Black Swifts are here!

June is normally a slow birding month.  Although it is the start of the hurricane/ rainy season most ponds and wet areas are dry.  Even though they are not many birds around, one bird you can look forward to seeing are Black Swifts(Cypseloides niger).  These birds migrate to the island at this time of year and nest in sea caves on the Eastern coast of the island.  On Saturday morning I went in search of these large swifts at St. Bernard Village, a neighborhood in the parish of St. Joseph.  As soon as I exited my car I saw 5 Black Swifts hawking for insects over a blossoming Hog Plum (Spondias mombin) tree.  These birds represented my 79^th bird species for the year and should remain with us until August/ September.  

Record-breaking Global Big Day was Bigger for the Caribbean Too

Every year, Global Big Day is an all-out effort to get the “big picture” on birds across the planet. This year, it hit a new world record. In one single day (May 5, 2018) 29,866 people ventured outside in 170 countries, finding 6,963 species, These numbers equate to approximately two thirds of the world’s bird species in just 24 hours! 1.6 million bird sightings by citizen scientists and avid birders worldwide were recorded on eBird. Read more here

Global Big Day 2018

West Indian Whistling Duck seen during GBD 2018

Global Big Day 2018 is in the bag and it was another success.  Internationally over 28,000 person in more than 250 countries, recorded in excess of 6900 species of birds from the more than 74,960 checklist submitted to ebird.  These stat were all higher than last year’s total.  

Here, in Barbados, we had two participants, Dr. John Webster and myself.  Together we equaled 2017 total of 53 species with John recording 50 species and I 49.

Here is a list of the 53 bird species seen during the Global Big Day:

1. Black-bellied Whistling Duck - Dendrocygna autumnalis
2. West Indian Whistling Duck - Dendrocygna arborea
3. Masked Duck - Nomonyx dominicus
4. Pied-billed Grebe - Podilymbus podiceps*           
5. Red-billed Tropicbird - Phaethon aethereus
6. Magnificent Frigatebird - Fregata magnificens
7. Great Egret - Ardea alba
8. Little Egret - Egretta garzetta
9. Snowy Egret - Egretta thula
10. Cattle Egret - Bubulcus ibis
11. Green Heron - Butorides virescens
12. Eurasian Spoonbill - Platalea leucorodia
13. Osprey - Pandion haliaetus*
14. Purple Gallinule - Porphyrio martinica*
15. Common Gallinule - Gallinula galeata
16. Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis squatarola
17. Pacific Golden-Plover - Pluvialis fulva
18. Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus
19. Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres
20. Sanderling - Calidris alba
21. Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla
22. Semipalmated Sandpiper - Calidris pusilla
23. Short-billed Dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus
24. Spotted Sandpiper - Actitis macularius
25. Solitary Sandpiper - Tringa solitaria#
26. Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca
27. Willet - Tringa semipalmata
28. Lesser Yellowlegs - Tringa flavipes
29. Laughing Gull - Leucophaeus atricilla
30. Roseate Tern - Sterna dougallii#
31. Royal Tern - Thalasseus maximus
32. Rock Pigeon - Columba livia
33. Scaly-naped Pigeon - Patagioenas squamosa
34. White-crowned Pigeon - Patagioenas leucocephala#
35. Eurasian Collared-Dove - Streptopelia decaocto
36. Common Ground-Dove - Columbina passerina
37. Zenaida Dove - Zenaida aurita
38. Eared Dove - Zenaida auriculata
39. Green-throated Carib - Eulampis holosericeus
40. Antillean Crested Hummingbird - Orthorhyncus cristatus
41. Rose-ringed Parakeet - Psittacula krameri
42. Caribbean Elaenia - Elaenia martinica
43. Gray Kingbird - Tyrannus dominicensis
44. Black-whiskered Vireo - Vireo altiloquus
45. Caribbean Martin - Progne dominicensis
46. Northern Waterthrush - Parkesia noveboracensis*
47. Yellow Warbler - Setophaga petechia
48. Grassland Yellow-Finch - Sicalis luteola
49. Bananaquit - Coereba flaveola
50. Black-faced Grassquit - Tiaris bicolor
51. Barbados Bullfinch - Loxigilla barbadensis
52. Shiny Cowbird - Molothrus bonariensis
53. Carib Grackle - Quiscalus lugubris

* - Birds seen only by Dr. Webster on the day
# - Birds seen only by Me on the day

Global Big Day 2018: a birding world record from ebird.org

This Black-throated Mango is one of the incredible 1,545 species of birds reported from Colombia on Global Big Day. Photo by Juan Diego Castillo/Macaulay Library.

Birds are incredible. Their power to inspire and amaze brings people together across every imaginable boundary. Global Big Day is the embodiment of this worldwide connectedness: a single day to celebrate birds in every place on Earth. On 5 May, Global Big Day, 28,000 people ventured outside in 170 countries, finding 6899 species: 2/3rds of the world’s bird species in one day. This is a new world record for birding and more birds seen by the Global Big Day team than any one person has ever seen in an entire year. Incredibly, more than 10% of species were reported by only one person, showing the impact that you have. This record belongs to every single person who took part. Thank you, and congratulations.
Continue reading here

Global Big Day

I tallied 49 species in yesterday's Global Big Day.  I will give a break down later in the week along with images etc.  I hope you all had a great big day and please share with us how your day went, high points of the count and final tally,  in the comments. Have a great day.