Swaddled in heat and humidity, sweat seeping out my pores, and no-see-them gnats feasting on my bare arms and legs, I still smiled. It was 6:30 in the morning, daylight, and the sun had yet to turn up the heat.
The trail snaked its way along the mountain ridge and was just wide enough for five people to stand abreast. On both sides was a long drop into the steep gulleys. Thick with trees, shrubs, flowers and creeping vines, the tropical rainforest covered the land.
Standing in the middle of the trail we scanned the treetops for the Saint Lucia Parrot. We heard them squawking as they flew from one side of the ridge to the other. In between the wait, we saw other birds. It was my first birding tour in Saint Lucia, and a break from the academic conference.
My guide was Willow Mathew, a local birdwatching expert with over a decade of experience in leading tours. He was calm and thoughtful as he showed me the difference between similar-to-my-eyes species. As a hobby birder, I had no list of target species to see.
To me, anything that I had not seen before was gold, including rare birds like the parrot and common ones like the Bananaquit.
After an hour, I was ready to give up. Willow said to be patient, birdwatching involves a lot of standing and waiting for nature to do her thing. You have to earn the rewards.
More squawking, but this time moving towards us. Then a flash of blue, yellow, orange and green as a pair of parrots flew over our heads. The pair were raising young as June was still breeding season.
Saint Lucia Parrot is an endemic species and is found nowhere else on Earth. The birds are far from flying into the ark of extinction. It was a close call as in the 1970s there were only about 150 parrots left in the forests. They were hunted for meat, for the pet trade, add habitat loss due to hurricanes and deforestation.
Today there are about 3,000 Saint Lucia Parrots. They are a conservation success story, but still need to be monitored as the species is vulnerable. There are five endemics in Saint Lucia, and I was lucky to see four of them on the birding tour. We saw 30 bird species that morning.
At the conference, I did a presentation called The illicit bird trade in the Caribbean. In popular culture, every pirate has to have a parrot like in the films such as Pirates of the Caribbean. The demand for pet parrots and hummingbirds in Europe and North America is decimating the birds.
The illegal bird trade is continuation of the colonial exploitation of the Caribbean. This too is part of the legacies of 1492 and the after-life of slavery.
There are two birds that stand out for me on my daily birdwatching stints. The first is the Scaly-naped Pigeon. We saw this bird high in the treetops in the montane forest on the birding tour. This pigeon is big, elegant with large and lovey orange eyes. We spotted it through the scope, and even though we were far away, it constantly scanned the surroundings. The bird was right to be wary, as Willow said that in the past it was hunted for its eggs and for its meat.
Next is the Antillean Crested Hummingbird. It is tiny, about the size of my little finger, and a dark glossy green. Lounging on the deck chairs by the beach and the pool, I watched the trees and flowers and soon enough the little birds came buzzing by, seeking nectar. The birds have raised feathers on their heads, like a tiny crown.
About 160 species of birds are in Saint Lucia; some are residents and others are migrants. Many birds that I see at home in Toronto, Canada spend the winter in the Saint Lucia and the rest of the Caribbean.
So, I had seen only a quarter of the birds in Saint Lucia. It will take a few return trips to the island to see rest.
Birds seen in Saint Lucia:
Antillean Crested Hummingbird (Orthorhyncus cristatus)
Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola)
Black-faced Grassquit (Melanospiza bicolor)
Black-whiskered Vireo (Vireo altiloquus)
Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus)
Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster)
Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus)
Carib Grackle (Quiscalus lugubris)
Caribbean Elaenia (Elaenia martinica)
Caribbean Martin (Progne dominicensis)
Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)
Common Ground Dove (Columbina passerina)
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis)
Gray Trembler (Cinclocerthia gutturalis macrorhyncha)
Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
Green-throated Carib (Eulampis holosericeus)
House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)
Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla)
Lesser Antillean Bullfinch (Loxigilla noctis)
Lesser Antillean Flycatcher (Myiarchus oberi)
Lesser Antillean Pewee (Contopus latirostris)
Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)
Pearly-eyed Thrasher (Margarops fuscatus)
Purple-throated Carib (Eulampis jugularis)
Red Junglefowl (Domestic type) (Gallus gallus)
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) (Columba livia)
Royal Tern (Thalasseus maxima)
Scaly-breasted Thrasher (Allenia fusca)
Scaly-naped Pigeon (Patagioenas squamosa)
Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis)
Short-tailed Swift (Chaetura brachyura)
St. Lucia Black Finch (Melanospiza richardsoni )
St. Lucia Oriole (Icterus laudabilis)
St. Lucia Parrot (Amazona versicolor)
St. Lucia Warbler (Setophaga delicata )
Tropical Mockingbird (Mimus gilvus)
Western Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia)
Zenaida Dove (Zenaida aurita)
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