A New Avian Species Record for Barbados

Bat Falcon - Falco rufigularis (photographed in Trinidad 2016 )

It started with an email from a fellow birder living in Canada stating these simple words “Did you see the ebird post below”.  It was the post that started a series of events which led to me meeting a wonderful lady and cementing my 135^th bird species for the island, a first for the island and maybe the region, a mega-rarity. 

Photo Grete submitted to ebird

The ebird post which was linked in that email was submitted on March 20^th of birds seen at Sion Hill, St. James. It listed 11 bird species seen, 10 of them were common to the area but one was not.  It read “Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis)’’ and attached was a photo of a bird, clearly a raptor, perched on a River Tamarind tree (Leucaena leucocephala).  The bird showed a black breast and back, with a chestnut coloured under tail and thighs, it also had yellow legs. The head was hidden.  Using the bean produced by the River Tamarind tree as a reference it was clear to see that this was a small raptor.  Our local bird expert, Ed Massiah concurred with the Identification as a Bat Falcon, a small falcon which specializes in taking bats on the wing.

Our small birding group, Ed Massiah, Dr. John Webster and I, met on the evening of March 28^th,

Happy Birders (L) John, Grete & Ed

at Sion Hill around 5pm to look for this mega-rarity.  On seeing the immensity of the search area and with only a tightly cropped image as our guide, we knew that it would be luck and a chance to find this bird, the odds a birder will take any day of the week to find such a rare bird.  After walking and searching for about 45 minutes our odds improved immensely when we met Grete Pasch, the person who reported the sighting.  She took us to the area where she saw the bird most frequently.  This just happened to be where we had parked our vehicles, before undertaking a 20-30 minutes hike.  By the time we got back to our vehicles the sun was already dipping below the horizon.  The sky came alive with colour as the setting sun interacted with the Saharan Dust which blanketed the island, bats were starting to emerge from their roost and not too long after that, at about 6:15pm we saw the Bat Falcon. My first impression was of a small bird, quick and very agile. 

Bat Falcon going after bats - photo by Grete Pasch

Bat Falcons are 9.5-11.5” in length, about the size of a Zenaida Dove, with a black head and upperparts, white chin, throat and upper breast.  It has a chestnut coloured extension to the rear neck, and a half white collar. Lower breast is black, finely streaked with white.  Thighs, belly and undertail are chestnut in colour, yellow legs and a long black tail.  The female, as with many raptors, are larger than the male. It is a resident breeder in Mexico, Central and South America, and Trinidad where I first saw it in 2016. While these birds have a liking for bats their also prey on small birds, such as hummingbirds, and large insects such as dragonflies

It was a fine evening birding; I saw a new bird, a raptor “YEAAAH” and met a new local and beginner birder, Grete Pasch.  I will be trying to get pics of this bird to share with you, look out for them.  Until then, enjoy your birding.