Ornithology
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West Indian Whistling Ducks
West Indian whistling duck


Bananaquit


Antillean crested hummingbird


Black-necked stilt


Green heron


Cattle Egret


Lesser Antillean bullfinch


Zenaida dove

grey pelican
Grey pelican

Bird life at Yepton

Dr David W. Gibbons, November 2005

I have made several visits to Yepton over the last few years, and one of its greatest attractions for me has been the variety of its bird life. The reason for this variety is the range of habitats encompassed within this relatively small bay.

Surrounding the coastal road, which runs more or less parallel to, but set back from the coast is an extensive area of goat-grazed scrub, typical of much of Antigua .

This blends into the well-manicured lawns of the coastal hotels and houses, with scattered trees and bushes, many of them flowering and attractive to the ever-energetic hummingbirds and their close relatives, the caribs.

This leads onto the palm-fringed beach, from which can be seen an array of common Caribbean seabirds; in fact most of these can be seen without even venturing down to the beach.

Most importantly, however, and what sets Yepton aside from other sites, is the small brackish lagoon just inland from the beach.

Though the number of species to be seen here will undoubtedly vary from season to season, particularly as migrating birds pass through in spring and fall, there is always something interesting to see.

Most obvious, perhaps, are the herons, ducks, waders, gulls and terns, and I have even seen a pair of rare West Indian whistling ducks here in May (2004), though I was unable to discover whether or not they were breeding.

I am told that a flock of 60 of these birds was spotted in June of 2005 at the salt pond where Yepton Estate Cottages are located.


I have visited Yepton in May and June, so there is plenty of scope for the keen – or even not so keen - birder to add to the list of birds that I have recorded there, particularly during other seasons. My list is as follows:

Antillean crested hummingbird

Bananaquit

Black-faced grassquit

Black-necked stilt

Broad-winged hawk

Brown pelican

Carib grackle

Caribbean elaenia

Cattle egret

Common ground dove

Common moorhen

Gray kingbird

Great egret

Green heron

Green-throated carib

Laughing gull

Least tern

Lesser Antillean bullfinch

Little blue heron

Magnificent frigatebird

Mangrove cuckoo

Red-billed tropicbird

Rock dove

Royal tern

Ruddy turnstone

Scaly-naped pigeon

Semi-palmated plover

Semi-palmated sandpiper

Snowy egret

West Indian whistling duck

White-cheeked pintail

White-crowned pigeon

Wilson 's plover

Yellow warbler

Yellow-crowned night heron

Zenaida dove

 

       
For those that are keen to learn more about Antigua 's birds, particularly how to identify them, the best book available is Birds of the West Indies , by Raffaele, Wiley, Garrido, Keith and Raffaele.
 
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
   
         
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