73 Different Bird Species Spotted for I.M.B.D. Celebration!
Seventy-Three different Bird species spotted in St.Kitts on 14, 15 & 16 October, 2014 (total birding hours 18.5 hrs.)
By: Michael Ryan
International Migratory Bird Day (I.M.B.D.) in the Caribbean is celebrated on the second Saturday in October every year. As is customary, I always undertake a species bird count in St.Kitts close to that period to see how many different species that I can spot. This is my quiet celebration of this important day. It is undertaken over a period not exceeding 20 hours of bird watching, usually over 2 days. However, this year I decided to do this count over 3 days to make it a little easier on the body! A total of 18.5 hours were spent in 2014, generally split into two areas, “The Ponds” and “The Rainforest.” The previous best was last year, 2013 with 67, but that record was blown out of the water in 2015 with a new record of 73 different species!
- Zenaida Dove
- Cattle Egret
- Royal Tern
- Least Sandpiper
- Western Sandpiper
- Semipalmated Sandpiper
- Semipalmated Plover
- Wilsons Plover
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- Short Billed dowitcher
- Barn swallow
- Snowy Plover
- Ruddy Turnstone
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Pectoral Sandpiper
- Great Blue Heron
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Little Blue Heron
- Magnificent Frigate Bird
- Yellow-crowned Night Heron
- Northern Waterthrush
- Lesser Antillean Bullfinch
- Common Moorhen
- Osprey
- Herring Gull
- Yellow Warbler
- Caribbean Elaenia
- Black-faced Grassquit
- Bananaquit
- Brown Pelican
- Nutmeg Manniken
- Antillean Crested Humming Bird
- Wilsons Snipe
- Laughing Gull
- Stilt Sandpiper
- Great Egret
- Caribbean Coot
- Blue-winged Teal
- Pied Billed Grebe
- Blackpoll warbler
- Green Heron
- Sanderling
- American Golden Plover
- Black-bellied Plover
- Rock Dove
- House Sparrow
- Black-necked Stilt
- Merlin
- Snowy Egret
- Brown Booby
- Scaly-naped Pigeon
- Killdear
- Prairie Warbler
- White-rumped Sandpiper
- Eurasian Collard Dove
- Common Ground Dove
- Grey Kingbird
- Black-whiskered Vireo
- American Kestral
- Red Jungle Fowl
- White Winged Dove
- Pearly Eyed Thrasher
- American Redstart
- Ovenbird
- Brown Trembler
- Lesser Antillean Flycatcher
- Black & White Warbler
- American Kestrel
- Red Tailed Hawk
- Green Throated Carib Hummingbird
- Least Tern
- Belted Kingfisher
- Ruddy Duck
Note: Three Terns were spotted at the Great Salt Pond and pictures were taken. I was uncertain if they were Sandwich or Common Terns, but was fairly confident that they were Sandwich Terns. I sent the pictures to the experts at Whatbird.com and it created quite a great debate! There was a consensus that they were either Sandwich or Common, but in the end the I.D. was inconclusive! However, as three birds were seen at the same time, many suggested that all three may have been different species which may have caused the confusion, but the pictures were not perfect, as they were taken while the Terns were in flight! As a result, I did not include them in the list above.