The Land of the Hummingbirds, Trinidad and Tobago

When someone infatuated with nature and birds visits the tropics, they catch some kind of fever that keeps you always wanting more. To satisfy the fever, I found myself in the tropics once again this May, this time in Trinidad and Tobago. This charming republic consists of two main islands that are so different it leaves you wondering how they remain as one. Trinidad is very much South American while Tobago, just a 20-minute flight away, is more Caribbean in style. Barely off the coast of Venezuela, neither island is large; Trinidad is about 1900 square miles, dwarfing Tobago's 115 square miles. Despite their size, T&T have a renowned reputation with birders and ecotourists worldwide. The Caribbean meets South America in the flora and fauna of the islands, morphing habitats and creating unparalleled opportunities for the nature-lover. This year, I spent three days in Trinidad and three in Tobago with a group of birders led by a Dr. R. Kannan (professor at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith). His love for the birds, a keen eye and ear, and his ability to corral our group made for an exciting trip.

After a day of traveling, we arrived at the Asa Wright Nature Centre at 1:30am. This colonial plantation property is THE birder's stop in Trinidad. We arrived to the less-humid mountain air of Trinidad's Northern Range, a welcome sandwich, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls calling, and bats visiting the hummingbird feeders on the famous veranda. It wasn't easy to sleep with all the excitement, even if it was for a measly few hours. At 5:00am, I was up and a FULL day of birding ensued....this schedule stayed pretty solid for the remainder of the trip.

View from the Veranda. Note the Crested Oropendola nests hanging in the tree.

Luckily, the staff at Asa Wright prepare for tired birders by having syrupy thick, delicious coffee ready to go at the crack of dawn. It's hard to explain your first day in a new tropical place to those who have never experienced it. The jungle is deafening with birds and bugs and they are EVERYWHERE. On your first day in a new place with so many new birds, you can't walk fifteen feet without seeing or hearing something you don't recognize. In fact, I spent two hours on the veranda (basically a second-story back porch) that morning before breakfast just sitting and watching the woods and feeders below. Before I had two cups of coffee down, I had seen 28 new species. One of which was the Purple Honeycreeper, a bright ball of blue with electric yellow feet.

Purple Honeycreeper, one of three honeycreeper species visiting Asa Wright's veranda.

After breakfast, the sun was beginning to peek through, lighting up the array of hummingbirds visiting the veranda. More on that later. The task at hand was to now find the Bearded Bellbirds, two species of manakin, and the Oilbirds; all specialties of the property. Through a light rainshower, we managed to find both Golden-headed and White-bearded Manakins and with a little more effort, several Bearded Bellbirds that put on a show. Our group watched in awe as the bellbirds patrolled the perimeters of their territories. This species is surprisingly large and has fleshy wattles that hang from its throat, making it look prehistoric. Its sharp call, resembling a shoe catching on a gym floor, adds to this prehistoric demeanor.

Bearded Bellbird caught still for a few moments. 

After knocking these species out fairly easily (and with great views), we trekked down from a ridge and into a canyon...and I do mean down. Our steep trip took us over slick rocks and past giant leaf cutter ant mounds that could easily swallow multiple grown men. I focus on the birds a lot, but they weren't everything on this trip. Our wonderful guide was quick to point out other wildlife.

Tent-making Bat (Uroderma bilobatum). This resourceful critter wraps a leaf around itself for shelter. 

Trinidad Stream Frog (Mannophryne trinitatis). The adult males carry the eggs on their backs.

As we neared the crevice/cave that housed the Oilbirds, all was silent. The principle sound was the stream flowing out of the cave, every so often you could feel the vibrations from a Rufous-breasted Hermit (a large hummingbird) buzzing past. Oilbirds are a very large, nocturnal species that ranges from Trinidad and Venezuela down the Andes. They are frugivores and travel up to 70 miles at night, for food, using echolocation to navigate. When the Spanish explorers came through the area, they were scared of the caves and thought they were gates to hell because of the chilling alarm sounds the hidden oilbirds made. Through history, juveniles were captured and used as a source of lamp oil. We caught our protected colony resting on the walls of the cave, wary of our presence and not moving.

Because they were so still, I was able to use a long-exposure to capture this one. Like I said, they're large and measure in at about the size of a Northern Harrier.

White-chested Emerald

After the trek out, it was lunchtime followed by more time on the veranda before our afternoon field trip. By now, hawks were soaring and the hummingbirds were at full force, gracing the birders with their delicate beauty. Several species made it to the most common list at Asa Wright. These included White-necked Jacobin, White-chested Emerald, and Copper-rumped Hummingbird. Though seemingly everywhere, the Copper-rumped was surprisingly hard to get close enough for a good photo.

White-necked Jacobin male. These large hummers pretty much dominated the feeders.

In Belize last year, the only look I had of a White-necked Jacobin was a quick fly-by from a male, so I was excited to learn that this bird was so common at the center and would even land right in your face! After a while of watching and photographing the hummers, a Black-throated Mango came and landed very close...I almost fell off the veranda. In North America, this is a species whose cousin's name gets whispered for fear it will never be added to an ABA listers' life list. To have any non-fruit mango sitting right in front of me was an honor.

Black-throated Mango male. This is a VERY large hummingbird.

Yet another stunner coming to the veranda was the Blue-chinned Sapphire, the tailpiece design of Caribbean Airlines. In good light, they're a blinding sparkle flitting around flowers and blessed from head to toe with iridescent feathers. The hummers seemed to have their place: either feeder or flower. Some of the species that visited the flowers were harder to photograph, as they typically did not perch nearby. These included both Rufous-breasted and Green Hermits, two species I wasn't able to photograph, but did get to enjoy looking at their long, curved bills.

The significantly smaller Blue-chinned Sapphire.

Probably the most sought after hummingbird in Trinidad, and a poster-child for the center, is the Tufted Coquette. This hummer could lay down on a silver dollar with room to spare and ONLY comes to the flowers, typically early in the morning. For the first two days we saw the female, which is impressive enough, but the male even more so. On the last day, we got him!

Tufted Coquette male.

Out of the 11 species of hummingbird seen on the trip, the one I most wanted was the Ruby-topaz Hummingbird. My wish came true on the last morning at Asa Wright when a male came to the flowers. It was quick and provided no photos. However, the species is MUCH more common on Tobago. The Blue Waters Inn on Tobago has feeders outside every room that host the birds all day. We caught on to their game of going from feeder to feeder, down the line and starting again. This made it hard to photograph and after putting some heads together we decided to isolate one feeder and take down the rest. Our fearless leader put the other feeders on the ground, only to discover the birds still liked feeding from them better than our isolated one! Better hiding techniques were used until we finally had the brilliant male right in front of us. A few passes and it was game over.

Ruby-topaz Hummingbird

Spending time at any of these places, or under a flowering tree in the jungle, it's easy to see why T&T has been dubbed "The Land of the Hummingbirds" for hundreds of years. Though that's a plus, it's definitely not the whole trip. While in Trinidad we had daily treks down from the mountains to the Arima Valley, Caroni Swamp, and the coast. Our first was to Arippo Savannah in the Arima Valley where we mopped up open-country birds like Southern Lapwing (a giant plover), Wattled Jacana, Striated Heron, South American Snipe, Green-rumped Parrotlets, and the list goes on.

Southern Lapwing

Of course, as an owl fanatic, I was ecstatic when our guide surprised us with a family of Tropical Screech-Owls living in a tree along the road into the savannah.

Tropical Screech-Owl family.

Later that evening a picnic dinner was served on the beach as we readied ourselves for a night of turtle watching. In silence we waited on a remote beach while spotters sent light signals back and forth in regards to Leatherback Sea Turtles. After an hour of waiting, one of the signals was different and right in front of us, a giant black blob came up from the water. This turtle was HUGE! Weighing about 900lbs, it was every bit of six feet long. We were silent as she worked her way toward us and began throwing sand with giant fins. As she spun around, getting the sand temperature right, she began digging a small hole with her hind fins. Later, the turtle became entranced, laying her eggs and not seeming to notice researchers as they took measurements, drew blood, and fitted her with a radio tracking device. When the egg laying was done, she was gone, hardly leaving a trace where the giant crater had been.

The next morning was back to the birds for our last full day in Trinidad. Adventure was had by all as we hiked the bellbird trail again and walked down the entry road spotting Bay-headed Tanager, the endemic Trinidad Motmot, several woodcreepers, Yellow-bellied Puffing Snake, and too much more to list. The motmot was somewhat skittish and hard to come by in Trinidad, but was what some might wrongly call a trash bird on Tobago. 

Trinidad Motmot

That afternoon, we headed to the Trincity Sewage Ponds where we picked up Yellow-HOODED Blackbird, Pied Water-Tyrant, White-headed Marsh-Tyrant, and other goodies before heading to Caroni Swamp. Once at Caroni, we boarded a boat for our evening cruise through a mangrove swamp, ending at a lake surrounded by mangrove trees adorned with Scarlet Ibis. It doesn't get much closer to heaven on earth than 1800 Scarlet Ibis streaming past and landing right in front of you.

Adult and immature Scarlet Ibis.

The next day we hopped a plane and were on Tobago in no time. It's a little trickier once you're on the ground. T&T has nice roads, but most are not up to the standards of the American stomach. After over an hour of curving along the coast we finally reached our destination just 20 miles east of the airport. Before leaving Scarborough, Tobago's "capitol", we stopped at a nice pond to bird where we were greeted by Spectacled Caiman in the afternoon sun. 

Spectacled Caiman. Smaller and stockier than your average American Alligator.

Tobago was a little more relaxed, but still birdy. We did have a leisurely afternoon off, but not before two awesome trips! The first was a boat trip to Little Tobago Island, not 2 miles out from our hotel. The targets were seabirds. On the way we saw the likes of Brown Noddy, Bridled Tern, Sooty Tern, and several others sitting on volcanic rock dripping with cacti...and poop. Despite being in a sheltered bay, the water was rough with 8 foot swells. Trying to photograph birds and look through the glass bottom boat at the reef was a disaster waiting to happen! 

Sooty Terns on the Rocks

After an interesting landing on Little Tobago, we hiked to the top where we had a nice view of the Atlantic and were at eye level with soaring tropicbirds while Red-footed Boobies sat on rocks below. It was one of those moments where you just have to stop and take it all in. This part of the world was going into their fall season while we were there, so nesting had slowed way down. We did manage to catch one tropicbird and an Audubon's Shearwater at nest, though!

Red-billed Tropicbird watching over a nest site.

Later that night, at the inn, I had a knock on my door. It was one of Dr. Kannan's students who quickly said they wanted me to get my camera and come outside. When I did, I saw Dr. Kannan standing near an Audubon's Shearwater! Shearwaters are among the groups of birds that don't come to land except to nest...or crash land on concrete thinking it is water, as this one did. Our bird had managed to make it down three stairs on its way to the water, but was probably hurt and moving very slowly. Seabirds like this are meant for flying and have very weak legs set far back on the body making it awkward to even stand up. They are unable to fly unless there's water to use as a runway. This bird was in bad shape and against its will, I picked it up to take it down to the water. Getting to hold the feisty shearwater (our smallest) was pretty cool! I like to think it was thankful because it didn't take long for it to find the water and take off like nothing happened.

Audubon's Shearwater

Our final day on Tobago found us in a rainforest preserve where we were fortunate to find more specialties like the Blue-backed Manakin, White-fringed Antwren, and the White-tailed Sabrewing; yet another hummingbird. This species was thought to be extinct on Tobago after a hurricane in the 1960's, but was finally rediscovered years later and is now fairly common along the Main Ridge of Tobago and in its rainforests. Tobago and part of Venezuela is the only home of this species worldwide.

White-tailed Sabrewing

The next day we were back in Trinidad, all awaiting flights home. Our group's trip list approached 180 species for the week, my life birds for the week totaled 112. I often get comments, as do most birders, about how a trip like this could possibly be relaxing. My answer: it's what I love to do and is what really makes me come alive. Birds and nature are my passion. What better way to spend time off than doing what you love?

For a complete set of photos from this awesome trip, visit: http://www.pbase.com/mpruitt/trinidad__tobago_2015

The Mosaic--Colobura dirce...A good note to end on!