Good morning birders, twitchers, twitchy birders, bitchy twirlers, and candidate warriors who mistook the title as a reference to an early-morning rally before the Puerto Rico primary. Three weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Puerto Rico for the first time, and herein I share my best photos from the trip, as well as my amateurish attempts at identification. Corrections are welcome.
The Southern Political Science Association typically rotates its annual conference between Atlanta and New Orleans. This year they upped their game considerably and went really far southern, to San Juan. So I made room for my camera (and snorkel, and hiking boots. . .) in the suitcase between the suits and academic papers, and dragged my wife (kicking and screaming, of course) to a mini-vacation prior to the political sciencing that paid for my flight.
Puerto Rico has 17 endemic bird species, and I tried to see as many as possible. In addition, as I had never been SE of Miami, I could add any Caribbean endemic to my life list.
Of all the PR endemics, I most wanted to see the Puerto Rican tody — the iconic green dude on the cover of every PR bird book. Though they are allegedly abundant, I only managed to get serviceable photos of one, in the dry forest of Guanica (SE corner of the island):
Here’s a different angle that showcases its adorable beak:
The Puerto Rican spindalis is another PR endemic:
Many of the endemics are specific species of common North American types. Helpfully, they are usually named the “Puerto Rican [type].” For example, PR has its own exclusive species of woodpecker:
And it’s own warbler:
Here’s the same bird in a more stereotypically warbleresque pose:
PR also has its own tanager:
And bullfinch:
I suppose I could have cropped that one closer, but I just love the fern [edit: not a fern. See comments]. El Yunque National Forest, a mere hour from San Juan in the northeastern part of the island, is an amazingly beautiful tropical rainforest, the only one in the US national forest system.
Anyhow, back to the endemics. One of the most sought after is the Puerto Rican lizard cuckoo. The only one I saw was in a far-away tree, pushing the limits of my new lens. This may have been the last endemic we saw (but see the hummingbirds below).
I saw the lizard cuckoo on the grounds of the amazing El Escondido Guest House, above San Juan and near El Yunque, where we spent three nights. I booked it after seeing the almost unreal TripAdvisor ratings (“almost unreal” because I was worried they were gamed), and it lived up to the hype. It sits on a few acres of rainforest, with trails running through the property — a birder’s dream.
Perhaps the most abundant bird in the rainforest was the adorable bananaquit, a common bird throughout tropical South America and the Caribbean:
They were quite playful, and had a boisterous song that could be heard all day.
One of the rarest endemics is the Puerto Rican parrot. We were not lucky enough to see one, but we did see this bird, some sort of something-somethinged parakeet (orange-lipped, gecko-footed, or whatever) of which there are many, and I couldn’t nail the ID with any confidence.
A pearly-eyed thrasher (Caribbean endemic):
Ok, this isn’t exactly exotic; but it’s the best pic I’ve ever gotten of a kestrel:
Other lifers included two types of kingbirds. The gray kingbird:
And the loggerhead kingbird:
Here’s a scaly-naped pigeon. You can see the scales on its nape.
Black-whiskered vireo:
And the red-legged thrush. You’ll have to take the red legs on faith.
Ok, now it gets sticky (a polite way of saying “embarrassing”). PR supposedly has only seven varieties of hummingbird, two of which are endemic. Yet, I wasn’t able to make definitive IDs. This one could be an endemic green mango, but the tail doesn’t seem right. It could also be a Puerto Rican emerald (the other endemic), but we’d need to see the beak to know for sure.
With its curved beak, this could be a green mango — but I’m not sure the color is right:
This one might be a female green-breasted mango, but they’re very rare in PR. I can’t find anything else that looks even close to this.
Here’s an introduced African bird:
And this one’s a total mystery. How about the orange-tailed whitebottom? Yeah, we’ll go with that. [edit: American redstart. Thank you, matching mole!]
Lastly, my 20th lifer of the trip:
One final bird note: while I was drafting this on Friday, our 10-year-old parakeet Sunny passed away. He is survived by two Boston terriers and four zebra finches.
Thanks for reading!