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Puerto Rico April
2 - 9, 2025 The
island of Puerto Rico may be small, but, due to a unique combination of geologic
history, location, size, and topography, it has an interesting biodiversity
which includes 18 species of endemic birds.
While its birds include about 120 breeding species, it also harbors about
2400 species of plants, about 130 of which are endemic, about 80 species of
reptiles and amphibians, and 13 mammals species (not surprisingly, all bats).
For those who have birded in the neotropics of Mexico and Central and
South America and faced the challenges of skulking antbirds, confusing
flycatchers, and overwhelming species lists, Puerto Rico is a refreshing change.
While the bird list isn’t long, it is fascinating, and the birds are
fairly easy to see, including most of the endemics. Our trip begins in the bustling capital of San Juan. We’ll spend our first morning here doing a historic tour of Old San Juan with some birding at the Castillo San Felipe de Morro where we may see Caribbean martin, gray kingbird, terns, gulls, boobies, and frigatebirds, zenaida dove, and maybe green-throated carib and white-tailed tropicbird. We then head west to Manati which will be our home base for two nights. From Manati, we'll visit a suite of nearby spots and explore different habitats in search of island and Caribbean endemics as well as wintering migrants. One of our first stops will be Cambalache State Forest which will introduce us to some of Puerto Rico’s most colorful birds, including Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoo, mangrove cuckoo, Puerto Rican bullfinch, Puerto Rican flycatcher, Adelaide’s warbler, black-whiskered vireo, and others. We’ll also head into the hills to visit Rio Abajo State Forest to look for more Puerto Rican specialties - woodpecker, oriole, spindalis, vireo, emerald, and tody - as well as the rare Puerto Rican parrot, lesser Antillean flycatcher, and others. Finally we'll visit some wetlands and coastal areas in Hatillo and Cano Tiburones in search of wintering waders and shorebirds, white-tailed tropicbird, white-crowned pigeon, loggerhead kingbird, and more. From Manati we'll climb into the mountains to our next lodge, Hacienda Juanita. Here, between 1500 and 2700 feet, we'll cool off a bit while we look for a few more endemics, several of which are very range restricted, particularly the elfin woods warbler and the Puerto Rican tanager. We'll also hope to see red-legged thrush, pearly-eyed thrasher, Puerto Rican owl, scaly-naped pigeon, green mango, Puerto Rican euphonia, Puerto Rican owl, the endemic race of broad-winged hawk, and a few others. We then drop to the south coast where, from our home base at Turtle Bay Inn, we'll visit several coastal and interior locations with wetlands, mudflats, mangroves, and dry scrub. In this area we'll hope to find Caribbean elaenia, multiple shorebirds, clapper rail, the rarish yellow-shouldered blackbird, Puerto Rican nightjar, Puerto Rican mango, smooth-billed ani, and with some luck yellow-breasted crake. On our return to San Juan, we'll make some special stops to look for a few more specialties, mainly Antillean crested hummingbird, green-throated carib, and plain pigeon. Being that Puerto Rico is part of the US, infrastructure is good, almost everyone speaks English, and travel is on good roads. Puerto Rico makes for a nice and easy introduction to the Caribbean. Led
by Mark Pretti, the cost will be about $ 3000 per person, double occupancy, from
San Juan, and includes all lodging, meals, tips, entrance fees, and ground
transportation. The single
supplement will be about $650. Limited
to 8. For more information, contact
Mark at (520) 803-6889 or mpnaturetours1@gmail.com |
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