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Overview
Grenada is, of course, a major tourist destination, with the majority of the visitors arriving by air or cruise ship.
Birds
Notable Species
The critically endangered Grenada Dove is endemic to the island.
Rarities
Check-list
Birds you can see here include:
Pied-billed Grebe, Tropicbird sp, American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Red-footed Booby, Brown Booby, Magnificent Frigatebird, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricoloured Heron, Snowy Egret, Western Cattle Egret, Green Heron, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Osprey, Hook-billed Kite, Broad-winged Hawk, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Sora, Common Gallinule, American Coot, Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Wilson's Plover, Wilson's Snipe, Whimbrel, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, Stilt Sandpiper, Laughing Gull, Royal Tern, Rock Pigeon (intr), Scaly-naped Pigeon, Eared Dove, Zenaida Dove, Common Ground Dove, Grenada Dove, Ruddy Quail-Dove, Mangrove Cuckoo, Smooth-billed Ani, Antillean Crested Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Grenada Flycatcher, Gray Kingbird, Caribbean Martin, Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow, White-winged Swallow, House Wren, Tropical Mockingbird, Bare-eyed Thrush, Northern Waterthrush, Bananaquit, Lesser Antillean Tanager, Blue-black Grassquit, Yellow-bellied Seedeater, Black-faced Grassquit, Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, Carib Grackle, Shiny Cowbird
(Check-list compiled from birds seen on December 2005 trip by John Furse.)
Other Wildlife
Site Information
History and Use
Areas of Interest
Rex Grenadian just E of Airport, on coast N of Airport Road. A two-minute transfer from the airport. It has extensive, well-manicured grounds, with many trees and shrubs, three contiguous lakes, beach and is surrounded by thicker undergrowth, well worth investigating.
Some people would be quite content to do all or most of their birding on foot in and around the hotel grounds.
La Sagesse on S coast, S of St David’s. A beautiful bay with mangroves and lagoon. Some 30 minutes’ drive from the Rex, a few miles off the main road up the east coast.
Park by the hotel/restaurant, walk south along the beach to view the lagoon. A short, muddy track leads through the mangroves to another bay and beach. A little way along this, after pushing through the undergrowth, you can view the lagoon from the other end.
Telescope halfway up E coast, E of Grenville. A dead-end track overlooks an extensive marsh with a small lake.
Levera Pond at NE tip. Access is easy from the south; very difficult, if not impossible, from the north and west. This famous area was badly damaged by both hurricanes, and there is the threat of golf-course development. There is (was?) a visitor centre.
Laurant Point northernmost part of island. Site of Almost Paradise, small resort, views high over sea to north.
Sauteurs on N coast. Town and beach, streams.
St George’s (capital) SW coast; 2 sheltered bays. Main harbour, called The Lagoon, has roosting Royal Terns. View from roadside.
Grand Etang centre of island, just N of SW/NE main road. There is a trail called, unoriginally but accurately, the Shoreline Trail. There was much hurricane damage around the lake. This is supposed to take half an hour; in fact, it can take the best part of two hours. It is not difficult, but very muddy and reminiscent of other tropical ‘wet’ forests.
Disappointingly few species can be in evidence.
Mt Hartman on S coast, NW of Woburn Bay. The main area for the endangered Grenada Dove. Threatened by controversial development, which has occasioned an international outcry.
See Birdlife: http://www.birdlife.org/regional/caribbean/factsheet.html?action=SitHTMDetails.asp&sid=19906&m=0
Palmiste Lake halfway up W coast, S of Gouyave. There are plantations and lush vegetation here. This is accessed by a track behind the southernmost industrial buildings on Palmiste Bay. It is impossible without a four-wheel drive vehicle.
An atmospheric location but can be disappointing for numbers of birds.
Site Information
Access and Facilities
Airlines:
Grenada's Point Salines International Airport (PSIA) is open daily from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm. In the UK, British Airways, Virgin and Golden Caribbean - Excel continue to service Grenada with weekly direct flights from London's Gatwick Airport. Caribbean Airlines (formerly BWIA) has daily direct flights from London's Heathrow Airport to Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia and Trinidad, with same day connections via LIAT into Grenada.
In the US, Air Jamaica and American Eagle continue to service Grenada with direct flights from New York / Montego Bay and Puerto Rico respectively.
In Canada, Air Canada Vacations operates a weekly service from Toronto to Grenada during the Winter season (December to April) with easy connections from Halifax, Montreal and Ottawa. Year round, Air Canada and Caribbean Airlines operate regularly scheduled flights from Toronto and Montreal to Barbados and Trinidad respectively, with connections into Grenada via LIAT.
LIAT provides connections into Grenada's Point Salines International Airport, from various Caribbean islands along with connections to International flights from Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia and Trinidad.
Conviasa Airlines provides a twice weekly service from Porlamar, Margarita into Grenada.
Carriacou's Lauriston Airport continues to be serviced by daily flights from Grenada with SVG Air.
Contact Details
Rex Grenadian email: [email protected]
Rex website: www.rexresorts.com/_caribbean/_grenada/_grenadian/index.html
Almost Paradise: www.almost-paradise-grenada.com
Anthony Jeremiah email: [email protected] - website: www.Guidedbirding.com
Car hire: www.skyviews.com/grenada/carhire.html
Stanford’s, London: www.stanfords.co.uk
Scaramouche schooner: www.grenadasunsation.com
External Links
- Grenada Official Tourist website
- Online road map: http://www.skyviews.com/grenada/grenadamap.html (hard copy freely distributed by hotels, car hire companies, etc)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Grenada. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 26 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Grenada
