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Dawn Chorus: Birds of Puerto Rico [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-16
Hello birders, twitchers, twitchy birders, bitchy twirlers, and anyone looking for a respite from our bird-brained politics.
The Southern Political Science Association rotates its annual conference between several cities, including New Orleans, Austin, and Atlanta. Every few years, though, they lean hard into the “Southern” thing and meet in San Juan, PR. Before commencing the awkward mingling and presentations to empty rooms at a run-down resort hotel in the capital, my wife and I spent five days driving around the island looking for birds.
Old San Juan — the farthest afield most conference attendees get.
Puerto Rico is a lovely place to bird. While the total number of species pales in comparison to marquee American-tropics destinations like Costa Rica, it does have 18 endemic species, as well as enough Caribbean specialities to delight infrequent visitors. On my only other trip there in 2016, I got about 20 lifers including 7 endemics. But there was much more to see. Entering the trip, I had 747 life birds — so I hopped on a 767 to San Juan with dreams of 757.
Like many tropical islands, PR has a humid and an arid side. The northern 2/3 of the landmass is rainforest, while the area south of the mountains — shielded from the northerly trade winds — is savannah, with an impressive strip of tropical dry forest along the southwestern coast. The dry forest — one of the largest in the world — contains a majority of the endemic bird species.
Our trip began with a return to a wonderful lodge in the lush mountains above San Juan, just west of El Yunque National Forest. The El Escondido Studios and Gardens is an adults-only, four-room guesthouse on beautifully landscaped grounds overlooking San Juan. It was our best discovery in 2016, and we were heartbroken when it was destroyed by Hurricane Maria. But the owner rebuilt a couple of years ago, and we eagerly returned for another 3 nights.
One of the many viewpoints from the El Escondido grounds.
I figured I could hit the milestone of 750 life birds early on because there was some low-hanging fruit to pick. According to eBird, Greater Antillean Grackles are literally everywhere on the island — you can’t swing your arms anywhere without hitting one. But, in a baffling twist, they somehow weren’t on my list from our previous trip. Did I just ignore them because I thought they were Great- or Boat-tailed Grackles? No idea. But sure enough, we saw them literally the minute we stepped outside — like, on the walkway between the airport terminal and rental-car kiosk.
#748
Another bird that appears on every eBird list on the island is the Black-faced Grassquit. And indeed, it didn’t take long at El Escondido to see a small flock of them.
#749
The lodge grounds were teeming with birds. We saw old favorites like the Red-legged Thrush:
Scaly-naped Pigeon:
And the loud and lively Bananaquits, which seemed to be in every tree on the island:
Bananaquit = Potassiumdeficiency
We hired one guide for two multi-critter outings (birds, insects, herps, etc.), one during the day and one in the evening a few days later. Our day trip covered two spots in eastern PR. We started on a beach that featured several common water birds (Black-belled and Semipalmated Plovers, Sanderlings, Royal Terns, Brown Pelicans, Ruddy Turnstones). The highlight was these Sandwich Terns, the second I’ve ever seen, and a lifer for my wifer:
Sandwich Terns are best distinguished by the mustard on the tips of their bills.
Our second stop was El Yunque National Forest, which I knew had little chance of yielding lifers. But first, our guide stopped at a random field along the highway where he thought we might see some Scaly-breasted Munias. And whoa, was that fruitful. In about five minutes, we saw a Puerto Rican Spindalis posing perfectly (see cover photo), and then three lifers in such rapid succession that I was alternating frantically between them trying to get pictures. The big milestone came with a Smooth-billed Ani:
#750
Followed immediately by a Puerto Rican Flycatcher:
It stole the autofocus away from the adorable branch I was trying to photograph.
And the munias we were promised:
Imported from Asia and also found in many U.S. cities (though not by us — hence the lifer).
That flurry was the birding highlight of the day, as the next stop proved to be better for other creatures. El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. National Forest system. Hurricane Maria obliterated its canopy, so it is now dominated by indestructible palms and a beautiful, lush ground cover that thrives in the newly exposed sunlight. Some of the faster-growing canopy trees are beginning to work their way up as well.
We got rained on in the rainforest.
It was a quiet bird day — but we did see some cool critters:
A lizard and a semi-slug.
Bird-wise, we had better luck back at the lodge. We saw not only the endemic Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo:
Not to be confused with the Squirrel Cuckoos we saw in Costa Rica or the Kangaruckoos we saw in Australia.
But also a lifer Mangrove Cuckoo:
If I ever have a severe head injury and end up starting one of those macho right-wing podcasts, I’ll call it the Mangrove Cuckoo.
A Bronze Mannikin:
An African import
And the endemic Puerto Rican Woodpecker:
. .in bad early-morning light.
El Escondido also provided our only sighting of the wonderful endemic known as the Puerto Rican Tody:
We also saw several Shiny Cowbirds and Zenaida Doves:
Our next stop was the southwestern corner of PR — specifically, the small town of La Parguera, known for being the gateway to one of PR’s famous bioluminescent bays (and the only one you can swim in. We did).
A Red Junglefowl (domesticated) stands in quiet judgment of my chicken empanadas.
January is the height of PR’s dry season, and La Parguera is in the arid part of the island. So, you guessed it, it rained the whole time. We set aside one day for birding, with my top target being the endangered endemic Elfin-woods Warbler. As Maria may have wiped out the last of their El Yunque residents, the species has been seen recently only in a small strip of mountains in western PR, and only in the dwarf (or “elfin”) forests near the peaks. Our plan was to drive to the peaks to find the warbler and later hit a reservoir with several potential lifers.
The day got off to an auspicious start. Before I even put pants on, I stepped onto the balcony and got two quick lifers. A Venezuelan Troupial on an apartment rooftop:
A troupial is a large, oriole-like oriole.
And a White-crowned Pigeon on a distant tree:
. .with a photo-bombing iguana.
Now, you may be thinking: surely this story doesn’t end with “I got more lifers in two minutes before breakfast than I did on our big birding day”. . .right? Eh, we’ll see.
Off we headed to the Bosque Estatal de Maricao (state forest), home of the Elfin-woods Warbler. We reached the high elevations via the Ruta Panorámica, a very narrow road that, true to its name, had great views in all directions.
Ruta Panorámica, high-elevation elfin forest, and not-so-elfin radio/cell towers, seen from an observation tower called La Torre de Piedra.
After being warmed up by an American Redstart, my warbler senses were on full alert, and it didn’t take long to find this immature Elfin-woods Warbler:
Otherwise, the forest was quiet. We did see an endemic Puerto-Rican Bullfinch and lots of butterflies.
Red Rim, Sulfur, and Bullfinch.
After a lunch break at the authentic local eatery known as Burger King, we headed to Laguna Cartagena NWR to find some lifer ducks. I pride myself on my hotspot preparedness (e.g., I knew the exact coordinates where the warbler had been seen recently) — but this was a lapse. Among other problems, we had trouble locating water. At a freakin’ laguna. On the third or fourth stop, and after a long walk in the afternoon heat, I zoomed in as far as my long lens would go and managed to find this:
Duckin’ A
Well, they’re ducks. I could make out lots of Blue-winged Teal, and some that were either scaups or Ring-necked Ducks — I didn’t really care, honestly. But nothing that resembled West Indian Whistling-Ducks, Masked Ducks, or White-cheeked Pintails, nor any of the other water- and songbirds that were lifer potentials. So yes, friends, I indeed got more lifers in two minutes at the motel than during a whole morning and afternoon of visiting new hotspots.
Other southwestern sightings included a Common Ground Dove and the second in our series of Faced Grassquits. This one was Yellow.
Before we dropped off the car and settled in at the Caribe Hilton, we did our night tour of El Yunque. The rainforest at night is downright magical, and our guide showed us a wide variety of creepy and/or crawly things. Our only bird possibility was the endemic Puerto Rican Owl — but unfortunately it became the latest entry on our dreaded Heard-Only List. In fact, we heard four of them, which was actually pretty cool. They sound like Eastern Screech-Owls, and we got to hear both the soothing song and the “screech.”
My wife left San Juan a day before I did — I mean, she was a good sport for hanging out at an overpriced, tacky resort/conference hotel with a bunch of awkward political scientists for as long as she did — so I spent the last day of the trip birding on my own at a park near the hotel and then in Old San Juan. Fun anecdote about the hotel: it has a private beach, which I always find annoying. I’d rather just have access to a normal beach (but then the delicate vacationers might be exposed to locals who are doing something other than serving them drinks. You can’t have that!). Anyhow, the sun rose around 6:50, so we went downstairs about 15 minutes prior to photograph it rising over the ocean. But we were stopped by a security guard: “sorry, the beach opens at 7:00.”
For sale in the hotel gift shop: a Puerto Rico hat with a macaw on it. Mucho authentico.
Oh yeah, birding. Just two blocks from the Hilton was Luis Muñoz Rivera Park, a large park with a lovely variety of trees. The park itself was in total disrepair, basically abandoned. But the birds loved it. I saw my only Pearly-eyed Thrasher of the trip, a species whose PR numbers took a huge hit after Maria:
I also saw a Green-throated Carib. We had bad luck with hummers overall, so that was a nice find.
A healthier but not-as-tasty version of the Green-throated Chocolate.
In grad school (1999) I took an instant liking to an ornithology student I met at a party. We hung out a lot over the next few months, and I thought I had a chance to build a nest with her if I preened skillfully. But apparently she had a boyfriend in Virginia the whole time, a fact that she conveniently forgot to mention during our many hours birding, having dinner, going to dance clubs, etc. She ended up moving to VA after graduation, leaving me with nothing but a broken heart and a few lifers. Twenty-six years later, the Prairie Warbler remained the only bird I had seen exclusively with her. But that changed in Old San Juan, as this pretty specimen finally freed me from her legacy.
WTF, I didn’t sign up to be your therapy bird.
Later in grad school, I met another woman who I thought could be— just kidding; we’re done with the Sad Grad Story Hour.
The south shore of Old San Juan turned out to be a prolific avian zone. Shortly after I saw the Prairie Warbler, I found this Cape May Warbler — only the third I’ve ever seen:
My top target was a Brown Booby, which are seen occasionally in the area. But alas, none appeared. (It was probably in Virginia posing for a better-looking birder). My other target was another potential lifer, the White-winged Parakeet. As the warbler exhibition was winding down, I heard the unmistakable screeching of parrots a couple of blocks away. I hurriedly shuffled toward a large grove of palm and other trees, and I found some Monk Parakeets.
I spent a while photographing them, because parrots messily eating tropical fruit is irresistibly adorable. At one point, parrots were flying in and out of the trees rapidly and making quite a racket, and I just focused on photographing as many as possible. It wasn’t until I was reviewing my photos over dinner that I realized I had captured two White-winged Parakeets as well! So I got my 10th and final lifer of the trip, and I rode back to Texas in a 737 with a new life total of 757.
“Did you notice the juxtaposition of his failure to see sulids with the grad-school heartbreak story?” “Oh, grow up.”
That’s all I’ve got. The floor is open to discuss your recent sightings, sitings, and citings.
[END]
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