Friday, 1 August 2025

St Lucia


The famous Pitons on the west coast of the island.

Lu and I booked a last-minute break to St Lucia in the Carribean. It's only a small island (28 miles north to south) but takes a good 5-6 hours to drive around if you follow the slow-paced east and west coast roads. Not a holiday dedicated to birding but most of the endemic species seen with a single visit to the interior rain-forested hills. Otherwise easy birding within half a mile of the hotel where we stayed in Rodney Bay, situated in the north-western tip of the island.


Grey Kingbird - Rodney Bay - one of the most commonly-seen species with a habit for building their scruffy nests on telegraph posts.


Green-throated Carib. And below. One of only three hummingbird species on the island but all easy to find.



Purple-throated Carib.


Male Antillean Crested Hummingbird. Below - flashing its dazzling fore-crown.



Singing male Grey Trembler - Rodney Bay.


Male Black-faced Grassquit.


Mangrove Cuckoo - Rodney Bay.


Fiery Skipper.


Disjunct Scrub-Hairstreak Strymon bubastus.

White Peacock.


Presumed Pale Yellow Pyristia venusta.



Hanno Blue Hemiargus hanno.


Hanno Blue. An incredibly tiny butterfly.


Great Southern White.


Gulf Fritillary. Below - some as yet unidentified moths...




Melipotis famelica.


Scaly-naped Pigeon - Rodney Bay.


Common House Gecko.

St Lucia Anole.


This huge female Hawksbill Turtle had just finished egg-laying on the beach (Pigeon Island) in broad daylight.


Juvenile Spotted Sandpiper - Rodney Bay.

Female Indigo Bunting - Rodney Bay. Not sure of the status of this species on the island but certainly wasn't expecting it. 


Adult Laughing Gull - Rodney Bay marina.


African Giant Snail.


Atlantic Ghost Crab.


Male Lesser Antillean Bullfinch - Rodney Bay. Lots of these seen.


Zenaida Dove - Rodney Bay. An extremely common species on the island.


Shiny Cowbird.


Snowy Egret - Rodney Bay marina.

Little Blue Heron - Rodney Bay.



Green Heron - Rodney Bay marina.


Yellow-crowned Night Heron - Rodney Bay.


Male Magnificent Frigatebird.


Immature Magnificent Frigatebird.


Juvenile and adult Brown Pelican - Fort Vieux.


Adult winter Royal Tern  - Rodney Bay.



Adult male Brown Booby - Rodney Bay. 


Brown Booby - subadult female?


Parrot's Beak Heiconia psittacorum.


Phillipine Ground Orchid.


Red Christmas Heliconia wagneriana.


Lilac Tasselflower Emilia sonchifolia.


Whitemouth Dayflower Commelina erecta.



Butterfly Pea - Centrosema virginianum.


Lesser Antillean Saltator - Pigeon Island.


Spectacled Thrush - Pigeon Island.


Male Carib Grackle - Rodney Bay.


Caribbean Elaenia - Rodney Bay.


Common Ground Dove.


Scaly-breasted Thrasher - Rodney Bay. Pearly-eyed Thrasher was seen (and heard) in the high elevation rainforest but escaped my efforts to photograph it.


Female Caribbean Martin - Rodney Bay.


American Kestrel - Rodney Bay.


Tropical Mockingbird - Rodney Bay.


Bananaquit - Rodney Bay.


Lesser Antillean Skimmer.


A gap in the rain forest (Des Cartiers trail) where a number of St Lucia Amazons were seen - mostly distant and in flight but none the less spectacular.


Female St Lucia Black Finch - an endemic species.


St Lucia Amazon. Photo taken from considerable distance. A few birds flew past us very closely but were too quick for me to photograph.

Lesser Antillean Pewee - Des Cartier trail.


St Lucia Oriole. One of two seen but as you can see I had no luck with photographing them! Another endemic species.



Rufous-throated Solitaire  Des Cartiers trail.

The endemic St Lucia Warbler - Rodney Bay.

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