"Oh, don't you know it's time for me to fly?

Oh! I've got to set myself free!

Time for me to fly!

And that's just how it's got to be.

Oh-oh-oh! I know it hurts to say 'good-bye'

but it's time for me to fly!

Time for me to fly!

Ay-ay-ay... it's time for me to fly!"

     REO Speedwagon, Time for Me to Fly

"Dinosaurs did not become extinct.

They only flew away."

     Sir David Frederick Attenborough (1926 - )

     Anthropologist, naturalist, writer, wildlife documentary presenter

"A bird does not sing because it has an answer.

It sings because it has a song. "
Chinese Proverb

Saint Vincent's amazon parrot, Amazona guildingii. Kingstown Botanical Garden, south-western Saint Vincent, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Lesser Antilles.

The Lords of the Air

    Their voices are echoes of a time when Earth was another planet.

    The only extant organisms with feathers and, aside from bats and the extinct pterosaurs, the only vertebrates with the power of self-sustained flight. They are also the one group of endothermic reptiles alive today.

    Birds are the living coelurosaurs, a group of theropod dinosaurs that evolved during the Triassic geologic period, and saw their heyday during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Like their probable direct ancestors, birds are maniraptorans, a clade of coelurosaurs with specialized bones on their wrists, shaped like half-moons, that allow their hands to fold down and back against their forearms, in the manner of a closing switchblade. Maniraptorans also have hands larger than their feet, clavicles fused into a "wishbone", a keeled sternum (the "breastbone") and a downward-pointing pubis. Several of these traits (sometimes further modified) turned out to be prerequisites for flight.

    While they do not reach the immense sizes of the dragons that the Lord made and which came to an end 65 millions of years ago, birds are still creatures of majesty and glory.

    The avian dynasty dates back perhaps to the late Triassic Period itself, and the almost 10000 species alive today are, without a doubt, among the most cherished and beloved creatures in human history, admired and envied by men of all cultures, nations, and creeds for the power that most of them possess to overcome gravity at will. Mankind's love affair with the feathered ones has engendered sculptures, paintings, poems, songs, allegories, symbols, myths, essays, short stories, and novels without count. Angels have been represented with eagle wings. The Holy Spirit was revealed to us as a dove. Birds of all sorts still are, since times immemorial, among the most popular pets in the World.

     Some species, like the immense moas of New Zealand and the elephant birds of Madagascar are now extinct after being hunted out by man. Others of a much more ancient geologic past, like the North American Gastornis and the South American Phorusrhacos were huge and fierce flightless carnivores that preyed on the mammals of their time. Among those capable of flight, forms much larger than any alive today used to exist. In their case, they were active predators perhaps related to modern condors, like the theratorn Argentavis magnificens, which ruled the skies of South America on monstrous eight-meter wingspans.

    Their modern sizes vary from that of Cuba's bee hummingbird, Mellisuga helenae, only five-and-a-half centimeters in length, to the three meter-tall ostrich Struthio camelus, of Africa and Asia, and which towers above the average human. The most massive flying bird alive today is Kori's bustard, Ardeotis kori. The widest wingspan of a modern bird is that of the wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans, at three and a half-meters.

    Regardless of their many varieties, the one thing that comes to people's minds when they think of birds is that they can fly.

    When airborne, it is of the greatest importance for an organism to be a light as possible. The entire anatomy of a flying bird is filled with concessions to this need. All species that habitually fly in order to get around are aerodynamic in shape. No living bird has teeth, which would weigh down their owner. Instead of the heavy and bony reptilian jaws, all modern birds have horny bills. Their bones are very peculiar. These are not solid, like a mammal's, but are mostly hollow, their insides crisscrossed by struts and arches that make them simultaneously strong and light. The long, bony tails of their coelurosaurian ancestors have been reduced to a knobby appendage to which the tail feathers are attached. The breastbone of a flying bird is keel-like in shape, designed for it to better serve as an attachment point to the huge breast muscles needed to power their flight. (Many species that do not fly, like the ratites - rheas, cassowaries, emus, ostriches, moas, kiwis, and elephant birds - have a flat breastbone. In fact, some moas had even lost all vestiges of their front limbs).

    Finally, in speaking of flight and among extant organisms, only birds possess those natural engineering marvels called "feathers". These are composed of keratin, the same basic substance found in all claws and nails, reptilian scales, and mammalian hairs. In fact, it was reptiles' scales which gave rise to both feathers and hair. (Birds still have scales, like the non-avian diapsids - reptiles - still do, but they remain only on their feet and toes). Although, from a human's standpoint, the eminent advantage of feathers is that they give birds the capacity to fly, at first they evolved as insulators against cold, a purpose they fulfill to this day. They are also used for display, especially by courting males. They even serve for intimidation during a fight or defense. Frightened birds may spread crest and tail feathers, and puff up their entire plumages, easily appearing twice their true size.

The beautifully aerodynamic shape of many flying birds is a testament to their agility in the air.

White ibis (Eudocimus albus), laughing gull (Larus atricilla), and brown pelican (nominate race, Pelecanus occidentalis occidentalis).

Jaragua National Park, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

Large and heavy birds, like this American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) often have to taxi in order to get off the ground or water.

Jaragua National Park, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

    All birds are fastidiously clean creatures that preen their plumages daily. Many species anoint their feathers, this done with oils produced by uropigial glands at the base of their tails. Feathers on wings and tails are given special, exquisite, individual attention. Many birds bathe regularly, or wallow in dust, activities that keep their plumage clean and free of mites and other parasites. Specialized feathers on the necks and backs of some species, like parrots, gradually turn to dust at their edges. This powdery substance helps to keep the entire plumage dry and clean.

    That birds dedicate long periods of time (sometimes hours) every day to clean and maintain their precious feathers derives from the fact that their lives depend on it... literally. A dirty or soggy

plumage looses its insulating quality and makes flight difficult, if not impossible.

A female Greater Antillean grackle (Puerto Rican race, Quiscalus niger brachypterus) bathes in a puddle of rain water.

Carolina, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

After bathing is a rain puddle, a tropical mockingbird, Mimus gilvus, fluffs up to dry its feathers.

Eggleston, south-central Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

A little blue heron (nominate race, Egretta caerulea caerulea) grooms itself.

Enrique Martí Coll Park, San Juan, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

    Birds are the most visual of all metazoans. While some members in all other chordate classes have lost their eyesight through processes of adaptation that have favored the hypertrophy of other bodily senses, not a single bird is sightless. Except for nocturnal species, these animals have excellent color vision, and indeed many are able to see well into the ultraviolet spectrum. Their universe is probably much more colorful and visually intense than ours.

    No other chordate group save for fish are as colorful as birds. While some species have drab plumages, the colors of many others are the most beautiful among those of terrestrial animals. The fluorescent greens of todies and hummingbirds, the deep blues and purples of finches and fruit pigeons, the pastel pinks of flamingoes and roseate spoonbills, the blinding yellows and magentas of tanagers and orioles, the incandescent oranges and reds of scarlet ibises and macaws need to be seen in the flesh to be believed.

    Living rainbows to which no painting or photograph can ever do justice...

    Taken as a group, birds are also the most vocal of all amniotes. With the exception of rather few species, they rely not only on visual displays to communicate with one another, but also on their voices. A bird's voice apparatus is very different from the pharynx and vocal chords of mammalian synapsids and is called the "syrinx". With this mechanism, birds can produce astonishingly complex songs. Some hummingbirds, cowbirds, and others, can even superimpose two simultaneous and different sounds, each produced by one side of the syrinx. The calls and songs of some species are so high in pitch as to be ultrasonic to human ears.

    The repertoire of avian calls and songs defies description. From simple croaks and grunts, through stentorian screams and truly bizarre utterances, to the sweetest, most haunting and hair-rising natural melodies that man has ever heard, such voices form an integral part of the World as we know it.

    Birds of open woodlands and prairies usually have the more complex songs, since there is not much interference from surrounding vegetation. However, in the deep forests of the Caribbean, as in those in tropics elsewhere, many birds sing from high in the canopy, and their calls are often simple and strident in order to carry far. This is due to the structure of the vegetation, which coriaceous leaves bounce back sound and slur more complex calls into an unintelligible jumble.

    By far, most bird songs have the purpose of proclaiming territory and attracting mates. Many also utter alarm calls when they feel threatened or fight among themselves or with other creatures. Given that degree to which sound constitutes a part of their lives, it should not come as a surprise that most birds can hear very well, indeed.

    Except for a few species like kiwis, petrels, and some condors, birds seem to have a poorly-developed sense of olfaction, and they depend mostly on their acute sight and hearing to find their way around their world.

    Unlike many invertebrates, fishes, reptiles, and even some mammals, no known bird possesses a mechanism to inject venom into their prey. However, the feathers of some species contain toxins that offer them some protection against potential predators. Neither is any bird truly parasitic, in that none feeds exclusively or necessarily off a live host. However, a few species are facultative parasites in that they habitually peck and tear the skin of other animals (other birds or mammals) in order to draw blood which they drink, thus supplementing their diets.

    Several orders and many families of birds are represented in the Caribbean islands. The region's avifauna, while certainly not as rich and complex of those of Central and South America, has many endemics at the specific level.

The Birds of the Caribbean

    The distributional trends of West Indian birds reflect each island's proximity not only to one another, but to the nearest continent, as well. The southernmost Lesser Antilles, being closest to South America, have many species (like their parrots, hummingbirds, and tanagers) which are either identical to or evolved from those in that continent. As one moves toward the north and west along the island chain, the avian faunae of the northern Lesser Antilles and the Greater Antilles show an ever lesser South American influence and an increasingly clearer relationship with those of Central America (as is the case of their native pigeons, parrots, and cuckoos). Additionally, the Bahamas and Cuba, and to lesser extents Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico, have some avian species whose closest kin are found in temperate North America (for example, in their crows, warblers, and herons). A few North American birds reach the Lesser Antilles, as does the peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus (known to breed at least in Dominica) while some South American birds, like the shiny cowbird Molothrus bonairiensis, have reached as far as the Bahamas, in recent times. Some birds native to the West Indies are even of Eurasian and African origin, like the cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis, which reached the Americas in the early twentieth century after crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

    Generally, forest habitats in the Antilles harbor an average of 20 to 25 species of terrestrial birds. Within limits, these numbers hold true independently of the size of the individual islands. Larger islands have higher absolute numbers of native species, but that is so because they have a higher absolute number of habitats, rather than because they have a higher number of species per habitat. For example, both mesic and xeric forests in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola have a similar number of species. However, in comparison to Puerto Rico, Hispaniola has a higher absolute number of native species because that island has habitats, like temperate coniferous forests (on the highest mountains) which Puerto Rico lacks. In such areas, birds like crossbills (Loxia) and siskins (Carduelis) are present, while they are missing from Puerto Rico.

    Especially in the Greater Antilles, some avian genera have a vicarious species on each island, all species comprising a "superspecies" - a group of sister species that are very similar to one another and apparently have the same immediate ancestor. Such is the case of the Todus todies and the Spindalis striped-headed tanagers.

    On the other hand, the West Indies and, again, the Greater Antilles in particular, have certain niches filled by the same species throughout the islands. This happens, for example, with the bananaquit, Coereba flaveola, found almost through the entire Caribbean region.

    Where the species is not the same as elsewhere, the niche might be occupied by an - often unrelated - ecological equivalent. This phenomenon somewhat parallels that of the ecomorphs of the Anolis lizards, discussed in their section. Regarding birds, the island of Jamaica, with the most endemic species, the most recently evolved avifauna, and the highest Central American influence of all the Antilles, is the one that serves best to demonstrate the case, since many of its avian species are unrelated to those of the other Greater Antilles. For example, the ecological niche for a large frugivorous pigeons in the mesic forests of Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico is filled by the scaly-naped pigeon, Patagioenas squamosa. In Jamaica, that species is ecologically substituted by the unrelated P. caribaea. The white-chinned thrush, Turdus aurantius, fills the semi-terrestrial muscicapid niche in Jamaica, while the unrelated red-legged thrush, T. plumbeus, does the same in the other three islands. The niche for a forest oriole filled in the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico by the three closely Icterus northropi, I. melanopsis, I. dominicensis, and I. portoricensis, is occupied in Jamaica by the unrelated I. leucopteryx.

    Even in the Lesser Antilles the situation repeats itself, in some islands, vis-a-vis the Greater Antilles. The niche for a montane forest warbler filled in Jamaica and Puerto Rico by Dendroica pharetra and Dendroica angelae, respectively, is occupied in Guadeloupe and Dominica by Dendroica plumbea, and in Saint Vincent by Catharopeza bishopi. The same thing happens with the grackle of the Greater Antillean lowlands, Quiscalus brachypterus, on regards to Quiscalus lugubris in the Lesser Antilles. And so on, and so forth.

     The term that best serves to separate avian groups belonging in different niches is "guild". Each island possesses a guild (in many islands, the largest) composed of frugivores: Amazona, Aratinga, Spindalis, Euphonia, Patagioenas, Geotrygon, Margarops, Allenia, etc. There is another of seedeaters: Ammodramus, Tiaris, Volatinia, Sporophilla, etc. Then there come the guild of insectivores: Dendroica, Cataropeza, Teretristis, Tyrannus, Myarchus, Contopus, etc. Another is that of nectar feeders: Coereba, Cyanerpes, Mellisuga, Antracothorax, Eulampis, Chlorostilbon, etc. Yet another is that of diurnal raptors: Buteo, Buteogallus, Accipiter, Falco, etc. Another is composed by nocturnal raptors: Megascops, Tyto, Asio, Pseudoscops, etc. One guild is partially specialized in feeding on lizards, like some of the endemic cuckoos of the genus Coccyzus. Then the wading fish-eaters, Ardea, Egretta, Nycticorax, etc.

    Notice that belonging in the same guild means that such birds have similar diets and habits, not that they are necessarily related. In other words, what unites birds within the same guild is not systematic relationship but the general ecological niche they fill as a function of the kind of prey they feed upon.

    On the other hand, some islands have specialized birds that occupy a niche or sub-niche, while the same is empty in nearby islands that have it in plenty (in other words, in these cases lack of habitat does not seem to be the reason for the bird's absence from an island). The Semper's warbler, Leucopeza semperi, is a Saint Lucian terrestrial paruline that does not have an ecological equivalent anywhere else in the West Indies. The Cuban pigmy owl, Glaucidium siju, has its niche occupied nowhere else in the Caribbean. The Antillean piculet, Nesoctites micromegas, of Hispaniola, is the only dwarf woodpecker in the West Indies. The Puerto Rican tanager, Nesospingus speculiferus, is the only exclusively montane thraupid in the Caribbean islands.

    Although rain forests are unequaled in their biodiversity, many xeric forests in the Antilles are actually richer in bird-life than their mesic and hydric counterparts. Moreover, many West Indian birds are very versatile in their habitat requirements in the absence of competitor species (a phenomenon called "ecological release") living in many kinds of vegetative associations. Birds that in the Greater Antilles almost exclusively inhabit xeric or coastal areas (like elaenias, yellow warblers, and some hummingbirds) will in the Lesser Antilles range widely into montane rain forests, due to the absence of competitors that would seclude them into the drier regions, in the larger islands.

    A few terrestrial species of Antillean birds are so ecologically versatile that they inhabit almost every single available habitat between the coasts and the highest mountains. Perhaps the best example of this is the aforementioned bananaquit, which in many color morphs is found in every habitat of every Caribbean island except (strangely so) mainland Cuba. A few other species are so specialized for exploiting a single habitat, that their range is extremely limited. An example of this is the Zapata rail, Cyanolimnas cerverai, confined to a single region of grassy swamps in south-western Cuba.

    The littoral areas and seas surrounding the Antilles also have their own wealth of birds, both breeding residents and migrants. These last come to the Caribbean Basin mostly from North America, and some nest in places as far as the Antarctic region.

    In the West Indies, the tallest native bird is the greater flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber. The longest is the brown pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis. The largest (by weight) is the Cuban race of the sandhill crane, Grus canadensis nesiotes. The widest wingspan for an Antillean bird is that of the magnificent frigatebird, Fregata magnificens. And the smallest - in the Antilles and on Earth - is the bee hummingbird, Mellisuga helenae, of Cuba.

ORDER PODICIPEDIFORMES

Family Podicipedidae: Grebes

    Grebes are a cosmopolitan family of birds highly adapted to life in water. No other avian group save for penguins and loons, are better suited to a life in water. Only two species, the pied-billed grebe and the least grebe, nest in the Caribbean Basin. With their legs placed so far back in their bodies that they can only crawl on their bellies when on land, grebes are expert swimmers and divers. When taking off from the water's surface, they have to run on it for a short distance before becoming airborne.

Least grebe, Tachybaptus dominicus, gradually submerging before suddenly diving out of sight.

National Botanical Garden, Santo Domingo, southern Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Pedro Genaro Rodriguez).

A pied-billed grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, delights itself with a giant water bug.

Caño Tiburones Nature Reserve, northern Puerto Rico.

ORDER PROCELLARIIFORMES

Family Procellariidae: Shearwaters and Petrels

    Petrels and shearwaters are among the most pelagic of sea birds, rarely ever coming to land except to breed. So adapted are they to fly and float on water, that their legs are disfunctional. When on land, they crawl on their chests while propelling themselves forward with their wings.

    In their vicinity on their nests, they are mostly nocturnal, so even during the breeding season they are seldom seen. When on land, their strange and eerie calls resound in the forests and cliffs where they nest.

    Their nasal passages are fused into a tube which opens forward on the bill, and they have keen senses of smell that allows them to track the odor of fish oils and similar substances.

Audubon's shearwaters, Puffinus lherminieri, egg, chick, and adult. Six Hills Cay, Turks and Caicos.

(Photographs courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

ORDER PELECANIFORMES

    Pelicans, boobies, tropicbirds, and frigatebirds (order Pelecaniformes) are found in the coastal areas of the West Indies.

Family Pelecanidae: Pelicans

    Pelicans are among the largest flying birds. However, the only species that breeds in the Antilles is the smallest of its group: the brown pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis. Unlike other members of its genus, which hunt for fish while floating on water, this mostly marine species dives spectacularly from great heights into the sea to capture fish and other prey with its enormous throat pouch. They frequently fly in beautiful, tight formations, their two-meter wingspans keeping them aloft whether bare centimeters above the waves or high in the air.

The elegant brown pelican (nominate race, Pelecanus occidentalis occidentalis).
First photograph; Beef Island, British Virgin Islands. Second photograph: Guana Island, British Virgin Islands.

Few birds surpass it in size in the West Indies.

Brown pelicans, nominate race. Jaragua National Park, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

For all their apparent ungainliness, pelicans can strike poses that would put to shame many a contortionist.

Loiza, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

(Photographs courtesy of Dr. Alfredo Colon Archilla).

Family Sulidae: Boobies

    Unlike pelicans, the similar boobies and gannets lack a throat pouch. However, they still feed mainly on fish and squid, which the hunt by diving into the water from great heights. The most common Antillean member of the family is the brown booby, Sula leucogaster. It is frequently seen following boats, seeking the fish that are disturbed by the passage of the ship.

Brown boobies, Sula leucogaster. Mona Island.

(Photographs courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

Family Phalacrocoracidae: Cormorants

    Cormorants are large birds, drab in color, that lay in water with their bodies partially submerged. All are expert swimmers and fishers. Only two species inhabit the West Indies, and one of them, the double-crested, breeds at least in Cuba.

Double-crested cormorants, Phalacrocorax auritus. Everglades National Park, Florida, south-eastern United States.

(Photographs courtesy of Mr. Pedro Genaro Rodriguez).

Family Anhingidae: Anhingas

    Anhingas belong to a small family closely related to cormorants. Rather widespread in the continent, it breeds in some of the Bahamas and in Cuba. Females can be distinguished by their brown necks. They swim in and underwater to catch fish by spearing them with the sharp bills, and then climb on branches by water's edge, and spread their wings to dry their  feathers.

Anhinga, Anhinga anhinga, male and female. Merrit Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida, south-eastern United States.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

ORDER CICONIIFORMES

    This group of birds commonly associated with wetlands is composed by the herons, ibises, spoonbills, and storks. It also includes a number of species that have evolved to feed on carrion and look very different from the rest of the members of the order, namely American "vultures".

Family Ciconiidae: Storks

    Storks of several species inhabit the American continents, but only the huge wood stork, Mycteria americana, breeds in the West Indies, in some of the Greater Antilles. The bird is a predator of fish and other small vertebrates, as well as a carrion eater.

Wood stork, Mycteria americana. Jacksonville, Florida, south-eastern United States.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

Family Ardeidae: Herons and Egrets

    Regal birds, some being very large, herons are among the best known wading birds in the world. They are by far the ciconiiform family that is best represented in the Caribbean region. Many mainly North American species are found in the West Indies either as migrants or as residents. Some small members of the family are arbitrarily called "egrets", though there is no true systematic distinction between them and the larger species. Herons of one species or another are found nearly all West Indian lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and even small, temporary puddles.

Herons of many species often congregate in appropriate habitats in the Antilles and elsewhere.

Northern Jamaica.

    Most Antillean species belong to the subfamily Ardeinae and, while most of these are diurnal, there are a few of them that are most active at night.

Yellow-crowned night-heron (nominate race Nyctanassa violacea violacea). Caguas, east-central Puerto Rico.

As its common name implies, this beautiful heron is mostly nocturnal, although it is occasionally seen abroad during the day.

True to its name, a black-crowned night-heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, strolls after sunset near an artificial pond.

Carolina, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

This is one of the most widely distributed birds on Earth. In America, it extends from Canada to Tierra del Fuego.

It inhabits, as well, southern Europe, across Asia to Japan, and south in the Old World to South Africa.

Its taxonomic name (nyctos, "night", and corax, "crow") refers to both its nocturnal habits and its call.

Great egret, Ardea alba egretta.

Jaragua National Park, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

An adult Ardea alba egretta feeds a large juvenile.

Enrique Martí Coll Park, San Juan north-eastern Puerto Rico.

A great egret carries a stick to build its nest.

Enrique Martí Coll Park, San Juan north-eastern Puerto Rico.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Jose Lee Torres).

Great blue herons, Ardea herodias. Caño Tiburones Nature Reserve, northern Puerto Rico.

This is the largest heron in the West Indies, and one of the largest in the World.

Snowy egret (nominate race Egretta thula thula).

Enrique Martí Coll Park, San Juan north-eastern Puerto Rico.

These photographs show a little blue heron (nominate race, Egretta caerulea caerulea)

dealing with a fish it just took out of the water before running from two other individuals

(another adult and a white juvenile) intent on stealing its hard-won lunch.

Coral Harbor Pond, Saint John, United States Virgin Islands.

Tricolored heron, Egretta tricolor.

The individual below is close to its nest.

Enrique Martí Coll Park, San Juan, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

Juvenile tricolored herons can be distinguished by the reddish color of their necks.

Enrique Martí Coll Park, San Juan, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

Reddish egret, Egretta rufescens. Big Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

Cattle egret (nominate race, Bubulcus ibis ibis) in non-breeding plumage. Enrique Marti Coll, Park, San Juan, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

In the mid-twentieth century, this bird invaded the Americas from its native Eurasia and Africa by crossing the Atlantic Ocean unaided.

Today, it is found throughout most of North, Central and South America, as well as the West Indies.

Such is one of the most formidable natural invasions and expansions known among birds, in historical times.

Man's conversion of many American forest areas to cattle pasture has greatly helped it accomplish this feat.

Cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis ibis, in breeding season, when males' bills become bright lilac, red, and yellow.

Enrique Martí Coll Park, San Juan, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

A green heron, Butorides striatus, sneaks among mangrove roots. Cabo Rojo State Forest, south-western Puerto Rico.

A green heron, Butorides striatus, perches on mangrove branches. Jose Marti Coll Park, San Juan north-eastern Puerto Rico.

    Bitterns are herons belonging to the subfamily Botaurinae. With three genera and nine species, these are rather small wading birds. The only native member of the group in the West Indies is the tiny least bittern, Ixobrychus exilis. A secretive bird, seldom seen, its voice is a very un-heron-like "KUH-ku-ku-ku-ku-ku..." that sounds almost like the call of a dove.

One of the smallest herons on Earth: the diminutive least bittern, Ixobrychus exilis, is about the size of a pigeon.

These two fix their nest during bouts of mating. The male has a sooty black crown and back.

Common throughout the region, it might be, however, very difficult to observe due to its secretive habits.

Jose Marti Coll Park, San Juan, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

Family Treskiornithidae: Ibises

    Some ibises and spoonbills, are found here, as well. They usually feed on small organisms in marshes and salt ponds. The beautiful roseate spoonbill, Platalea ajaja, was once commonly found in most sizeable saline lagoons in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. Today, their populations are very reduced, and persist only in rather isolated areas.

White ibises, Eudocimus albus. Jaragua National Park, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

The first photograph shows them together with snowy egrets, Egretta thula thula.

Roseate spoonbills, Platalea ajaja. Enriquillo National Park, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

Spoonbills are actually large, specialized ibises which use their sensitive, flat bills to gather their nourishment of small organisms from shallow waters.

Roseate spoonbills. Salinas Lagoon, Montecristi, north-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

(First two photographs courtesy of Mr. Pedro Genaro Rodriguez. Third photograph courtesy of Mr. Miguel Angel Landestoy).

ORDER PHOENICOPTERIFORMES

Family Phoenicopteridae: Flamingoes

    Flamingoes comprise a unique order of birds distantly related to ducks, geese, and swans. They feed by filtering water for tiny organisms with their peculiar bills. The largest, and perhaps the most beautiful species, the greater flamingo, is quite widespread in the American continents. It is the only species occurring in the Antilles.

    These large and beautiful birds have suffered extensively from habitat reduction and poaching by unscrupulous hunters in Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, and elsewhere. Sizeable colonies subsist only in Hispaniola, Cuba, and some of the Bahamas.

Greater flamingoes, Phoenicopterus ruber. Anegada, British Virgin Islands.

This population represents a conservation success story.

Decades after their extirpation from this island they were reintroduced, and are now reproducing successfully.

Greater flamingoes. Enriquillo National Park, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

ORDER ANSERIFORMES

Family Anatidae: Ducks and Geese

    Geese and ducks inhabit lakes, swamps, and large rivers of the Antilles. A few species breed here, although most are migrants from boreal latitudes. As with flamingoes, spoonbills, and other wetland birds, and for similar reasons, many species are now reduced to a fraction of their former numbers, in many areas.

    These birds are extremely powerful fliers and are excellent dispersers, a fact attested to by the immense natural range of some species. Some geese and ducks are among the greatest avian migrants of all, as well as being the highest-flying birds.

    Typical or "dabbling" ducks (subfamily Anatinae) in the Caribbean region belong mostly to the Cosmopolitan genus Anas. Most of the species found in the West Indies are winter migrants. A few, notably the Bahamian or white-cheeked pintail, Anas bahamensis, is a common breeding resident in the islands.

    The members of this group cannot dive, and simply obtain their food, consisting of water weeds and small invertebrates, from just under the surface, as they dip the heads and necks in shallow water. They can sometimes be seen feeding on seeds are small fruits while strolling on the ground near the margins of rivers and lakes.

    Populations of whistling ducks, in particular, have suffered severely in many areas due to hunting and habitat destruction. The genus of eight species belongs to the small but almost Cosmopolitan subfamily Dendrocygninae. Though very much at home in water, these ducks exhibit markedly arboreal tendencies and often nest in trees. This trait, combined with their being the largest of ducks (some are the size of small geese) and their long necks, explains their Latin name ("dendro-cygna": "tree swans"). Another characteristic of the group is that they are crepuscular or nocturnal in habits, and are seldom seen in the open except in late afternoons.

(First two photographs courtesy of Mr. Pedro Genaro Rodriguez).

Fulvous whistling duck, Dendrocygna bicolor. Near Miami, Florida, south-eastern United States.

The species also breeds in some of the Antillean islands.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

Black-bellied whistling duck, (nominate race, Dendrocygna autumnalis autumnalis).

This bird has a huge natural range. The nominate race alone extends from southern North America to Panama and breeds

sparingly in the West Indies, and has other populations in the Old World. Another subspecies lives in South America.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

    Diving ducks are rather small species with large heads and short necks. The sister genera Nomonyx and Oxyura can also be distinguished from a distance by their short and stiff tails. When taking off from the water surface, they need to run for a certain distance while beating their wings. In that they can be told apart from typical ducks, which can take of straight off the water's surface.

Ruddy ducks (West Indian race Oxyura jamaicensis jamaicensis),  male and female with ducklings. Caño Tiburones Nature Reserve, northern Puerto Rico.

This species is a diver and finds its food at underwater levels unreachable to many other ducks.

(Second photograph courtesy of Dr. Luis O. Nieves).

ORDER FALCONIFORMES

    After seagulls and their kin, these may be the birds most easily recognized at a glance by people around the World. Eagles, hawks, falcons, and their relations are carnivores that feed on all sorts of other animals. A few, like the Old World vultures, are carrion eaters but most actively hunt for their prey. The largest and most powerful living falconiforms are the harpy eagle (which is really a giant hawk) of the tropical forests of Central and South America, and the Philippine eagle of similar environments in the islands by the same name.

    All falconiforms have three things in common: the acute binocular vision that allows them to zero in on their prey, and sharp talons and bills both of which - in the larger species that feed on birds and mammals - are murderous affairs that spell quick, if bloody, death to their victims. The only exception to this is the Old World vultures, which being carrion-eaters, have surprisingly weak feet and blunt claws.

        Birds of prey in these islands include hawks, kites, ospreys, caracaras, and falcons. Several species and subspecies are Antillean endemics. Aside from crocodiles and some boas, hawks and falcons are at the summit of West Indian terrestrial food pyramids, being the largest and most powerful predators. Most prey on other birds, as well as on rats, hutias, and solenodons. A few species are true specialists, like the Chondrohierax kites that feed almost exclusively on arboreal snails.

    The fact that some of these birds will take an occasional chicken or rabbit makes them the object of the wrath of many a farmer, and in some places are shot whenever possible. Ironically, they do far more good than harm in ridding farms from vermin like rats and mongooses.

Family Falconidae: Falcons, Caracaras, and Their Kin

Subfamily Falconinae

    Falcons are distinguished from hawks by their more streamlined shapes and their long wings ending in narrow tips. As a group, they are the fastest flying birds alive. Their hunting technique usually  consists of pouncing on their prey from great heights after dive-bombing at great speed.

    While larger species prey mainly on other birds and mammals, smaller ones frequently take ground- or tree-dwelling lizards, insects, and snakes.

Family Accipitridae: Hawks, Eagles, Kites, Ospreys, and Their Kin

    These are perhaps the best known of all raptors, and those in this region are divided into two groups.

Subfamily Pandioniaae: Osprey

    The sole member of this subfamily is the osprey, Pandion haliateus. This large hawk feeds on fish caught on any large body of water, including sea coasts. The prey are captured with is long and powerful talons, after the bird plunges feet-first into the water. Once airborne with its prize, the raptor deftly turns the fish to aim head-first into the wind, thus reducing drag caused by air turbulence. Although it breeds sparingly in the Bahamas, Cuba, and perhaps the other Greater Antilles as far east as the Virgin Islands, most individuals seen in the region are North American winter migrants.

Subfamily Accipitrinae

    Hawks and their relations have broader wings than falcons, and typically soar at great heights in search of prey on the ground or tree tops. Some species, like the aforementioned harpy "eagle" of the neotropical mainland, are the most powerful birds of prey in the World.

    While in North America hawks are usually denizens of prairies and sparse woodland, in the West Indies several of the same species live in dense forest, their canopies being searched by them the same way they do grasslands in the continent.

    Several Antillean taxa within this family, like the Puerto Rican race of the broad-winged hawk, the Cuban kite, and Hispaniola's Ridgway's hawk, are seriously endangered by human encroachment and habitat loss. However others, notoriously the red-tailed (found from Alaska to northern South America) are quite common. Indeed, this species attains its known highest population density in the El Yunque National Forest of Puerto Rico, and is often seen flying over cities in many of the Antilles.

    For all their majestic, soaring flight, accipitrids are poor dispersers over ocean barriers, which provide no thermal currents for they to ride on. The implication of this trait is that population in different islands, until now considered to be races of widespread species, may actually have been isolated for very long periods and might have evolved into full species that have gone unrecognized as such, until now.

Family Cathartidae: Condors

    The Bahamas and the Greater Antilles harbor populations of turkey "vultures". Frequently seen flying over xeric areas and some mountain ranges, these birds belong to the small family Cathartidae: the condors. They are distinct from true vultures, which are exclusive to the Old World. The resemblance between the two types of carrion-eaters is a striking case of convergent evolution between two different families with almost identical lifestyles. The similarities between condors and vultures extend even to the naked heads and necks of most species, an adaptation to squeeze them into bloated, pestilent cadavers in search of entrails and soft, rotten flesh. (As you can imagine, these birds don't exactly smell like roses).

    Two living cathartids are among the most massive flying birds: the immense Andean and Californian condors, with wingspans of 3.2 and 3 meters, respectively. Other species, like the aforementioned turkey vultures (three species in the genus Cathartes) are smaller, but they still are very large and impressive birds.

    Like the vultures, condors can soar majestically for hours with scarcely a flap of their huge wings, riding the thermal columns of hot air that raise from the ground during the heat of the day. Gliding turkey vultures are a typical sight over the drier regions of Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and some areas of Hispaniola. Their habit of congregating around dead dogs and cats on the sides of highways sometimes makes them end up as road-kills, themselves.

    A curious habit that cathartids exhibit is that they urinate on their own legs. As the liquid evaporates, it helps them to cool down during overly hot weather.

    Unlike vultures, which find their food exclusively by sight, some condors find theirs by smell. Particularly, Cathartes turkey vultures possess the most acute olfactory sense among birds. Even a small, rotten corpse lying on the ground under the canopy of the forest will not go undetected by their keen noses.

    The relish with which condors feast on flesh that has decayed to a putrid gelatinous slime may be enough to provoke nausea in many a person. However, these birds are important scavengers that rid their surrounding environments of potential health hazards to other animals as well as to man himself.

Turkey vulture (nominate race, Cathartes aura aura). Cabo Rojo, south-western Puerto Rico.

Widespread in the Americas, members of this genus of condors have the most acute olfactory sense among birds.

They congregate, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere and maybe from hundreds of square miles around, wherever the stench of decay indicates the presence of carrion.

Condors are not related to the true vultures (order Falconiformes) of the Old World, but belong in the same order as storks and herons.

Nature's garbage disposals: turkey vultures (nominate race) feed on a dead dog.

Lajas, south-western Puerto Rico.

A turkey vulture (nominate race) delights itself with a succulent dead toad. Lajas, south-western Puerto Rico...

(Photograph courtesy of Dr. Luis O. Nieves).

... and after enjoying the flavor of nutritious rotten corpses, there is nothing like a good scratch

against a branch to rid yourself from the pieces of decomposed entrails clinging to your face.

Lajas, south-western Puerto Rico.

ORDER GRUIFORMES

Family Gruidae: Cranes

    Cranes are a Cosmopolitan family of very large, yet quite primitive, birds. The only native representative of this group in the West Indies is an endemic Cuban subspecies of the Sandhill crane, Grus canadensis pratensis. This animal is a denizen of open prairies and savannas, and has an omnivorous diet of both plant and animal material.

Sandhill cranes (Floridian race, Grus canadensis pratensis). Near Miami, Florida, south-eastern United States.

The Cuban race of this species is the only crane to be found in the Antillean islands.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

Family Rallidae: Rails, Coots, Moorhens, and Their Kin

    Rails, moorhens, coots, and gallinules are probably a polyphyletic assemblage of birds of very ancient origin. Mainly creatures of wetlands, native rails and coots are found in mangrove forests and freshwater swamps. Some species are much more often heard than seen, due to their secretive habits.

    Moorhens and coots are excellent swimmers. However unlike ducks, which possess webbed feet, swimming rallids have lobes on their toes that open in the back-stroke of the foot and the animal swims.

    One species, the purple gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) is not so much a swimmer as has adapted to walk on the large and buoyant leaves of water lilies and similar plants. Their toes are greatly elongated in order to better distribute the bird's weight during this feat, though not as much as those of another group adapted to do the same, namely the rather distantly related jacanas.

    Rails and crakes are wading birds, inhabitants of the shallow waters of mangrove swamps, marshes, and freshwater lakes. Their peeping or cackling calls denote their presence even as the birds themselves are rather seldom seen in the open. Rallus rails are rather large, but other species are tiny, like the sparrow sized yellow crake, Porzana flaviventer, and the slightly larger black crake, Laterallus jamaicensis.

ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES

    Gulls, terns, sandpipers, plovers, avocets, and relatives are marine and wetland birds, although a few species, like the killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) can be found far away from water. The majority of species in the West Indies are migrants, though some breed in the region. Most lay their eggs in rudimentary nests made from twigs or pebbles, or on the bare sand. These eggs are often camouflaged with specks and irregular spots that break their outline against their background. Chicks are likewise colored during the first few days after hatching.

Family Charadridae: Plovers and Their Kin

    Several species of spindly-legged plovers can be seen easily around lakes, lagoons, and seashores of the Caribbean islands. Their high-pitched, piping calls are most often uttered as warnings to their neighbors when a predator or human gets too close.

Wilson's plover (nominate race, Charadrius wilsonia wilsonia).

Coral Bay Pond, south-eastern Saint John, United States Virgin Islands.

Wilson's plover (nominate race, Charadrius wilsonia wilsonia).

Salinas de Bani, southern Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Pedro Genaro Rodriguez).

Family Haematopodidae: Oystercatchers

    Oystercatchers feed mainly on bivalve mollusks on rocky seashores. This niche is occupied by no other bird in the West Indies.

Family Recurvirostridae: Stilts and Avocets

    Stilts are related to plovers, but differ from them in being long-necked and legged. Their yapping, bark-like calls can be most annoying when you wish for silence as you try to photograph other, nearby birds. Their characteristic upturned beaks are used to expertly pick up small organisms from the water in which they wade.

Family Scolopacidae: Sandpipers, Snipes, and Their Kin

    Sandpipers look similar to plovers, although many species are comparatively tiny. The vast majority are winter migrants to the West Indies although one species, the willet, does nest here.

    Many scolopacid species that migrate through the West Indies to and from their breeding grounds are so alike to each other in their wintering plumages, that it can be extremely difficult to tell apart. This is so especially with the many species of Calidris sandpipers.

Family Laridae: Gulls and Terns

    Gulls and terns are two closely related subfamilies with several species passing through or remaining in the Caribbean during winter. Among terns, several species do nest in the region, while the rather small laughing gull is the only one of its kind to do so. Mixed-species nesting colonies can be found in remote cays or isolated peninsulas and salt flats.

    One particular species, the arctic tern, Sterna paradisea, is perhaps the most accomplished avian migrant. It circumnavigates the planet once every year, as it nests within the Arctic Circle during the northern spring, then to spend the southern summer in Antarctica and its islands. A number of individuals pass through the Caribbean during this yearly migration.

    Gulls may be the quintessential birds, in that they are universally recognized for what they are by people all around the World.