The Birds of St. Kitts

I didn’t have a lot of luck finding some of the birds of St. Kitts that I was hoping to see, but I was able to capture a few.  There were 2 that hung out on our terrace, the Grey Kingbird and the Lesser Antillean Bullfinch…the bullfinch had no fear, in fact they would fly into our room through the open terrace doors.  By the second day I made sure I had some bread or fruit available for both, the bullfinch could almost be handfed, the Kingbird would swoop in grab the goodies and fly off to a nearby tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one bird I REALLY wanted to find was the Magnificent Frigatebird…I saw plenty of Brown Pelicans down by the piers but no Frigatebirds.  We spend one morning deep sea fishing and finally was able to capture one flying overhead.  With only a 135 mm lens on the camera I doubted there would be any details, but I was pleased to discover I could actually see the blueish bill.  From afar these birds are easily recognizable by their triangular wings. The males sport a red pouch used to attract the females, this one appears to be a juvenile.

Magnificent Frigatebird

 

One would normally expect to see the Ruddy Turnstone on the beach, however there were many of them wandering the grounds of the hotel and hanging out by the pool along with Cattle Egrets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bananaquit has alot to say and sings it very loudly 🙂  Very small and elusive, I chased this one from tree to tree for about 15 minutes before I was able to capture this rather out of focus image, but was happy to capture this colorful little guy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Zenaida Dove is as common as the Mourning Dove by our house.  When the sun catches them just right that blue/purple patch just glistens!

Zenaida Dove

Lastly, during a hike through the rainforest spotted this Green Throated Carib, with little light available through the trees was not able to capture the beautiful colors.