We found the US Virgin Island of Saint John to be an ideal island for do-it-yourself birding: small area-wise but with diverse habitats (half the island is a US National Park) that were uncrowded and accessible via great hiking trails. The crazy, ultra-steep and twisty roads were a blast to drive on in our rented Jeep. Expansive ocean vistas were everywhere. Bird early and often and you’ll do well.
The Saint John birds are a fun mix of “locals” plus familiar favorites that breed on or migrate through the US mainland but spend the winter in the tropics. We found it very manageable to learn about and locate darn near all the species you could reasonably expect to find there at this time of year. Saint John has no endemic birds (that is, no birds found only there). But it was so wonderful to step off the ferry from Saint Thomas into a landscape where any chip note could herald a life bird.
One challenge you might face, however, when birding Saint John or other nearby islands is a dearth of birding info! I couldn’t find much in the way of fresh trip reports or “where to go birding” notes, etc. online. Hence I relied largely on A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands by Herbert A. Raffaele -- a field guide that (not to knock it; it’s the best thing out there) has a lot more to say about Puerto Rico than the other islands, and was last updated in 1989.
In posting this trip report I hope not only to support Eons birders but also others in the online birding community who, like me, find themselves on Saint John with little else to go on but their binoculars and common sense. Good luck! Don’t hesitate to contact me with questions.
And as I was just reminded by eBird project coordinator Marshall Iliff, there's an eBird website for the US Virgin Islands at: view link Gulls, Terns and other “seabirds”
Most gulls and terns depart the USVI in winter. We saw not one gull the entire trip, lending an odd emptiness to the coastline reminiscent of Hawaii (gulls like continents, not isolated islands). Two Royal Terns in Cruz Bay harbor one evening were our only terns.
On the upside, seabird-wise, Brown Booby, Brown Pelican and Magnificent Frigatebird are easy to find just about anywhere along the gorgeous Saint John coast.
Herons and Egrets
Look for these in the salt ponds, mangroves, and rocky shores. Only the Cattle Egret was at all common (and always in the company of feral goats and sheep, not near the water). We also found Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron and Great Egret.
Shorebirds
While a good many shorebird species potentially winter on Saint John, we didn’t find all that many: just few Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones. Black-necked Stilt and Spotted Sandpiper are common in the salt ponds.
Ducks
THE duck on Saint John is the White-Cheeked Pintail and it was easy to find in good numbers at Mary Point Pond off the Francis Bay Trail, among other salt ponds. Also present at Mary Point Pond were Blue-Winged Teal.
Doves
There are lots of cool doves in the tropics and we found several on Saint John. Scaly-naped Pigeon was shy but present in many wooded areas. Zenaida Dove was vocal and strolling about ubiquitously; Common Ground-Dove less so. We glimpsed one elusive Bridled Quail-Dove on the Brown Bay Trail and heard one on the Reef Bay Trail.
Raptors
Red-tailed Hawk and American Kestrel are the only breeding raptors on Saint John and both were easy to spot. The island Kestrels seemed to exploit a broader range of habitats than at home, including woodlands, back yards and the seaside.
Hummers
Antillean Crested and Green-Throated Carib, the only expected hummers, were easy to find just about everyplace -- what fun!
Flycatchers
Gray Kingbird was everywhere in drier habitats. Caribbean Elaenia was less common but present in a wide range of forested and semi-open areas (study the calls). We didn’t see or hear the Puerto Rican Flycatcher, which is ostensibly rare but present on Saint John.
Warblers
While a number of “wood-warblers” are possible on the USVI in winter, we didn’t find all that many. Yellow Warbler was prominent at salt ponds. Also seen and/or heard in wet woods and/or mangroves: Black-and-White Warbler, Northern Parula, Prairie Warbler, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart.
Other local specialties
Abundant everywhere: Bananaquit, an amazingly adaptable species that outnumbered all other birds combined in most habitats. Common wherever we went: Pearly-eyed Thrasher, Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, Black-Faced Grassquit, feral chickens. Mangrove Cuckoo was also easy to hear and see in wooded areas, from wet north side woods to drier forest to mangroves. We found Smooth-Billed Ani only on the drier and more open East End within a mile or two of Coral Bay. Rarest (I think?) bird of the trip: a lone Caribbean Coot on Mary Point Pond. (Common Moorhen and American Coot are said to be tough to find in the USVI in winter and we saw none.)
Other birds we found
Belted Kingfisher, Barn Swallow, Northern Mockingbird, House Sparrow (only at the airport in Saint Thomas -- none on Saint John)
Peace and good birding,
Scott Cronenweth
www.naturalpathwalks.com
