Cat’s Hill Teak Fields 2009.08.02

Highlights: Lesson’s Seedeaters

The rains are here at last and the teak trees of the Cat’s Hill fields have regrown their leaves, once again making it very difficult to see inside. However the diversity of birdlife found here very often amazes me (teak forests in Trinidad and Tobago are usually devoid of much wildlife) and today was no different.

I came across a total of 5 Lesson’s Seedeaters feeding along the road.

Three males and two females/immatures. Sounding like a low pitched Tropical Parula, the singing males were easy to locate atop the teak trees. Other Trinidad forest birds typically seen in these plantations include all three honeycreepers, Bay-headed and Turquoise tanagers, White-bearded Manakins and Violaceous/White-tailed Trogons. Such a range of fruit-eating birds is unusual for such a forest as the trees themselves produce no edible fruit and fires regularly clear the undergrowth. And yet I have come across Gray-necked Wood Rails and regularly hear Little Tinamous too!