Category: Puerto Rico (Page 1 of 2)

Birding Puerto Rico #3: San Juan

August 30, 2023 / KDL / 0 Comments

Greater Antillean Grackle are restricted to Caribbean Islands

Birding Puerto Rico: In and around San Juan

My trip to Puerto Rico, like so many others, started and ended in the capitol city of San Juan. Indeed, before I left the airport grounds in my rental car at 2:00am, I had my first lifer. Somewhere in tropical darkness, Greater Antillean Grackle were calling. They’re much smaller than the Great-tailed Grackle we’ve got in the United States, but equally creative and loud in their noise-making.

San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521. Today, the greater San Juan metropolitan area has about 2.5 million residents (about 75% of the total population of Puerto Rico). I was staying at a hotel near Viejo San Juan (Old San Juan), where the conference I was attending was taking place. It’s not a great spot for birding. I managed to see one lifer within walking distance of the hotel – a pair of Antillean Nighthawks feeding at dusk. Perhaps my best sighting in the city was a Palm Warbler at the nearby Parque del Tercer Milenio. According to eBird, it’s the first Palm Warbler ever seen anywhere on Puerto Rico in the months of June or July.

A pair of distant Antillean Nighthawks near Old San Juan at sunset

Parque Lineal Bayamon

There are many eBird hotspots in San Juan itself. The most promising looked to be the Parque Nacional Julio Enrique Monagas, the University of Puerto Rico Botanical Garden, and some parkland along the Rio Hondo called Parque Lineal Bayamon. I spent a morning at the Parque Lineal Bayamon. My first stop was a hotspot called Santa Rosa. It was a strip of park that had a nice tree-lined walking and biking trail. Scaly-naped Pigeon were posted in trees every hundred yards or so. Greater Antillean Grackle were all over the lawns. I got my lifer Pearly-eyed Thrasher along the fence, a juvenile considering its lack of a pearly-eye. A hummingbird known as a Green-throated Carib perched deep within a tree was also a lifer.

Pearly-eyed Thrasher

Scaly-naped Pigeon

Green-throated Carib

Parque Lineal La Cambija

There were more birds at another section of the park, called La Cambija. White-winged Parakeets are an established exotic in Puerto Rico. I’d seen them before in Los Angeles, but the birds here “counted” for my life list. A Zenaida Dove walked right past me along the trail. Amidst the many grackles, I noticed one shiny all-black bird that looked smaller than the rest. It had a shorter, pointier bill than the grackles. It was a lifer Shiny Cowbird. Just when I was about to turn around and head back to my car, I caught a glimpse of a dark bird with yellow flashes in the wing and yellow at the base of the tail. It had flown from a palm tree, which orioles love, so I was excited about finding a Puerto Rican Oriole. For 15 minutes, I stood in front of a row of trees and could hear oriole chattering, but couldn’t find the bird. Finally, it flew out and back to the palm tree, where it disappeared. Once I got under the palm tree, I saw the oriole nest hanging from the fronds. After 10 minutes of waiting, with no oriole emerging and needing to get back to the conference, I gave up without getting a photograph.

Shiny Cowbird

Zenaida Dove

Puerto Rican Oriole Nest

Palm Warbler

On my last day in Puerto Rico, I had about an hour at mid-day to make one last stop before going to the airport. I still had some target birds, but nothing that was close or easy. I decided to roll the dice and try to see a Blue-and-yellow Macaw. They’re big. They’re loud. And while they’re native to South America, they’ve established themselves in San Juan. I decided to try the Julio Enrique Monaga National Park, where there were occasional sightings of up to a dozen Blue-and-Yellow Macaw. There was also a bird tower on top of a hill there, which I thought might give me a good view to spot macaws flying around. The park was nice, though I mountain bike race made walking the trails precarious. At the top of the hill, I found a decrepit and closed bird tower. No macaws anywhere to be seen or heard. So I wandered back down to the parking lot. Just before I made it to my car, a tremendous squawk rang out 100 or so yards behind me. It was, no doubt, a macaw. Frustratingly, I never found the bird.

All in all, the birding in San Juan was hot, humid, and productive. There weren’t huge numbers of birds, but good variety. Aside from Google Maps misnaming roads and misnumbering exits, getting around by car was easy.

Birding Puerto Rico #2: Laguna Cartagena, Cabo Rojo

July 9, 2023 / KDL / 0 Comments

An eye-catching non-native Venezuelan Troupial

Birding Southwest Puerto Rico: Laguna Cartagena

Puerto Rico is a brick-shaped island that is 100 miles wide and 35 miles tall. That’s big enough to provide a good amount of habitat and species diversity. It’s small enough that any spot can be reached in 2-3 hours (traffic permitting). One popular area for birding is the southwest corner of the island, where there are a couple of national wildlife refuges. During my one full day of birding in Puerto Rico, I spent part of it in the southwest. I headed first to Laguna Cartagena, a big lake in the middle of dry forest. You get there by driving down a short flat dirt road through some hay fields. If it wasn’t already noon, and muggy and hot, when I arrived, the roadside birding would probably have been quite good. But my target was the lake itself where I hoped to spot three or four lifers.

If you’re headed to the observation tower, which I was, park here. At the parking area, Venezuelan Troupial, an introduced exotic native to South America that likes dry scrub, and Puerto Rican Woodpeckers were moving around the tall trees. It’s a 10 or 15 minute walk to a big wooden observation tower that offers views of the lake. Despite the mid-day heat, the walk to the observation tower was quite full of birds. A group of Smooth-billed Ani were making some noise. Turkey Vultures, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a pair of Magnificent Frigatebirds were soaring above. Some Monk Parakeets went zooming past. And in the scrub along the path were Black-faced Grassquit and multiple super-bright Northern Red Bishops.

Purple Gallinule

Puerto Rican Woodpecker

Northern Red Bishop

Smooth-billed Ani

The observation tower is pretty far from the lake, but it offers sweeping views of the area. I scanned the distant water looking for two target duck species. One was present – some West Indian Whistling Ducks. I struck out on White-cheeked Pintail. There were also some Ruddy Ducks and Coots out on the water as well. Next to the observation tower, there’s a wooden walkway that takes you out to the edge of the water. The water was mostly covered with lily-like vegetation. Walking around on those lilies were Green Heron, Common Gallinule, and a lifer Purple Gallinule.

The view from atop the observation tower at Laguna Cartagena

In some trees alongside the wooden path, a lifer Yellow-faced Grassquit appeared for a moment and then vanished. Some non-native Orange-cheeked Waxbill counted in eBird as a reluctant lifer, having established themselves in Puerto Rico. A Yellow-billed Cuckoo did some tail-lifting exercises.

There is a lot of ground to cover at Laguna Cartagena. Just north of the path to the observation tower is an alternative path that gets you closer to the water. Had there been more ducks and whatnot around, I might’ve walked down it. Some mountain biking trails extended into the vegetation south of the lake. For the 90 minutes I was there on a Saturday at mid-day, I didn’t see anyone else.

Birding Southwest Puerto Rico: Cabo Rojo NWR

A main birding reason to go to southwest Puerto Rico is to find an endangered Yellow-Shouldered Blackbird. They live only on Puerto Rico and nearby tiny Mona Island. They favor coastal mangrove forests and scrub. EBird had reports from a few different spots in the southwest. I first tried to visit the Boqueron Wildlife Refuge (Refugio de Vida Silvestre de Boqueron), but I couldn’t find a way into the place. All I found were closed gates at a couple entrances. So I headed to Cabo Rojo NWR, which is a large area of coastal habitat, including some supposedly pink salt flats. Again, I was stymied here, finding first a closed gate and then a closed road between me and my destination.

I finally managed to find a way to a spot where Yellow-Shouldered Blackbirds had recently been reported. The eBird hotspot is a mouthful – “Salinas de Cabo Rojo NWR – camino villa pesquera Fraternidad.” It wasn’t clear that the spot was open to the public. But there was a road (called Short Road on google maps) that crossed a salt flat and led to some scruby bushes. It seemed like good habitat. As I walked, I spotted some Black-necked Stilts, Snowy Plovers, and a Ruddy Turnstone feeding in the shallow, stinky water. Then, I saw a half dozen black birds flying south towards me from the nearby residential area. I got one in my binoculars, and it was a Greater Antillean Grackle. They were flying right at me, and I enjoyed the views. After they passed, I lowered my binoculars and noticed another group of 3 blackbirds flying over the salt flat towards the coast. These birds had yellow patches on the wing!

Maybe if they weren’t so blurry, Yellow-Shouldered Blackbirds wouldn’t be endangered

I quickly snapped a record shot and walked to the patch of bushes where they’d flown. I couldn’t refind them. I did spot a lifer Caribbean Eleania while I wandered. There was also a pair of American Oystercatcher at water’s edge that my camera managed not to focus on.

American Oystercatcher

Caribbean Eleania

I checked out a couple of other spots in the area, which is vast, often scenic, and occasionally stinky. The Interpretive Center for the Salt Flats was closed when I arrived at 4:30pm, so I didn’t get to wander there. Overall, though, it was pretty good birding in SW Puerto Rico. There are a bunch of different spots, all within 20 minutes or so of each other, with good species variety.