 30-million-year-old skull.
- Able to soar for weeks on wind currents, frigatebirds spend most of the day in flight hunting for food. Christopher Columbus encountered frigatebirds when passing the Cape Verde Islands on his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492. In his journal entry for 29 September he used the word rabiforçado, modern Spanish rabihorcado or forktail. Frigatebirds can stay aloft for up to two months without touching down on land or water. More importantly, while out at sea, they couldn't even take a break even if they wanted to; unlike most other seabirds, frigatebirds can't swim, becoming waterlogged and eventually drowning if they do encounter water. It's this inability to stop and get some rest while floating that has caused scientists to learn that the birds can sleep while flying- in 10 second intervals, which can amount to 45 minutes a day. Once on land, the bird can sleep for 12 hours at a time. In the Caribbean frigatebirds were called Man-of-War birds by English mariners. This name was used by the English explorer William Dampier in his book An Account of a New Voyage Around the World published in 1697:
- The Man-of-War (as it is called by the English) is about the bigness of a Kite, and in shape like it, but black; and the neck is red. It lives on Fish yet never lights on the water, but soars aloft like a Kite, and when it sees its prey, it flys down head foremost to the Waters edge, very swiftly takes its prey out of the Sea with his Bill, and immediately mounts again as swiftly; never touching the Water with his Bill. His Wings are very long; his feet are like other Land-fowl, and he builds on Trees, where he finds any; but where they are wanting on the ground.
- Folklore from Scotland says "Seagull, seagull, sit on the sand; it's a sign of rain when you are at hand." Birds will roost in times of low pressure, which is often indicative of an oncoming storm. The laughing gull's call sounds like "Ha, Ha, Ha," which is how it got it's name. As much as gulls are often terrible nuisances and I've heard they try hard to keep them from ravaging Castaway Cay... I do miss them. I delighted in seeing them on our first cruise. We don't have too many gulls in Colorado Springs, but when I lived in California as a girl, they were plentiful.
- They gray kingbird sounds very much like its Spanish name “Pitirre”. It starts singing before dawn. The scientific name Tyrannus means “tyrant, despot, or king,” referring to the aggression kingbirds exhibit with each other and with other species. When defending their nests they will attack much larger predators.
- The thrasher is extremely bold and threatens other species entering their nesting area, including National Park Service workers. These mockingbird relatives are prolific breeders. They are very vocal and can be heard singing throughout the night during a full moon. On St. John, they are often also called thrusie.
Here are our common seabirds and shore birds:
And our common forest birds:
This is a funny blog post about the blackfaced grassquit, considering some might believe it is the most boring looking bird in the Caribbean-
https://abacobirds.com/2020/10/01/black-faced-grassquits-on-abaco-bahamas/
Look how fun this Caribbean bird bingo is:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uvqmh7x6...0&preview=Bird-Spy-Bingo-Lesson-1-English.pdf
It's from the BirdSleuth Caribbean program, where teachers in the Caribbean are learning to involve young people in the natural world and build their science skills. The overall goal is to develop a strong conservation ethic in young people and promote commitment to environmental stewardship by increasing their knowledge and interest in birds, nature and science.
There really isn't too much information I have been able to find about the birds that might be awaiting us in Castaway Cay. In fact, some people on Disboards have mentioned that Disney goes out of it's way to make sure that birds don't become pests on the beaches. So I turned to the closest island to Castaway Cay to see what birds were local neighbors. I was surprised to see how many more birds were listed as living on the Abaco island than the Virgin Islands.
https://abacobirds.com/about/
I also thought that the bird population would pretty much be the same, but I was mistaken. I suppose that makes sense. The Virgin Islands are about 925 miles away from the Bahamas, which is about the distance from Orlando to Philadelphia.
These are permanent breeding residents of Abaco. Since we will be visiting at the end of March, we will probably be missing both the winter residents and the summer residents.
However, according to some ebirders that have visited CC, we will most likely just see a bunch of terns:
https://ebird.org/hotspot/L1913607?yr=all&m=&rank=hc
For less than a large coffee at Dutch Brothers, I ordered this used birding book. I tiptoed through seven inches of snow this morning to pull it out of the mailbox.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691024243/
