A Step Closer To Seeing Wild Cuban Amazon Parrots

Posted on December 19, 2015 by Tara

The United States and Cuba have agreed to restore scheduled commercial airline service for the first time in more than five decades in a deal allowing 110 round-trip flights a day between the former Cold War foes. More details in this article.

This is great news to anyone who wants to go birding in Cuba and hopefully see Cuban Amazon parrots! Tourism is still not a legitimate reason for Americans to visit Cuba but “educational tours” are and I would consider birding as educational.

In the meanwhile, you can still see their cousins – Cayman Amazon Parrots in nearby Grand Cayman.

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Cuban Amazon Parrot (Amazona leucocephala)

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Tara

The Cuban Amazon (Amazona leucocephala) also known as Cuban Parrot or the rose-throated parrot, is a medium-sized mainly green parrot found in woodlands and dry forests of Cuba, the Bahamas and Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.

There are four subspecies of the Cuban amazon^:

A. l. leucocephala (Linnaeus, 1758). Present throughout Cuba, including Isla de la Juventud (formerly known as Isla de Pinos).
A. l. bahamensis (H. Bryant, 1867), also called the Bahama amazon. Two extant populations in the Bahamas; one on the Abaco Islands and one on Great Inagua (with sightings from nearby Little Inagua). Now extirpated populations were present on the Acklins and Crooked Islands and possibly also elsewhere in the Bahamas.
A. l. caymanensis (Cory, 1886), also called the Grand Cayman amazon. Restricted to Grand Cayman Island.
A. l. hesterna Bangs, 1916. Now restricted to the island of Cayman Brac, but formerly also on Little Cayman.

The birds I saw while on our cruise were the Cayman Parrot subspecies. Now that Cuba has opened up to tourism, we should be hearing about more sightings of the nominate subspecies as well!

LEARN MORE ABOUT CUBAN/CAYMAN PARROTS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Cayman Islands Government

VIDEOS

This video was taken in the same aviary we were in back in 2008.

And here are some in the wild in Grand Cayman.

Grand Cayman Island – Shore Visit From 2008 Cruise

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Tara

This was a cruise we did back in 2008 so I may be a bit fuzzy on the details but at least I still have the photos! We were on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas doing a 7 day RT Miami cruise to Labadee, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios & Cozumel.

I do recall we had booked a diving trip that was cancelled due to bad weather so we were on our own. We ended up taking a bus to a wildlife park that was called Boatswain’s Bay back in 2008 but is now called Cayman Turtle Farm Island Wildlife Encounter. It seems to have the same attractions as it did back them but they seem to be pushing the turtles more now. Of course I was keen to see Cayman Parrots! We did walk through the whole park, including the turtle farm but but spent most of our time in the walk-in aviary with some very friendly birds!

With more time, you can see wild Cayman Parrots but on a cruise you may not have the time to get there and back safely. Definitely for a land trip though!

Back in the day, people were constantly telling me to go to hell…………………so I finally did!

Since we were using local buses, we headed back a bit early so had time to walk around the port area, check out some shops and watch some guy who was hawking photos with his macaws.