"I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah.
I let the melody shine; let it cleanse my mind... I feel free now,

but the airways are clean and there's nobody singing to me now."

     The Verve, Bittersweet Symphony

"Nascerá dentro me

sul silenzio che habita qui.

Fiorirá un canto che

mai nessuno ha cantato per te."

     Gen Rosso, Nascerá

"There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man

than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before. "
Robert Lynd (1879 - 1949), The Blue Lion

Jamaican oriole (nominate race, Icterus leucopteryx leucopteryx). Anchovy, north-western Jamaica.

Hymns to Him in the Highest

    The passerine birds are such a huge assemblage of birds that I have decided to discuss them in a section of their own.

ORDER PASSERIFORMES

    The largest avian order is that of the songbirds. Including almost three quarters of modern dinosaurs on Earth, it is the most varied and successful group of living creatures with feathers. From tiny kinglets a few centimeters long to the huge common and Ethiopian ravens, songbirds occur in every shape and color, with every lifestyle, in every continent save for Antarctica, in every habitat except for the open oceans of the World. Some, like the Saint Andrew's vireo of the West Indies, are limited in their distribution, inhabiting tiny islands. Others, like the North American bobolink and the Arctic tern, are among the greatest migrants, whose travels extend among continents. Seed, fruit, insect, and carrion eaters, as well as hunters of lizards, snakes, mammals, and other birds; arboreal or terrestrial; from sea level to high alpine summits; from deserts to rain forests; with plumages ranging from somber blacks, grays, and browns to others that pass for living rainbows; songbirds of one kind or another can be found almost everywhere on land where man looks on land.

    Within the passeriformes there are many different families. Some of them are discussed below.

Family Sylviidae: Gnatcatchers and Their Kin

    Gnatcathchers are small birds, usually of drab plumages and simple songs. Two species are found in the West Indies: the blue-gray in the Bahamas, and the Cuban gnatcatcher. The family is mostly distributed in the Old World.

Cuban gnatcatcher, Polioptila lembeyei. Guantanamo Naval Base, Guantanamo, south-eastern Cuba.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

Cuban gnatcatcher, Polioptila lembeyei. Playa Siboney, south-eastern Cuba.

(Photographs courtesy of Mr. Eladio M. Fernandez).

Family Tyrannidae: Tyrant Flycatchers

    The tyrant flycatchers are a group of usually drab-looking birds that are generally poor songsters as well. (Indeed, the term "songbird" does not mean that a particular species within the order sings well). Kingbirds, pewees, and elaenias of one sort or another inhabit every Caribbean island. Notorious for being rather pugnacious (and hence the name of the entire family), kingbirds are creatures of savannas, woodlands, and forest canopies. Elaenias and pewees are smaller, and occupy similar general habitats, but are segregated from kingbirds and each other by occupying somewhat different structural niches, especially in forests' understories and in scrubland. While most species are insectivores, larger ones will capture and devour prey like lizards frogs.

    Some kingbirds are so aggressive as to give chase and harass far larger birds like hawks and herons whenever these enter their territories. Only hummingbirds in this region are as bold in attacking intruders.

Stolid flycatcher, Myiarchus stolidus. Near Rabo de Gato, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

(Second photograph courtesy of Mr. Pedro Genaro Rodriguez).

Puerto Rican flycatchers, Myiarchus antillarum.

First two photographs: Lajas, south-western Puerto Rico.

Last photograph: Guanica State Forest, south-western Puerto Rico.

Lesser Antillean flycatcher, Myiarchus oberi. Syndicate, north-central Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

Grenadian flycatcher, Myiarchus nugator.

This species is endemic to the insular banks of Saint Vincent and Grenada.

First photograph: Mount Hartman Bay, south-western Grenada, Lesser Antilles.

Second photograph: Kingstown Botanical Garden, south-western Saint Vincent, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Lesser Antilles.

Rufous-tailed flycatcher, Myiarchus validus. Blue Mountains, east-central Jamaica.

This Jamaican endemic is the largest member of its genus in the Caribbean.

And this, also a Jamaican endemic, is the smallest of its genus in the Caribbean: the sad Flycatcher, Myiarchus barbirostris.

First photograph: Windsor, north-central Jamaica.

Second photograph: Blue Mountains, east-central Jamaica.

Its call is softer than those of other members of the genus.

Family Vireonidae: Vireos

    Vireos are small birds similar to wood warblers, but with heavier bills and of more phlegmatic disposition that is in accordance with feeding more heavily on fruits than on insects. Their melodious but somewhat monotonous calls are heard in most wooded areas in the Antilles.

    Each of the Greater Antilles has one or two endemic species.

Family Hirundinidae: Swallows

    The Cosmopolitan swallows are the best known and most easily recognized members of the immense order of songbirds, as well as the most aerial among them. Morphologically and ecologically similar to the unrelated swifts, West Indian swallows often make their mud nests under roof overhangs and bridges, as well as on cliffs and caves. There are several endemic species and subspecies in the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles.

A Caribbean Martin chick begs food from a somewhat unwilling mother. Piñones, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

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

Barn swallow, Hirundo rustica, juvenile. Grand Anse, south-western Grenada, Lesser Antilles.

This species, widespread in the Northern Hemisphere winters in the West Indies in considerable numbers.

Golden swallow, Tachycineta euchrysea. Aceitillar, Bahoruco Mountains, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

This species is endemic to Hispaniola and Jamaica.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Miguel Angel Landestoy).

Family Troglodytidae: Wrens

    Wrens are generally small and drably-colored birds, yet many have powerful and melodious voices. In several of the Lesser Antilles, the tiny Troglodytes aedon emits its hyperbolic song from the branches of the rainforest's understory, and it even inhabits some suburban areas, in gardens and yards. This bird also lives in North America, from where vagrants sometimes arrive in the Bahamas. Some taxonomists consider the Lesser Antillean populations to be a different species.

    The only other genus that inhabits the West Indies is monotypic. Larger than the house wren, the Zapata wren, Ferminia cerverai, is endemic to a small area in south-western Cuba.

House wren (Dominican race, Troglodytes aedon rufescens). A tiny bird with an immense voice.

It's beautiful, if jumbled, song announces its presence even as the bird is absurdly small and not easily seen.

Eggleston, south-central Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

Family Turdidae: Thrushes, Solitaires, and Their Kin

    This family is represented in the West Indies by the widespread Turdus thrushes and the Myadestes solitaires, and by Cichlherminia lherminieri (belonging to a monotypic Lesser Antillean genus). Some of these species emit beautiful and melodious songs, heard especially in the rain and humid forests of the islands.

    As well, there are several migrants of this family, belonging to diverse genera, to be found in the Antilles.

Red-legged thrush (Hispaniolan and Puerto Rican race, Turdus plumbeus plumbeus).

First photograph: Carolina, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

Second photograph: Enrique Marti Coll Park, San Juan, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

This species is restricted to the Greater Antilles, except for one population inhabiting the Lesser Antillean island of Dominica.

Its sweet, if monotonous, song is often heard in both cities and rural areas before dawn and in late afternoons.

When alarmed, it emits a scolding "wet-wet" call.

It is one of the more terrestrial species of the genus in the Caribbean, often seen seeking insects and other invertebrates in leaf litter.

The Cuban race of the red-legged thrush has a reddish tint on its lower abdomen.

Cueva de Los Peces, south-western Cuba.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Eladio M. Fernandez).

White-chinned thrush, Turdus aurantius. Anchovy, north-western Jamaica.

This species ecologically substitutes the previous one in its own island.

La Selle's thrush, Turdus swalesi. Zapoten, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

Endemic to Hispaniola, this is a species of montane rain and pine forests.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Pedro Genaro Rodriguez).

Bared-eyed robin, Turdus nudigenis. Kingstown Botanical Garden, south-western Saint Vincent, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Lesser Antilles.

This species reaches through the Lesser Antilles north to Martinique, and is widespread in South America.

Rufous-throated solitaire, Myadestes genibarbis. Blue Mountains, east-central Jamaica.

The haunting song of this species consists of prolonged, high-pitched whistles with a strange "electronic" quality.

It may also emit a trill at the end of a phrase.

It indeed resembles a sweetly melodious version of the noise produced by a microphone with "feedback".

The song is extremely ventriloqual and far-carrying, beginning and fading at inaudible levels,

so it can be very difficult to locate the bird by its voice.

Conversely, the alarm or aggressive note is a harsh and piercing "pe-oh".

(Audio file courtesy of Dr. Luis O. Nieves).

Rufous-throated solitaire, Myadestes genibarbis. Cortico, Bahoruco Mountains, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Miguel Angel Landestoy).

Rufous-throated solitaire, (Dominican race, Myadestes genibarbis dominicanus). Syndicate, north-central Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

Family Mimidae: Mockingbirds, Thrashers, Tremblers, and Their Kin

    Thrashers, mockingbirds, and their allies are conspicuous birds found both in forest and savannas, as well as cities. Some have the capacity to imitate the songs of other birds, hence the family's name ("mimics"). The several species of Mimus mockingbirds present in the region are among the best Antillean songsters and are surpassed, on that regard, only by some of the Turdus and Myadestes thrushes.

    Allenia, Margarops, and Ciclocerthia thrashers are endemic to the Lesser Antilles, one species (Margarops fuscatus) having reached Puerto Rico quite recently. Where it becomes accustomed to people, the pearly-eyed thrasher will use every given opportunity to steal some food from human tables. It also has something of a bad reputation for devouring every bird's nestling that it can kill.

    The two species of  Cinclocerthia are called "tremblers", and have earned their name due to the peculiar habit of quivering their wings when they are excited for any reason.

Family Dulidae: Palm Chat

    The monotypic family Dulidae is probably related to waxwings. The palm chat obtains its name from its habit of building their large communal nests among palm fronds, most often. The family is endemic to Hispaniola alone, in the Greater Antilles.

Parulidae: Wood Warblers

    The group containing the wood warblers is especially species-rich in the Antilles. Active insect-eaters, the majority of the species find their prey on trees (although a few are mainly terrestrial). They jump, flit, and fly up and down the foliage at a frantic pace, and seldom stay put for more than a few seconds except to utter their songs during mating seasons.

    Many are winter migrants in the region but many others are native, even endemic, to the Caribbean islands. Some species are highly specialized, like Saint Lucia's Semper's warbler. Others are partial to particular habitats, like the Puerto Rican elfin woods warbler and the Jamaican arrowhead warbler, two sister species that inhabit montane rain forests in their respective islands.

Adelaide's warblers, Dendroica adelaidae, males. Guanica State Forest, south-western Puerto Rico.
A Puerto Rican endemic whose closest relatives are in Barbuda and Saint Lucia, Lesser Antilles.

Its call is a ascending trill.

(Audio file courtesy of Dr. Luis O. Nieves).

Saint Lucian warbler, Dendroica delicata, male. Grande Anse, north-eastern Saint Lucia, Lesser Antilles.
Together with the Adelaide's (above) and Barbudan warblers, it comprises a superspecies.

Arrowhead warbler, Dendroica pharetra. Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, east central Jamaica.

This form forms a triad of species together with the plumbeous warbler (below) and the elfin woods warbler of Puerto Rico.

Elfin woods warbler, Dendroica angelae. Maricao State Forest, western Puerto Rico.

A juvenile plumbeous warbler (yellowish individual) Dendroica plumbea, begs food from an adult, while another forages alone for food.

First photograph: Northern Forest Reserve, Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

Second photograph: Eggleston, south-central Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

The species is endemic to that island and Guadeloupe.

    The relationships of some Caribbean species of warbler are obscure, and perhaps they should be placed in other families, like that of tanagers. These include the white-winged (Xenoligea montana) and green-tailed warbler (Microligea palustris) of Hispaniola, and the two Teretristis warblers of Cuba

Green-tailed warbler, Microligea palustris. Puerto Alejandro, southwestern Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

This species is of uncertain relations, and could possibly be a tanager.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Pedro Genaro Rodriguez).

White-winged warbler, Xenoligea montana. Zapoten, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Miguel Angel Landestoy).

Yellow-headed warbler, Teretristis fernandinae. Las Salinas, south-western Cuba.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Eladio M. Fernandez).

Oriente warbler, Teretristis fornsi. Siboney, south-western Cuba.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Eladio M. Fernandez).

    The West Indies are either stopovers or final destinations for a large number of migrant parulines which nest in North America. On their way south, a number of species use the Antilles as supply stations where they feed and rest, before continuing onwards to Central and South America. Other migrants remain here during the late fall to early spring, adding to the numbers of other birds found in the Antilles during those seasons. Some North American migrant birds, like the northern parula (Parula americana) and several wood warblers of the genus Dendroica winter almost exclusively in the West Indies.

    The next photographs show some of the North American emberizids that either pass through or stay in the Antilles during the northern hemisphere's fall, winter, and early spring.

Black-throated blue warbler, Dendroica caerulescens, male. Carite State Forest, east-central Puerto Rico.

Black-throated blue warbler, Dendroica caerulescens, female.

Blue Mountains, east-central Jamaica.

American redstart, Setophaga ruticilla. Blue Mountains, east-central Jamaica.

Northern parula, Parula americana, male. Cambalache State Forest, northern Puerto Rico.

This individual already exhibits its breeding plumage before returning to its breeding grounds in North America.

Black-and-white warbler, Mniotilta varia. Parque Central, San Juan, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

This is among the most common northern migrants in the Antilles.

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

Coerebidae: Honeycreeper

    The bananaquit is the single representative of its family. This birds specialize in feeding on nectar, but also consume large quantities of small invertebrates. In fact, the species has been placed at different times among tanagers and wood warblers, though most authors place it in its own family.

    This is perhaps the most ecologically versatile bird in the Caribbean islands, since it is found in every habitat that contains at least some trees. In many forests it is the most abundant bird, and it has quite a number of color morphs, showing bright yellow bellies and gray throats in the Greater Antilles, white throats in the Bahamas, and almost totally black plumages in some of the Lesser Antilles.

Bananaquit, (Puerto Rican race, Coereba flaveola portoricensis). Carolina, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

This tanager-like species feeds mainly on nectar and small insects.

Its partiality to sweets makes it easy for people in the Caribbean to attract them by the dozen to gardens and verandas, by use of a simple bowl filled with sugar.

This is one of the most widespread birds of the American tropics, found from extreme southern Florida to Argentina.

It also represents a biogeographic oddity in the Caribbean, in that it is absent from mainland Cuba, while it

inhabits every other island from the northernmost Bahamas to Grenada, southernmost of the Lesser Antilles.

A bananaquit (Virgin Islands race, Coereba flaveola sancti-thomae) feeds on the pulp and seeds of the fruit of a Pilosocereus royenii cactus.

Little Dix Bay, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands.

Bananaquit feeding on ripe bananas. Eggleston, south-central Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

Bananaquit. Southern Andros Island. Bahamas.

Many Bahamian populations of these bird have white throats and flanks.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Joseph Burgess).

The melanistic morph of the bananquit exists in some of the southern Lesser Antilles.

First photograph: Mount Hartman Bay, south-western Grenada, Lesser Antilles.

Second photograph: Grand Anse, south-western Grenada, Lesser Antilles.

A pair of bananaquits (each of a different morph) feed their nestlings.

In the third photograph, the parent takes the excrement of one of the chicks away from the nest.

Grand Anse, south-western Grenada, Lesser Antilles.

Bananaquits have a habit of building nests not just for raising young, but for sleeping at night, as well.

Guilarte State Forest, central Puerto Rico.

Thraupidae: Tanagers

    Tanagers are mainly herbivores. They feed mostly on fruits, flower buds, and leaves, though many species include varied amounts of insects in their diets. These last include the three Calyptophilus chat tanagers of Hispaniola as well as the Puerto Rican tanager, Nesospingus speculiferus.

    The fact is that leaves and buds are not very good food. They are difficult to digest, and are but a meager source of energy. Such is the reason why birds and other endotherms that feed mainly on such items spend a lot of time eating.

    Without a doubt, the most beautiful West Indian members of this group are the four Spindalis striped-headed tanagers of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. Females are always a drab olive or grayish brown with yellowish tinges, but males are striking in their bright yellow and orange bodies and black and white heads, wings, and tails.

Puerto Rican striped-headed tanager, Spindalis portoricensis, male in aggressive display.

Carolina, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

The genus Spindalis is a near-endemic to the West Indies, since the four species are mainly Greater Antillean and Bahamian in their distribution.

Outside the Caribbean region the Western stripe-headed tanager, of Cuba and the Bahamas,

has also invaded the continental island of Cozumel, off the eastern coast of Mexico.

Hispaniolan striped-headed tanager, Spindalis dominicensis, male. Bahoruco National Park, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

Jamaican striped-headed tanager, Spindalis nigricephalus, male and female, feeding on flower buds and leaves

(Rubus sp., in the case of the male; Persea sp., in the case of the female).

Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, east central Jamaica.

    Other Antillean tanagers include the two palm tanagers of the genus Phaenicophilus. Both are Hispaniolan endemics.

Black-crowned palm tanagers, Phaenicophilus palmarum.

First photograph: National Botanical Garden, southern Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

Second photograph: Ebano Verde Nature Reserve, Central Mountain Range, Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

The second individual is feeding on a guava, Psidium guajava.

The two-species genus is endemic to that island.

(Photographs courtesy of Mr. Pedro Genaro Rodriguez).

Puerto Rican tanagers, Nesospingus speculiferus. El Yunque National Forest, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

Its call is a series of harsh "chek" notes.

Western chat tanager, Calyptophilus tertius. Zapoten, Bahoruco Mountains, southwestern Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Miguel Angel Landestoy).

Family Emberizidae: Bullfinches, Grassquits, and Their Kin

    This group is composed of seed-eating birds with short, conical, powerful bills. Although most are rather somber in their colors, several species, like some Loxigilla bullfinches, emit loud and melodious songs easily heard amongst the foliage of their forested haunts. Other species most common in open and grassy areas, like Tiaris and Ammodramus possess thin and reedy  voices.

Puerto Rican bullfinch, Loxigilla portoricensis, adult and juvenile. Maricao State Forest, western Puerto Rico.

Its loud song consisting of rising, rich whistles, is heard in most of the island's forests.

Occasionally it emits a "koochi-koochi-koochi..." call, as well.

The genus Loxigilla, composed of four species, is an exclusively Antillean endemic.

A juvenile Puerto Rican bullfinch feeds on a sphynxid moth caterpillar. Jose Luis Monagas Park,, Bayamon, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican bullfinch, male. Cartagena Lagoon National Wildlife Refuge, south-western Puerto Rico.

The striking black and red coloration is actually difficult to distinguish among the dense canopy and shrubbery where it lives.

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

Greater Antillean bullfinch, Loxigilla violacea, female. Bahoruco National Park, south-western Dominican Republic, Hispaniola.

Lesser Antillean bullfinch, male. Grand Anse, south-western Grenada, Lesser Antilles.

Much bolder than its Greater Antillean congeners, the Lesser Antillean bullfinch frequently raids tables in search of food scraps left by humans.

This male carries nest material. Kingstown, south-western Saint Vincent, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Lesser Antilles.

A female Lesser Antillean bullfinch pulls fibers from a rope, to be used in building its nest.

Eggleston, south-central Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

Cuban bullfinch, (mainland Cuban race, Melopyrrha nigra nigra). La Gran Piedra, south-western Cuba.

(Photograph courtesy of Mr. Eladio M. Fernandez).

A sub-adult male black-faced grassquit (Puerto Rican race, Tiaris bicolor omisus) patrols its territory.

Carolina, north-eastern Puerto Rico.

Black-faced grassquit (Puerto Rican race, Tiaris bicolor omisus), male.

Guanica State Forest, south-western Puerto Rico.

Cardinalidae: Cardinals, Saltators, and Their Kin

    Saltators have powerful bills adapted to feed on seeds and, to a lesser extent, on fruits. The sole West Indian species emits a  loud, rich song consisting of piercing whistles. Indeed, their calls are among the most characteristic diurnal sounds in Lesser Antillean forests.

Lesser Antillean saltator, Saltator albicollis, feeding on a papaya fruit. Cabrits National Park, north-western Dominica, Lesser Antilles.

Saltators are very large finches whose loud, whistled songs are heard in some of the Lesser Antilles in most habitats except the highest mountain peaks.

Family Icteridae: Grackles, Cowbirds, Blackbirds, Orioles, and Their Kin

    Grackles, orioles, blackbirds and their allies are rather large birds with long, pointed bills adapted for feeding on insects as well as fruits. Almost all Caribbean species have some amount of glossy black on their plumage. However, many species are also strikingly marked with yellow, orange, or red.