February 25, 2024 to March 2, 2024
Guided by Jesse Fagan
I had heard a lot about the Dennis Kania groups. Guides raved about their preparedness. They always have a solid understanding of both the birds and tour route. Only later did I learn about the study sessions weeks prior to the tour beginning, held at Dennis’ own home with homemade lasagna and a couple bottles of wine. However, mostly what guides talked about was how much fun these groups are. Often the clients are long-time travelers with Dennis (which says volumes about Dennis!) so there is a sense of comradery from the very beginning. Participants that are well-studied and happy to be traveling together, well, that is a guide’s dream!
I wasn’t originally scheduled to lead this tour, but the group welcomed me with open arms. We had a fun trip from start to finish. The tour started a day or two early as some people visited the old colonial part of San Juan. San Juan is the second oldest European-established city in the New World, which means there is some history here. However, I officially met the group during our first evening dinner near the hotel. Folks were shocked when I told them about our early check-out time the next day, but hopefully the birding would more than make up for it. We left early in the rain and dark, traveling to the karst forest site of Rio Abajo. Karst forest is basically forest on top of old limestone outcrops and hills. There isn’t a lot of topsoil here, so the forest takes a long time to grow. Rio Abajo is a protected area where they have reintroduced the Critically Endangered Puerto Rican Parrot, and its preferred habitat is the native karst forest. This was a bird I didn’t see on my last two trips to Puerto Rico over 15 years ago. However, thanks to a very successful captive breeding program, and reintroduction into several key sites on the island, this endemic parrot is doing well. Indeed, we managed to scope several individuals at our breakfast picnic spot just inside the entrance. In addition, we ticked off several endemic “firsts” for the tour including Puerto Rican Owl, Puerto Rican Tody, Puerto Rican Vireo, and Puerto Rican Bullfinch. There were more birding stops on this first day. A quick visit to Cambalache State Forest netted us Puerto Rican Flycatcher and the endemic warbler. For lunch, we enjoyed the culinary experience of El Meson Sandwiches, one of several visits on this trip! Finally, we arrived in Parguera in the late afternoon, just in time for some lovely light on the waters of the Caribbean behind our hotel.
The following morning, we climbed into the southwest highlands to Maricao State Forest. This is the spot where you might have a chance at seeing Elfin-woods Warbler. This rare warbler was only first formally described to science in 1972, having been passed off as a Black-and-white Warbler in the years before! Given its limited range and numbers (current estimate at 1800 individuals), it’s understandable why this species is labelled Endangered. We had a few glimpses of the bird singing early on but struggled for a couple of hours before deciding to try deeper into the forest. This paid off, as we eventually encountered a small family group that repeatedly foraged within a few feet of us. Always difficult to photograph, but our binocular views were stellar! We topped off this day with an evening excursion to a dry forest patch not too far from the hotel. We waited until dusk before we started to hear the calls of Puerto Rican Nightjar. Eventually, we were able to locate a couple of different individuals in the spotlight. The following morning, we drove to Cabo Rojo NWR for some shorebirding and scenic views of the Caribbean with White-tailed Tropicbirds as a backdrop. Though very warm and hot on this day (death march out to the lighthouse?), it was fun to explore the site which included hundreds of Semipalmated and Least sandpipers, Snowy Plover, and a cooperative Green Mango. One of the other highlights was an impromptu stop at a local pond in Boqueron which had loads of White-cheeked Pintails and Blue-winged Teal. In the afternoon, we ventured out to Laguna Cartagena, where we were treated to at least 12 Masked Ducks, both male and female, half-submerged (“submarining”) in the duck weed and lily pads. It is not often that you see one Masked Duck, let alone 12!
After a couple of nights in the southwest, we made the long drive east and north to the rainforest of El Yunque. En route, we made a couple of stops, but the most productive was at a small patch of flowering trees (next to the liquor store!) where we were treated to the tiny Antillean Crested Hummingbird, and much larger Green-throated Carib, nectaring at the pink flowers. Both of these hummingbirds had eluded us up to this point. El Yunque National Forest receives over 20 feet of rainfall per year in some areas and is the only classified “tropical rainforest” in the United States Forest Service. From our rooms at Casa Cubay we could look out at the rugged terrain, waterfalls, and lush green forest. This area was in stark contrast to the drier southwest where we had just come from. Our final full day we woke up pre-dawn to look for Puerto Rican Owl and were treated to a very close pair calling near the hotel. Having seen all the endemics at this point, we spent the day in search of the super rare and difficult. Plain Pigeon, Red Knots, and West Indian Whistling-Duck were all on the list, and though we missed out on these (that’s the way it goes in birding sometimes), we got to see a bit more of the island and enjoyed a final evening dinner near the water on the Malecon De Naguabo. We had come full circle.
What were the group bird highlights you might ask? Well, the runaway favorite was the smallest of the bunch, the Puerto Rican Tody. It’s cute, colorful, and endemic, what more can you ask for? Honorable mentions went to Antillean Crested Hummingbird, Elfin-woods Warbler, Venezuelan Troupial, Puerto Rican Parrot, Puerto Rican Owl, and Green-throated Carib. I want to thank everyone that participated in this enjoyable trip. I am happy to have been your guide and we appreciate you traveling with Field Guides.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/240666
Jesse Fagan (aka Motmot) from Lima, Peru