If you’d like to get to see some of these nests, one great opportunity is our tour with Gabriel WIllow on May 19: Nesting Peregrines and Red-tails of the Upper West Side.

One of the young data collectors with the final tally. © NYC Audubon

Kids of all ages were counting birds around the Brooklyn Children’s Museum on March 30th as part of their Celebrate Earth week. We were excited to partner with the museum to introduce kids to citizen science by having them survey the birds in the area and then report back to us – adding their observations to our tally for the day. At the end of the day we shared the totals with all participants via text so they could see how their data fit into the bigger picture. We hope the kids will continue to observe the birds they encounter in their daily lives!

- John Rowden

Hand-feeding a Red-billed Streamertail at Rocklands Bird Sanctuary

Heading down to Montego Bay, we stopped to watch herons, egrets and pelicans on a small pond, and then continued on to Rocklands Bird Sanctuary.

Orangequit

Rockland Bird Sanctuary, started by the late Lisa Salmon, protects a forest abundant with native birds, and operates a bird feeding station that attracts over 15 species. The birds are habituated to people, and the hummingbirds will feed from hand-held bottles. They almost act insulted if you don't have a little bottle of sugar water to offer them. It is an extraordinary experience having red-billed streamertail and Jamaican mango hummingbirds perch on your finger as they drink out of old miniature bottles (the kind you get on an airplane).

Jamaican Tody

After everyone had a chance for an up-close encounter, Fritz, the long-time caretaker of Rocklands, took us for a short walk on the property, where we had another great view of Jamaican tody (a bird I will never tire of) along with Caribbean dove, black-whiskered vireo, northern parula and even an ovenbird.

On our way to lunch (at the world-famous jerk pit Scotchies) we stopped at the sewage treatment ponds outside Montego Bay for some great views of ducks, coots and even a few shorebirds. Treatment ponds almost always make for good birding, though I wonder what the locals are thinking as they speed past a group of tourists staring at the ponds through binoculars.

We headed to the airport for our trip home, happily satisfied with four days of great birding. We managed 23 out of 28 endemic species, and a total of 84 species altogether. Not bad for four days of leisurely tropical birding. We were incredibly grateful to our local guide, Lyndalee Burks, and to all the drivers and birding guides who made NYC Audubon's first Jamaican birding trip such a tremendous success! We will be back!

Gumbo Limbo Trees

Our birding guide for the day, Wendy Lee, is director of the Northern Jamaica Conservation Association, and a passionate advocate for Jamaica’s wildlife and wild places. A seventh generation Jamaican, Wendy has worked tirelessly for nearly three decades to protect places like Cockpit Country and to help her fellow Jamaican’s learn to value and protect wild birds. Her wildlife rescue center began as an effort to rescue and rehabilitate the two endemic parrot species, but has grown to include a wide variety of wildlife, including other birds and snakes.

We started our morning, with clear skies and a jewel-brilliant sea. Heading inland to a patch of scrubby forest, dominated by gumbo limbo trees, our first bird of the day was the Jamaican Lizard cuckoo, a gorgeous ochre-bellied bird. Vervain hummingbird, common ground dove and bananaquit buzzed among the flowering bushes along the forest edge, along with both Cape May and prairie warbler. Green-rumped parrotlet, a beautiful little parrot that is not native to Jamaica, chattered in the treetops.

Rufous-tailed Flycatcher

Inside the forest, Greater Antillean bullfinch, Jamaican vireo, black-whispered vireo and Jamaican oriole were abundant. We also got great views of the yellow-shouldered grassquit, an endemic species. Sad flycatcher and rufous-tailed flycatcher were also quite cooperative, though our one possible stolid flycatcher, didn’t give us a great view. We also saw a gray kingbird, Wendy’s first for the year. Gray kingbirds migrate south for the “winter,” returning to Jamaica and other Caribbean islands in March each year.

Hills and Valleys in Cockpit Country near Stuart Town

After lunch, we drove up to Stewart Town, a small village on the edge of Cockpit Country. Cockpit Country is a rugged region of limestone karst. The steep hills and deep valleys perhaps reminded early colonists of cock-fighting pits. The area has a long and fascinating history, home to the Maroons, freed slaves of Spanish colonists who resisted British rule, and hotbed of Jamaica’s abolitionist movement. In addition to its human history, the region is a critically important bird area, which provides wintering grounds for significant numbers of black-throated blue warbler, among other migrant warblers, and provides large tracts of relatively undeveloped forest for nearly all of the 28 extant Jamaican endemics. Stewart Town is a hot spot for 25 of those species, and did not disappoint our group.

Northern Potoo at Stuart Town

Mad dogs, Englishmen… And birders go out in the midday sun. This was our warmest day by far, but a good reminder that we were indeed in the tropics! The birds were a little quiet, but we still managed great views of Jamaican becard, Jamaican tody, and olive-throated parakeet. A great surprise was a roosting northern potoo, which Wendy made us find for ourselves. (No small task) Potoo are related to nighthawks, though they are in their own family.

As we returned to our bus, flocks of yellow-billed and black-billed parrots swirled overhead on their way to their roosts. Unfortunately, our other target bird of the day, chestnut-bellied cuckoo, or old man bird, was not cooperating. We searched high and low for it along the road, and finally gave up, heading into town to visit a picturesque ruined church. As we pulled up to the church, who should pop up on a tree, but our missing bird! What luck! We returned to Silver Sands for a celebratory dinner, our last in Jamaica.

Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo

Stuart Town Anglican Church 1842

Olive-throated Parakeet

View of the Blue Mountains from Strawberry Hill

This morning, the sun rose and the clouds cleared, just in it e for us to say goodbye to the Blue Mountains. The gardens of Strawberry Hill Hotel are lovely, and birds were abundant. A pre-breakfast walk brought five new species for the trip, including Cape May warbler, white-crowned pigeon, osprey, red-tailed hawk, and northern mockingbird. We also had good views of red-billed streamertail, orangequit, Jamaican oriole and zenaida dove.

Jamaican Oriole on Jade Vine Flowers

After breakfast, we loaded up the van for our travel day to Jamaica's north shore. Along the way, we saw turkey vulture, loggerhead kingbird, belted kingfisher, white winged dove, and many cattle egrets. A stop at Jamaica's second-oldest botanic garden in Castleton, yielded white-eyed thrush, another endemic, along with good views of orangequit, Jamaican oriole, and olive-throated parakeet.

Cycads at Castleton Gardens

The garden, which has an impressive collection of tropical plants from all over the world, is in need of some maintenance, but is a pleasant stroll and worth visiting for some of the spectacular specimens. We were guided through the garden by a local, who had conveniently squirrel away specimens that he could pull out to share with us, like a ripe cacao pod and a cinnamon bark. Favorites among the specimens included the unnatural-looking jade vine and the cannonball tree, which had strange flowers on its stem, but was not currently in fruit.

continued down to Oracabessa, a small town on the north shore of Jamaica famous for having been the home of Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond thrillers. (An interesting connection between Ian Fleming and birding: the character James Bond was named for the author of Birds of the West Indies.) After lunch at a local cookshop (curried goat, fried chicken or stewed beef) we visited with Mel Tennant who runs a program to protect sea turtles, nesting on Gibraltar Beach, just west of Oracabessa. Mel explained the work he does to track turtles and engage the local community in turtle protection.

Over the last 9 years, Mel has watched the turtle population grow from 13 to over 150, and the survival rate of turtle eggs has improved significantly from 1 in 1000 to about 1 in 100. Mel is working with the new owners of the resort that shares his beach. (A retired head of school, Mel now lives with his wife on the beach.) After sharing his data and explaining how he helped his adopted community come to appreciate the turtles, Mel showed us a turtle nest that was about to hatch. Some of the little turtles had already left the egg, though it would be several more days before the turtles would emerge from underground. Mel dug up a few eggs, and showed us a baby girls hawksbill turtle (the temperature at the top of the nest makes all those eggs develop as females.) after we had all gotten a good look, he reburied the turtles, and put back the wire mesh that protects the eggs from mongoose predation. Now that human interference has been all but eliminated, mongoose remain the biggest threat to nesting sea turtles.

As we continued to our villas at Silver Sands, we passed through Ocho Rios, and continued west along the North Shore of Jamaica. In addition to seeing brown pelicans, royal terns, and a magnificent frigatebird, we also saw our first pair of Jamaican crows, another endemic species.

Red-billed Streamertail at Strawberry Hill

Cannonball Tree at Castleton Garden

6am had the entire group together and on the van for our morning birding in Hardwar Gap. Although this should have been easy road birding, the persistent drizzle made conditions less than ideal, but nevertheless we managed to pull in a fair number of great birds. Our first stop, at a fruiting tree, brought in Jamaican vireo, Greater Antillean Bullfinch, a female red-billed streamertail, and two of our neotropical migrants, black and white warbler and black-throated blue warbler. We had a lovely breakfast on the road, with a traditional Jamaican Easter treat: cheese buns, made on a slightly sweet, spicy bun…

Further up the road, we stopped at a coffee plantation where a large fig tree provided shade. The fig had a few ring-tailed pigeons, along with a noisy flock of Jamaican Spindalis, a Jamaican euphonia, and even a northern parula, all attracted by the fig's fruit, or the insects that were also attracted by the fruits.

Our third stop of the morning, which proved to be our last because of the rain, was also our most productive, with sad flycatcher, rufous-tailed flycatcher, Jamaican Pewee, Blue Mountain vireo, loggerhead kingbird, a gorgeous male red-billed streamertail, orangequit, Jamaican oriole, and a brief glimpse of a Jamaican tody.

After heading back to Strawberry Hill for lunch, we drove back up the mountain to the Clifton Mount Coffee Estate. The drive took us through Newcastle, home to a Jamaican Army Training Center, where in the morning we had watched cadets drill, up a narrow concrete road. Near to the estate, we came across a mixed flock of grassquits, including yellow-faced, black-faced and yellow-shouldered grassquits, plus a lone indigo bunting. All four species are graced with appropriately descriptive names.

At the estate, which proudly proclaims itself a wildlife protection zone, we saw a few migrant warblers, including American redstart, black-throated green, and prairie warbler. The estate had a beautiful home and garden, which were hard to appreciate in the driving rain.

Unfortunately, the rain prevented much in the way of photography.

Despite being probably the most challenging day of birding I have ever had in terms of weather, we still managed to see 31 species, including 15 endemic species found only in Jamaica.

Glenn Phillips

Dawn at La Ensenada

At first light, we watched a few bats and lesser nighthawks get their bedtime snacks and headed down to the shoreline, where we watched pelicans, royal terns, a few sandwich terns, and white ibis getting a start to their day. Our first local specialty bird, the spot-breasted oriole, showed up shortly after that, along with an active rufous-naped wren and a brown-crested flycatcher. Our first trogon of the day, the black-headed trogon was not far behind.

While we were watching the obliging pair of trogons, someone, who perhaps had gotten bored of the trogon, though I’m not sure how that could happen, shouted “motmot!” We all hustled across the field to the furthest cabin, where several large birds had gathered to chase insects attracted by a porch light that had been left on all night. First the turquoise-browed motmot, then a white-throated magpie-jay. This motmot is perhaps the most beautiful of Costa Rica’s motmots, though they are all gorgeous.

Turquoise-browed Motmot

In the background, we kept hearing ferruginous pygmy-owl, so we headed n search of its source. We finally found it in a large tree, our first good owl sighting of the trip. In the same tree, a pair of streak-backed orioles flew in, later joined by a third when they moved to pink-flowered tabebuia. Over breakfast, we discovered that the pacific screech owl we had heard was known to roost in a tree that we had watched other birds in earlier, so we went back to check it out, and with the help of one of the groundskeepers, managed to find it. It was sleeping deep inside a bare bush, and with its body stretched thin, it was easily mistaken for a bare branch. Owl number two.

After our owl, we boarded our bus and headed south, stopping for a few birding breaks, even before we left the property, adding masked tityra, Canivet’s emerald hummingbird, banded wren, and scissor-tailed flycatcher. Along the road we spotted a zone-tailed hawk, and during a rest break we got great looks at a barred antshrike, only our second antbird of our trip. We also discovered a rufous-naped wren nest, in a palm tree along the road.

Streak-backed Oriole

At lunch, in the port town of Caldera, we had a great views of ctenosaur lizards, along with mobs of laughing gulls, royal terns and a few soaring magnificent frigatebirds. After lunch, we continued south to the Tarcoles River, where in addition to yellow-headed caracara and common black-hawk, we watched a half-dozen pairs of scarlet macaws fly over on their way to their roosts.

Black and White Owl in Orotina Town Park

One final stop before heading to our hotel for the night, the town park in Orotina. Here in the middle of a bustling city square, with kids on skateboards and young couples sharing romantic moments, we had excellent views of a roosting black and white owl.

We ended our trip with a farewell banquet. Everyone had to list their favorite bird of the trip. Prominent were red-legged honeycreeper, Montezuma oropendola, long-tailed tyrant, torrent tyranulet, great kiskadee, black guan, and of course our two resplendent quetzals.

What a great group on this trip, always willing to help others find our birds. Our local guide, Richard Garrigues, is of course a spectacular asset, with incredible knowledge of the local birds and how to find them, and a great ability to plan exciting days of birding, with great meals and lodges.

I look forward to returning to Costa Rica again next year. Next year: southern Costa Rica!

White Ibis

Gulf of Nicoya

Black-headed Trogon

White-throated Magpie-jay, preparing to steal table scraps

White-fronted Parrot

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Laughing Gulls and Royal Terns Gathered on the Flats at Caldera

Ctenosaur Lizard

NYC Audubon's 2013 Tour

Arenal Volcano Emerges from the Clouds

Our morning birding started in the lodge's garden, with the usual hummingbirds and tanagers, including more great views of red-legged honeycreepers. We then headed out to the forest trail, hoping to catch some of the birds that we had heard, but been unable to see the day before in the rain. The morning's weather was much better, in fact the clouds cleared enough that we could see the peak of Arenal Volcano!

Coral Snake at Arenal Obsevatory Lodge

We missed connecting with the song wren and the bay wren again, but we did manage to pull out the band-backed wren, one of many interesting tropical wrens… They have a range of similar sizes, shapes and colors, but are most distinct because of their songs. More exciting perhaps was the venomous coral snake which appeared suddenly under our feet while we were busy looking at birds. On our way to breakfast, we stopped to observe a white-collared manakin lek. The lek, a communal display ground, where males do elaborate clicking mating displays, was right of the main road, and although most of the activity occurs out of sight, a few males could be seen displaying form the road.

Crested Guan at Arenal Observatory Lodge

After breakfast, I took a few folks who had skipped the pre-breakfast walk back to see the lek. On our way back to our rooms to pack to leave, we encountered two crested guans, our third cracid of the trip. Cracids, which includes guans, curassows and chachalacas are a primitive family in the bird order that includes quail, turkey and chickens. Although we had seen a crested guan in the distance earlier, this was a first close-up. Luckily they were still nearby when we alerted the full group.

Spider Monkey near Lake Arenal

Leaving the lodge, we drove around Lake Arenal, stopping for interesting birds, including a gray hawk, a garnered trogon, and a pair of motmots: the male was a keel-billed motmot and the female was a broad-billed motmot. While we were looking at the motmots, a troop of Central American spider monkeys came by, with young in tow. The parents stopped in a large gap to make bridges for the young monkeys. When one monkey failed to cross along his parents back, the parent grabed the little one and helped it across. We also managed to spot a bay wren, bringing our total of wrens so far up to 12, including three species that were only heard.

Mantled Howler Monkeys

We continued around the lake, with the climate getting drier as we drove. By the time we stopped for lunch, the landscape included groves of bare trees, often spiny-trucked members of the Bombacaceae. While we waited for lunch to arrive, we took some time to look for birds, of course. The most notable birds were a ruby-throated hummingbird, our familiar migrant species, and our first squirrel cuckoo, a common and widespread species which had so far eluded us. We also saw a large troop of howler monkeys.

Salt Ponds at La Ensenada

After lunch we continued our drive to La Ensenada, stopping shortly before raeching our destination to observe a flock of groove-billed ani, we were rewarded with a nice view of a lesser ground cuckoo, which looks a bit like a roadrunner. Arriving at our destination about an hour before sunset, we headed directly to their salt ponds, where thousands of shorebirds had gathered to loaf and feed during he high tide. Among the shorebirds were black-necked stilt, whimbrel, least and semipalmated sandpiper, and Wilson's and semipalmated plover. Roseate spoonbill, great egret, little blue heron and great blue heron were also gathering to roost. Just before sunset we headed over to the nearby freshwater pond, which had nearly dried up, and caught a few extra wetland species, including wood stork. As darkness descended, so too did a large flock of lesser nighthawks. As we made our way back to the lodge to check in, we startled at least half a dozen common pauraque, each one flashing white wings as it took off from the road in front of us. Sometimes they just flew ahead and landed on the road again, making it seem like there were dozens.

After dinner and our nightly review of the day's discoveries, Richard and I took some time to plan next year's trip to southern Costa Rica. As we were finishing, we heard a rattling as a large animal descended from the lodge's roof. At first, we thought it must be a raccoon, but on closer inspection (not too close) it turned out to be a Mexican prehensile-tailed porcupine!

Feeder Birds At Arenal

Black-cowled Oriole at Arenal

Gray Hawk near Lake Arenal

Dry Forest at La Ensenada

The View of Arenal Volcano

We started, as usual with a pre-breakfast walk. We did not manage to get very far… The grounds are lushly landscaped, with lots of porterweed hedges, a favorite of hummingbirds. We observed eight species before breakfast, including the sought-after black-crested coquette. Also in the hedge were three male red-legged honeycreepers, which were among the favorite birds of the day.

Emerald Tanager

After watching hummingbirds for a while, we moved on to a mixed flock of tanagers, including numerous golden-hooded, Passerini's, crimson-collared, emerald, bay-headed, blue-gray, and palm tanagers, along with scarlet-thighed dacnis and many others.

Golden-hooded tanager

Arriving at breakfast,we discovered that the feeders outside the restaurant were equally rich, with close up views of golden-hooded tanagers. After breakfast, we drove down to a lower portion of the property, where bellbirds had been heard a few days earlier. Although we heard no signs of the bellbird, we did get some great views of long-tailed tyrant, rufous-tailed jacamar, swallow-tailed kite, and the slaty spinetail, a bird in the tropical ovenbird family.

After this easy garden birding, we headed in to the forest, where the birds were easily heard, but not so easily seen. We heard five species of wren, but only managed to get a few partial glimpses of one, the white-breasted wood wren. A rufous mourner, a plain rufous flycatcher was more cooperative, as was a spotted antbird, our first antbird of the trip!

During lunch we were interrupted by a huge flock of white-collared swifts, a large bird almost as big as the northern common nighthawk. After lunch, a very accommodating lineated woodpecker gave everyone a good look at this magnificent woodpecker. After lunch, we took a break for siestas or just to wander around the beautiful grounds.

Lineated Woodpecker

We walked to the nearby waterfall after lunch, and the weather was not very cooperative. We did manage to pull in a few more excellent birds, despite the frequent showers, including a pair of orange-bellied trogons, a broad-billed motmot, and a scaly-crested pygmy-tyrant ( a tiny flycatcher with a little crest). We had heard the pygmy-tyrant earlier, so everyone was very excited to get to finally see it.

Before dinner, we stayed out until dark to listen for owls, and were rewarded by the triple-hoot of the spectacled owl. We also saw a few bats, some giant katydids, and a firefly-like elater beetle, which glowed a brilliant orangey-yellow as it slowly flew around us.

We ended the day with a total of 94 species, 43 new for the trip! Tomorrow we head to the dry forest, for a whole new set of species!

Long-tailed Tyrant

Umbrellabirders

Orange-bellied Trogon

Montezuma Oropendola