Lesser Antilles

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Trip Report – April-May 2026

NOTES:

As usual I have only listed life birds – for full list of species by area please see the bird lists below.

After a busy start to the year planning all the workshops, courses and public outreach and education events scheduled for VARC this spring, we decided to take a short birding trip to the Lesser Antilles for some of the endemics missing from our list.

We island hopped from Martinique to St. Lucia to Dominica and Guadeloupe and rented a car on each island. As we knew the species we wanted, we didn’t use guides, although we met one on Guadeloupe (Anthony Levesque) who is a really nice guy and holds the top spot in Guadeloupe with 335 species and is one of the leading birders in all the Lesser Antilles checklist area.

It was somewhat slower-paced birding than some of our other trips but thoroughly enjoyable and we managed to see all the endemics on all four islands.

Martinique

The roads here were really challenging and the habitat has been seriously degraded due to agriculture so it’s important to visit the top of the mountains – up extremely winding and poor roads.

Still, we were very happy to get all the species we wanted – and fairly easily – and perhaps the funniest endemic and life bird for us was Lesser Antillean Bullfinch – we got this at breakfast the first morning on Martinique (see photo left) and I call this photo ‘Lifer in a glass’ – sometimes it really is better to let the birds come to you!

We stayed at the French Coco Hotel and in the car park we had our first lifers: Antillean Crested Hummingbird, Lesser Antillean Saltator, Scaly Breasted Thrasher and Spectacled Thrush.

We also birded the Reserva Naturelle de la Caravelle and there we also got Martinique Thrasher.

A couple of visits up the mountain to Plateau Boucher & Jardin de Boleta gave us Lesser Antillean Flycatcher, Lesser Antillean Swift, Grey Trembler, Purple Throated Carib and finally, Martinique Oriole.

St Lucia

We stayed at the Southwest corner of the island above a small village – Soufriere – at the Green Fig Resort.

A spot on the road about 4 kms form our hotel, known at Bouton Junction, was a great spot and we did quite well: St Lucia Warbler, St Lucia Amazon and St Lucia Black Finch were all new.

The ‘White-breasted Thrasher ‘, as it’s known on eBird, delivered as promised – 2 St Lucia Thrashers flew in and sat above out heads just as we arrived, and then a St Lucia Oriole joined them.  We were also surrounded by Lesser Antillean Pewees.

But our final target – which was proving very illusive – was Lesser Antillean Euphonia. We drove towards Grand Eden Estates – it is a long way up a bumpy road, and we probably wouldn’t have continued all the way, but we bumped into the owner. He is also a bird guide that you can hire, and he was kind enough to tell us about the spot for the Euphonia – which was right by the entrance the Grand Eden Estate. So, we managed everything we needed.

Dominica

We flew to Dominica and drove straight to the Intercontinental Hotel – which is probably one of the best hotels we have ever stayed in. We were really lazy here but managed to fit in a couple of late afternoon birding outings.

First up to a spot from eBird on the Picard River where we had Imperial Parrots (2 flew overhead), Red-necked Amazon, Plumbeous Warbler and Kalinago Wren. Pretty good for about 30 minutes birding!

The next afternoon was all about Blue-headed Hummingbird – our final target. It was a bit drizzly, so we weren’t overly hopeful, but we found one feeding beside the road.

With no targets left, we moved onto our next hotel – Jungle Bay Resort and enjoyed taking some photos and hanging out for a couple of nights.

 

Guadeloupe

With only a few targets left, we took the ferry to Guadeloupe and checked into the Habitation St. Charles.

Our first morning we drove up to Corossol and a Guadeloupe Woodpecker flew over out head – we had great views of a number of them up there. But even more amazing were the number of Bridled Quail Doves we saw – a real treat. Our third lifer for the day were Brown Tremblers – and lots of them.

We were lucky enough to bump into Anthony Levesque, a Guadeloupe bird guide, and he told us the required strategy to get the Forest Thrush the next day. Following his instructions, we headed back up to the same spot early the next morning and staked it out – and we got it!!

So, all the endemics were wrapped up – and we had a relaxed time and had some great food, so it was time to head home. Great trip!

Hotels

Martinique – French Coco

St Lucia – Green Fig Resort

Dominica – Intercontinental Hotel

– Jungle Bay Resort

Guadeloupe – Habitation St. Charles

Guides & Resources:

Guides:

We didn’t use guides but came across these two:

• Contact Grand Eden Estates on St Lucia – nice guy who recommended where we could get the Euphonia which was a tricky species to find.
• Anthony Levesque (Excellent guide and nice guy who we spent some time with one morning in Guadeloupe): [email protected]

Field Guide:

Birds of the West Indies – by Herbert A. Raffaele, James Wiley, Orlando H. Garrido, Allan Keith, Janis I. Raffaele

Bird List: