On February 17, 2023 I spent a little over two hours at Rocklands Bird Sanctuary situated around a house on a hill above Montego Bay, Jamaica. I made arrangements in advance to meet with Fritz, the caretaker, and had a private tour. When I arrived around 7:00 a.m. Fritz had just spread out feed in two areas on the ground and had filled up multiple hummingbird feeders and the place was alive with birds - I've never seen anything like it.
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| Birds gather around grain. |
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| Birds were also here, but scattered as I walked up. |
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| Red-billed steamertails and Jamaican mangos were almost a non-stop presence at these hummingbird feeders. |
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| Montego Bay below. |
Fritz indicated that the home became a sanctuary for birds about 50 years ago and the lady who had owned the home had died relatively recently. I walked around alone for awhile, while Fritz got things set up, and I took photos. Caribbean doves, common ground doves, black-faced grassquits, yellow-faced grassquits and a ruddy quail-dove fed on the feed spread on the ground. Red-billed streamertails, Jamaican mangos, bananaquits and a Jamaican oriole fed on the hummingbird feeders and other nectar feeders. Then Fritz took me down a road and up a hill where we encountered a Jamaican woodpecker, an American redstart. a northern mockingbird, a greater Antillean bullfinch, a Jamaican vireo, a loggerhead kingbird and an olive-throated parakeet. Fritz also pointed out a turkey vulture and an osprey flying at some distance away. We went back to the house and took a little trail to the side and back. There we saw a northern potoo, an ovenbird, a white-chinned thrush and finally a Jamaican owl, just as I was leaving. It was an amazing two hours.
Below are some of the photos from that morning:
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| Male black-faced grassquit. |
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| Female black-faced grassquit. |
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| Male yellow-faced grassquit. |
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| Female yellow-faced grassquit. |
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| Caribbean dove |
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| Common ground dove |
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| Ruddy quail-dove |
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| Red-billed streamertail - the national bird of Jamaica. |
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| Jamaican mango |
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| Bananaquit |
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| Jamaican oriole |
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| Jamaican woodpecker |
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| American redstart |
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| Greater Antillean bullfinch |
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| Loggerhead kingbird |
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| Olive-throated parakeet |
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| Jamaican vireo |
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| Northern mockingbird |
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| Northern potoo |
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| Ovenbird |
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| White-chinned thrush |
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| Jamaican owl |
Wow, that is a ton of birds for one location! Even in my ten minutes with you, I probably saw four or five. I do love the streamertail hummingbird. They had huge models of them flitting about the ceiling in the airport in Kingston.
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