St Lucia Birding update: March '23

Lesser noddy at Cape Vidal

It has been another wet month in St Lucia with an outrageous 230mm falling in the space of a day on the 12th March! This has kept the grasslands flooded and the wetlands topped up. Lesser moorhen are pleasantly common in the flooded grassland whilst African pygmy-goose and White-backed duck are nomadic between the different waterlily-covered wetland patches. Many of the wetlands and flooded grassland are bordering (and in many cases overlapping onto) the road on the Eastern shores at the moment offering splendid close up views of wetland waterfowl such as Squacco heron, Intermediate egret, Red-billed teal, African jacana, Wood sandpiper, White-faced whistling duck, Black-headed & Purple heron, African pied, Malachite and Giant kingfisher to name a few.


The big news of the month was the discovery of the Lesser noddy at Cape Vidal. This endearing and very confiding bird has treated many birders to fantastic views and photographic opportunities- a real rare privilege. Unfortunately, the bird has subsequently disappeared.  At the St Lucia estuary mouth the 3 African skimmer still remain and can usually be seen skimming at dawn and dusk. The rest of the day they can usually be found in amongst the sizeable tern roost which regularly holds Greater crested, Lesser crested, Common, Little, Sandwich and Caspian terns. Freshwater fish and prawns continue to wash out of the St Lucia estuary mouth on the low tide and this has become a big draw card for a Palm-nut vulture which has been a regular sight on the estuary beaches this month. Western Osprey has also been regular at the mouth recently and can often be seen hunting out at sea. Other birds seen at the mouth and surrounding beaches over the course of the month include African black oystercatcher, Eurasian whimbrel, Kittlitz’s plover, Grey plover, Common sandpiper, Sanderling, White-fronted plover, Blue-cheeked bee-eater, Brimstone canary, Sand Martin, Kelp gull and African fish-eagle.

Late summer is always more challenging in the forest with vegetation at its most rank and many birds quietening down and becoming less active. Regardless of this we have still enjoyed some fantastic sightings of Narina trogon, Green malkoha, Green twinspot, Brown scrub-robin, Black-throated wattle-eye, Bluemantled-crested flycatcher, Livingstone’s turaco, Woodward’s batis, Tambourine dove, Buff-spotted flufftail, Rudd’s apalis during the month. A lot of the action in the forest has still been centred around fruiting fig and tassleberry trees.

In the grasslands, the first signs of winter have come with the arrival of the odd Stonechat (winter visitors to the area) and even a Jackal buzzard (an uncommon altitudinal winter migrant).  The Blue-cheeked bee-eater and Barn swallow have also started to gather in large numbers preparing for their long migration to the North.

Some interesting behavioural observations this month:

We observed Grey waxbill using the abandoned nest of Dark-backed weaver as their own. The second time I have observed this behaviour around St Lucia.

We discovered another Collared sunbird nest perfectly positioned in close proximity to a paper wasp nest- an ingenious way to deter predators.

The Red-capped robin chats were heard mimicking a large assortment of bird calls including African fish eagle, Fiery-necked nightjar, African emerald cuckoo, Orange-breasted bush-shrike and Blue-cheeked bee-eater and Green malkoha.

Another mimicker, the Square-tailed drongo, was up to its usual tricks mimicking African goshawk around a fruiting fig tree, thereby chasing other birds from the area to take full advantage of the fruit fly feast on offer.
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Lastly, nocturnal birding produced nice sightings of European nightjar and African wood-owl this month with Swamp nightjar proving to be scarce.

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Lesser moorhen