Cuban Green Woodpecker

 

The Cuban Green Woodpecker is a species endemic to Cuba. This green-backed woodpecker has a red crown and a white face with a blackish stripe extending backwards from the eye.

The Cuban Green Woodpecker is an attractive, small to medium-sized inhabitant of woodlands including mangroves; typically found in pairs, often on dead or dying branches.  No other species in its range is similar. Cornell All About Birds

Mangrove Cuckoo

 

Mangrove Cuckoos are another quite common bird out on Cayo Coco Cuba. It’s not long after you start birding in the morning before the familiar call of the Mangrove Cuckoo is heard.

Like other cuckoos, the secretive Mangrove Cuckoo is a quiet and still presence as it watches for insects and small lizard prey. This slender, long-tailed bird nests in tangled mangrove forests of southern Florida; in its large Caribbean and Latin American range it occurs in lowland and foothill rainforests as well. A mostly brown bird with a yellow or gray ring around the eye, it resembles the Yellow-billed Cuckoo but has a black mask and a warm buff belly. Cornell All About Birds

Like other cuckoos, the Mangrove Cuckoo has four toes on each foot in a "zygodactyl" arrangement, with two toes forward and two behind, rather than three-forward, one-back of many other birds.

Key West Quail-Dove

 

An area that I love birding out on Cayo Coco is Cueva del Jabali. There is a quite extensive cave system there, however it is also a great area to bird and one of the popular stops for birding tour groups. I have been there a few times with my favourite bird guide, Paulino Lopez Delgado, however I also hire a taxi to drop me off early in the morning and come back a few hours later to pick me up somewhere along the roadside as I hike back out. This year my best find there was the Key West Quail-Dove. In Cuba it is not uncommon to observe 6 or 7 species of dove while birding .

The male has purple iridescence on back and coverts, green on head and nape, and rufous on wings and tail. Quite a beautiful bird in the early morning light.

The Key West Quail-Dove is a smallish, chunky, ground-dwelling species of dense woodlands with thick leaf litter; prefers drier habitats. It is secretive but not shy; sometimes detected by the rustling of leaves it is strolling through.

The Key West Quail-Dove song is a soft, low plaintive “hooooooo,” given at a single pitch, but growing gradually louder before dropping off abruptly at the end. Cornell All About Birds

Least Tern

 

We have just returned from Cuba staying out on Cayo Coco. We had terrific weather and I was fortunate to get out birding every day. I observed 84 species, adding 7 new species to my Cuba bird list, with the Key West Quail-Dove being the only new lifer for me, bringing my Cuba bird list to 132 species. A bird that I had observed last year, but failed to photograph, was the Least Tern. These are adorable little terns that are only 8-9”.

The Least Tern is a distinctive, very small seabird, slim in all proportions, with long, narrow wings, trim body, and slender, sharp bill.

Breeding adults are pale gray and white, with a black cap, white forehead, and yellow bill. Nonbreeding adults have a dark bill, smudgy grayish crown, and may show a dark bar at the bend of the wing. The outer primaries are dark gray-black. Juveniles are similar to nonbreeding adults but scaly gray above. The legs are orange.

Least Terns dart over waterways, usually close to shore, diving for fish or other small prey. Males bring small fish to females for courtship feeding during much of the nesting season. Flight is strong and direct, on stiff, jerky, rapid wingbeats.

Least Tern habitat includes barrier islands and beaches, dredge spoil, river islands, flat gravel rooftops, and similar habitats for nesting. Cornell All About Birds

Bare-legged Owl

 

The Bare-legged Owl, endemic to Cuba, has very large dark eyes, bushy white or buff eyebrows, and a buffy mustache. For a time it was considered to be the same species as the Puerto Rican Owl, however later it was determined to be it’s own species.

The Bare-legged Owl is relatively small, measuring 8–9 inches long, and weighing about 2.8 oz. Its name comes from its featherless green-yellow legs, similar to those of the Burrowing Owl.

At night the Bare-legged Owl hunts woodlands or open areas with large trees and roosts in tree cavities or caves during the day.

Cuban Pygmy Owl

 The Cuban Pygmy Owl is a very small, tame owl of wooded habitats that is active both day and night.

On our recent trip to Holguin some mornings I would find two or three hanging around the resort.

Depending on attitude, its staring yellow eyes and prominent arched white eyebrows can impart cuteness or ferocity. It is often found perched with tail cocked, and when flushed, typically flies only a short distance on rounded wings.

The Cuban Pygmy Owl occurs in two color types, gray and rust. Their song is a low whistled “whuh” or “hoo” given in a slow series. It was the first call I heard every morning when leaving my lodging. Which made it an easy target to find. And like most owls I have observed, was very habitual about which trees it hung out in during the day. Returning to the same trees every day.

The first Cuban Pygmy Owl we observed was with our guide Ernesto Reyes Mouino on our way from Varadero to Zapata Swamp.

We observed this Cuban Pygmy Owl while birding with Paulino Lopez Delgado in the Cayo Coco area.

We found the Cuban Pygmy Owl to be a very tame owl often actively hunting during the daytime.

Western Spindalis

The Western Spindalis is found in thickets, along the forest edge, and in gardens. 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.

Yellow-faced Grassquit

 The Yellow-faced Grassquit is a very small bird of grassy and weedy areas in tropical and subtropical areas. The male is striking, with rich yellow eyebrow and throat set off by a black face and breast.

The female is notably drab olive overall but shows a ghosting of male’s face pattern; note the conical gray bill, unlike the stubby bill of seedeaters and female buntings. eBird

White-crowned Pigeon

 The debonair White-crowned Pigeon is a large, slate-gray pigeon with a neat white cap and striking white eyes. Widespread around the Caribbean, it crosses into southernmost Florida, where it feeds on fruit in trees near the coast and on islands, including the Keys. White-crowned Pigeons make long-distance morning and evening flights high over open water between islands, as they commute from mangrove forests to areas with fruiting fig and other tropical fruit trees.

These dark gray pigeons blend in well to the dark foliage of trees where they forage, so scan carefully through tree canopies early in the morning to find them. Trees with ripe fruit including figs, gumbo-limbo, poisonwood, and ironwood are likely places. Watch for them high in the sky in the early morning and late in the day as they commute between roosting and foraging areas. Cornell All About Birds

On previous trips to the Caribbean we have observed White-crowned Pigeons however this was my first opportunity to photograph them.

Cuba Guides for Birding

Cuba Birding Guides

Many people have inquired about the birding guides we have used in our trips to Cuba. We have hired guides for a day of birding from Varadero, Cayo Coco and Holguin and can highly recommend all three of these guides. These guides are very knowledgeable and would be great for either a novice or hard core birder as they have many years of birding experience.

  A Cuban Tody that Paulino found for us on one of our birding trips with him.

If you are looking for a guide in the Cayo Coco area Paulino Lopez Delgado is your man. I can highly recommend him. A very knowledgeable and personable guide. We have hired Paulino 3 times now and enjoyed every experience. Even though we had already been to Zapata Swamp on a previous trip we still managed 72 species, 14 new lifers and 5 new endemics. Here is his email paulino.nature@gmail.com or you can contact him here. cell/WhatsApp 53-5 2673207

                                                           Paulino

                               A Cuban Trogon we observed birding with Paulino.

For a great guide in the Holguin area, I can highly recommend Karlos Ross. Karlos is also a very knowledgeable guide and a very personable person. He knows the area and birding hotspots well and is comfortable searching out specific species of interest. Here is Karlos email - guardalavacabirdings@gmail.com and he can also be found here https://www.facebook.com/karlos.ross.79?mibextid=2JQ9oc

                                                             Karlos

A Bare-legged Owl that Karlos located for us on our day trip birding.

If you are looking for a guide in the Varadero area, we hired Ernesto Reyes Mouino to take us on a day trip birding in the Zapata Swamp area and I can highly recommend him too. We left Varadero around 4:30am and returned just after supper time and it was a great day of birding with over 60 species, 26 lifers and 15 endemics. Here is his email ernesto2.reyes@nauta.cu

The Bee Hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world, was one of the many highlights while birding with Ernesto.

As was observing many Cuban Emeralds for the first time.

We also observed our first Cuban Pygmy Owl with Ernesto and even though we have seen many more on our trips to Cuban it was still a very cool experience.

The Great Lizard Cuckoo was another bird we first observed with Ernesto in the back yard where he was building a new home.

                                                        Sandwich Tern

If you are looking for a guide book, when my old original Cuba guide book fell apart I purchased Birds of Cuba A Photographic Guide by Arturo Kirkconnell and find it an excellent resource. I much prefer the photo images as compared to drawings.

Along with a great variety of warblers, some endemic, like the Yellow-headed Warbler and Oriente Warbler, the Yellow-throated Warbler can easily be observed in Cuba.  

Other birds that can be found in Cuba, like the Least Grebe, are not endemic but cool to observe. 

And Red-legged Thrushes are everywhere, but a bird I always enjoy watching.

I have photographed many more birds while in Cuba and they can be found by searching the list on the right side of this webpage. Using a bird guide while in a foreign country certainly elevates your birding experience and I hope you consider using one of these guides during your stay in Cuba.

Overall I have observed 125 species while in Cuba. While Cuba has 29 Endemics, I have been able to observe 21 so far, plus another 10 subspecies. So, as an average birder myself, I'm pretty happy with all the birding experiences I have enjoyed in Cuba.