Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Birds & Bugs
With more than 250 species spread over 3500 sq miles, Puerto Rico is an excellent place
to dust off your binoculars and engage in a bit of tropical bird-watching. The common-
wealth's most famous bird is also one of its rarest: the elusive Puerto Rican parrot. Num-
bers of the bright-green bird were down in the mid teens during the 1970s, but thanks to
concerted conservation efforts the population has recovered to a precarious 35 to 40. The
parrots still exist in the wild in the El Yunque and Río Abajo forest reserves, although see-
ing one is akin to winning a lottery ticket. The long-term plan for its recovery aims to have
it 'upgraded' to being merely endangered by 2020.
Learn all about the coquí frog and other animals that inhabit Puerto Rico in
Natural Puerto Rico
by Alfonso Silva Lee, an ex-
haustive but entertaining book on island wildlife.
Another endemic bird is the Puerto Rican tody, a small green, yellow and red creature
that frequents the moist mountains of the Cordillera Central and the dense thickets of the
south coast where it feeds on insects. If you're lucky you'll also encounter various South
American families, such as tyrant flycatchers, bananaquits and tanagers.
The coastal dry forest of Guánica might be the biggest draw for serious bird-watchers
looking to whittle down their life list. It features more than 130 bird species, comprising
largely of songbirds. Some of these are migratory fowl, such as the prairie warbler and the
northern parula. Many are nonmigratory species, including the lizard cuckoo and the critic-
ally endangered Puerto Rican nightjar. One of the joys of winter beachcombing is watching
the aerial acrobatics of brown pelicans as they hunt for fish.
The island also has a supply of unusual flying and crawling insects, including a large
tropical relative of the firefly called the
cucubano,
and a centipede measuring more than
6in in length with a sting that can kill. Much to the chagrin of generations of foreign visit-
ors there are zillions of blood-hungry mosquitoes.
For bird-watchers heading to Puerto Rico or the Caribbean,
A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
by Her-
bert Raffaele is a must-have. It will help you spy lots of hard-to-find birds in the dense forests of nature reserves.
Flora
Puerto Rico's tropical climate and unique rain patterns create a veritable greenhouse for a
huge variety of plant life, which thrives on tropical heat, tons of rains and lots of moisture
