Next month we’re turning our focus on to Puerto Rico, with our pertinently named ‘Puerto Rico Month’. Over the course of May we’ll be looking at the amazing bio-diversity of this small Caribbean island, with a particular emphasis on its special birds - and there are many! We’ll also be holding a fantastic free-to-enter competition in conjunction with Kevin Loughlin’s Wildside Nature Tours that you (yes, you!) genuinely don’t want to miss.

First though, why Puerto Rico?

During our very successful Parrot Month in January we were contacted by Hector Claudio, a passionate birder on Puerto Rico, asking us what we knew about Puerto Rico’s birds. Not very much as it turned out (and in my case very little indeed). Despite it being an “unincorporated territory” of the United States, and very easy to get to from North America, of the three of us here at 10,000 Birds only Mike had been, and none of us could name all the island’s endemic bird species. If we couldn’t, we (hopefully) reasonably assumed, then many of our readers wouldn’t be able to either. And we really ought to know our neighbours. Plans for ‘Puerto Rico Month’ were laid…

With a land area of just 3,425 square miles (8,870 km²) Puerto Rico is the smallest island in the Caribbean’s Greater Antilles but has a remarkable EIGHTEEN endemic bird species of which two - Puerto Rican Parrot and Puerto Rican Nightjar - are Critically Endangered, one - Yellow-shouldered Blackbird - is Endangered, and another - Elfin Woods Warbler - is Vulnerable. Many other scarce or localised Greater Antillean species also occur on the island, many of which are relatively easy to see here. We’ll be featuring as many of them as we can.

Highlighting the threats to very rare species and looking at the work being done to save them is one of the reasons we joined the ‘BirdLife Species Champions’ programme of course (for more info please go to our Species Champions gateway page).

More eco-tourism will - we’re assured - have a positive impact on the way local communities consider future conservation initiatives, so we also hope to inspire readers to consider making a trip to Puerto Rico and/or donating to local NGOs (including the BirdLife partner SOPI (Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc), which we’ll be posting about).

Sound interesting? Of course it does. BUT, I hear a few of you say, what about that competition you mentioned?

Okay then…

Kevin (whose photographs of Puerto Rican Tody, PR Nightjar, PR Screech-owl, PR Woodpecker and Green-throated Carib grace this post) has been organising trips to the Caribbean for many years and is generously offering two places on one of his popular short trips around Puerto Rico on which participants will be taken to as many of the island’s endemics as possible.

The Tour starts in San Juan so you’ll need to get there (flights are frequent and cheap from many major US cities) but all guiding fees, accommodations, ground transportation, and meals from dinner on day of arrival through breakfast on day of departure are included!

That would normally cost two people around 2500USD - enter and win and it’ll cost you just your passport fees, airport taxes, alcoholic beverages, laundry, phone calls or anything else of a purely personal nature! (Which - if you go easy on the celebratory beers, wear the same socks, and keep short the gloating phone calls to your jealous mates back home - really won’t amount to very much at all…)

We’ll be posting more info about this fantastic competition during our Puerto Rico Month - yes, it’s our way of making sure you come back to visit us, but why would you want to miss some truly exceptional photographs of Puerto Rico’s endemics (I’ve seen them and they are genuinely exceptional) and some of the most up-to-date info on Puerto Rico’s biodiversity on the net anyway?

Puerto Rico Month starts in May. If you’ve been to PR and would like to contribute photos or a guest post (return traffic to your blog/website should be good, folks) then please mail charlie10000birds AT gmail DOT com.