Brown Pelican

I spent most afternoons while in Cuba out sailing the Hobiecats. However, after sailing I would spend time watching the Brown Pelicans fish and thought I’d post a couple of my favourite dive images.

The Brown Pelican is a comically elegant bird with an oversized bill, sinuous neck, and big, dark body. Squadrons glide above the surf along southern and western coasts, rising and falling in a graceful echo of the waves.

They feed by plunge-diving from high up, using the force of impact to stun small fish before scooping them up. They are fairly common today—an excellent example of a species’ recovery from pesticide pollution that once placed them at the brink of extinction. Cornell All About Birds

West Indian Whistling Duck

The West Indian Whistling Duck is a distinctive large waterbird between the size of a large duck and a goose. Nocturnal; roosts during day in mangroves, wooded ponds and marshes and feeds primarily at night.

    

Generally scarce and typically somewhat secretive, particularly where hunting of this species is allowed. I would hear them early every morning when I started birding and find them foraging in the lagoon near the resort.

Smooth-billed Ani

 

The Smooth-billed Ani is a glossy black cuckoo with an oversized bill. Almost always seen in groups, these birds traipse through tangled, shrubby habitats in the tropics of South America and the Caribbean; there's also a small and declining population in Florida.

They eat insects and lizards as well as fruit, especially during the dry season. Groups do almost everything together, with females laying all their eggs in a single communal nest tended by all group members. Every time we seen Ani they were in groups of six or seven.

Western Spindalis

 

The Western Spindalis is found in thickets, forest edge, gardens, and fruiting trees and bushes. Usually in pairs or small flocks, and often quite inconspicuous. 

The handsome male is unmistakable, with bold head pattern, golden-yellow and dark reddish body plumage, and bold white wing pattern. Female is notably drab, grayish olive overall with a small white mark on the wing, and a ghosting of the male wing pattern. Cornell All About Birds

Cuban Bullfinch

 

The Cuban Bullfinch is a small flocking species of brushy and wooded habitats. Note the large, stout bill and the white slash along the front of the folded wing. 

Color ranges from black to gray, depending on location and sex. Cornell All About Birds

West Indian Woodpecker

The West Indian Woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker of drier forests.

Its strongly barred back eliminates all other species in it range except for Northern and Fernandina’s Flickers, but both flickers lack the West Indian Woodpecker’s extensively red nape and hind-crown. Cornell All About Birds

We found West Indian Woodpeckers to be a fairly common sight in Cuba.

And were lucky enough to have a nest mere metres from our lodging.

Cuban Green-backed Woodpecker

 

The Cuban Green-backed Woodpecker is an attractive, small to medium-sized inhabitant of woodlands including mangroves; typically found in pairs, often on dead or dying branches.

The Green-backed Woodpecker has a red crown and a white face with a blackish stripe extending backwards from the eye.

Northern Flicker

 

Cuba also has Flickers. Flickers are fairly large woodpeckers with a slim, rounded head, slightly downcurved bill, and long, flared tail that tapers to a point.

Flickers appear brownish overall with a white rump patch that’s conspicuous in flight and often visible when perched. The undersides of the wing and tail feathers are bright yellow, for eastern birds, or red, in western birds. With a closer look you’ll see the brown plumage is richly patterned with black spots, bars, and crescents. Cornell All About Birds

Zapata Sparrow

 

The Zapata Sparrow is a handsome species with subtle coloration. Its yellow belly shades to olive sides, and a largely gray face is topped by a rusty crown.

Endemic to Cuba, we observed the Zapata Sparrow on previous trips to Cuba in the Zapata Swamp area. However, they are also found in an area near this year’s trip to Cayo Coco.

Oriente Warbler

 

The Oriente Warbler is endemic to Cuban.

Its natural habitats include dry forests, lowland moist forests, montane moist forests, and xeric shrublands.

A noisy flocking species that uses a wide variety of wooded and scrubby habitats. Its combination of blue-gray upperparts, yellow from throat to upper belly, and gray lower belly eliminate all other species in range. Cornell All About Birds