Birds, weed and reggae

Ovenbird at Hope Gardens

Yellow-billed Parrot

... are the 3 prominent impressions that I took from my visit to Jamaica, although I would have preferred more birds and less of the weed smell and blasting of reggae music from our loitering neighbors.
Getting around on a (my) budget turned out to be problem, especially since car rentals were booked out and ridiculously overprized. So the little time I had spared for birding was spend in the Kingston area, the  Hope Gardens in Kingston to be precise. I will put information for this birding spot on my blog shortly. If for whatever messed-up reason you happen to visit Kingston (not exactly a hot spot for tourists), the Gardens are relatively easy to get to and safe to bird.

Jamaican Oriole

Streamertail

Hope Gardens are great for neotropical migrants in winter and some of the more easy to find endemics. I birded there twice just past the turn of the year and had BLACK-THROATED BLUE, PALM. CAPE-MAY, PRAIRIE AND YELLOW-THROATED WARBLERS, OVENBIRD & NORTHER PARULA and the very common AMERICAN REDSTART.  At Fort Clarence, a beach, south of Kingston in the Greater Portmore area, I picked up YELLOW WARBLER and NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, both relatively common winter visitors in Jamaica, bringing the total for warblers to 11 species. Among endemics I found BLACK-BILLED STREAMERTAIL, YELLOW-BILLED PARROT, JAMAICAN EUPHONIA, JAMAICAN ORIOLE, JAMAICAN WOODPECKER, WHITE-CHINNED THRUSH and SAD FLYCATCHER. All of these are relatively easy to find. A nice bonus was the NORTHERN POTOO that snoozed in a tree along the entrance road; they are common but always hard to spot. The total tally of endemics, including my previous visit 3 years ago, stands currently at 13 or 46% out of a 28 possible Jamaican endemics. So plenty more birds left to see on another visit...

N. Potoo