Puerto Rico was great! We got around the Northeast corner a fair bit, with
one day trip to Guanica. I would like to thank those who sent me information
about birding Puerto Rico, their input was a great help and I'm sure
contributed greatly to my success. I would like to especially thank Gail
Mackiernan, Mark Oberle, and David Abbott for their detailed trip reports.
Tweeters and rec.birds sure came through for me!
I did have to guard against being disappointed that I didn't see the variety
of birds that Gail, Mark and David did. After all, I was in PR for a
conference, could only bird at spare moments, did not use tapes, and was with
my non-birding spouse. I would have liked to have seen the Lizard Cuckoo and
the Antillean Crested Hummingbird. But any trip with 30 life species is a
real milestone. It wasn't untill I started making up my sighting list that I
noted something ironic. My most productive birding area by far (17 of the 30
life birds) was the golf course at the hotel! I would walk the brushy margin
of the course at daybreak before my conference and didn't have a day that I
didn't add to my life list. Somehow it didn't seem right that I saw more
there than at the El Yunque Rainforest or the Guanica National Forest, but
such is life. So for what it is worth, my sighting list is:
Pied-Billed Grebe
Brown Booby
Magnificent Frigatebird
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Green Heron
Green-Winged Teal
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Broad-Winged Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
Kestral
Common Moorhen
Black-Bellied Plover
Killdeer
American Oystercatcher
Black-necked Stilt
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Western Sandpiper
Sandwich Tern
Zenaida Dove
Morning Dove
Mangrove Cuckoo
Smooth-Billed Ani
Belted Kingfisher
Gray Kingbird
Cave Swallow
Northern Mockingbird
Yellow-Throated Vireo
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Bananaquit
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Black-faced Grassquit
Red Junglefowl
Saffron Finch
Orange-Cheeked Waxbill
Warbling Silverbill
Nutmeg Mannikin
Chestnut Mannikin
Java Sparrow
Scaly-Naped Pigeon
Puerto Rican Woodpecker
Green-Throated Carib
Puerto Rican Tody
Puerto Rican Flycatcher
Pearly-Eyed Thrasher
Red-Legged Thrush
Greater Antillean Grackle
Black-Cowled Oriole
Troupial
Puerto Rican Tananger
Stripe-Headed Tananger
Puerto Rican Bullfinch