Birding

Orioles of the Lesser Antilles

February 26, 2025 by Faraaz Abdool No Comments

The islands of the Lesser Antilles are famous for shorelines bordered by white sand and lapped gently at by vivid turquoise water. Further inland (not much further as the islands are quite tiny) there are surprisingly verdant rainforests concealing a variety of birds not found anywhere else in the world. Sure enough, there aren’t a lot of birds – species tallies on these islands rarely cross 20 species. But the birds that are present are highly coveted targets as many of them are single-island endemics. In this post I’ll touch on some very distinctive and familiar avian shapes: orioles. There is a host of other endemics which I’ll be covering in this talk coming up next week, also see this post on birding in the French Antilles.

Of course, given the state of the human-occupied world, these birds are all threatened due in no small part to their limited range and vulnerability to severe storms. The St. Lucia Oriole is currently listed as Endangered despite claims of it being fairly common in its namesake island. Most sightings occur in the heavily forested mountainous regions of St. Lucia, but it has also been seen in residential areas as well as some of the drier areas on the island. Of the three orioles in this post, this species has eluded me more than the others.

St. Lucia Oriole

Brood parasitism as a result of deforestation has been identified as a significant cause of the decline of the Martinique Oriole. Whether for farming or for timber, the felling of trees in mature forest has enabled the spread of Shiny Cowbird which parasitises 75% of oriole nests on the island.

Martinique Oriole

The Montserrat Oriole occupies around 48 square kilometres on its namesake island, a rarely visited gem in the northern Lesser Antilles. Most people would know of this island due to a catastrophic volcanic eruption in the mid 1990s, one which impacted most of the human population as well as the native flora and fauna. Eruptions continued into the early 2000s, with the last major eruption occurring in 2003. Massive clouds of ash blanketed two-thirds of perfect oriole habitat during this period – fortunately there is not much other pressure exerted on the Montserrat Oriole and consequently its population is considered to be stable.

Montserrat Oriole

The Montserrat Oriole is the only oriole in the Lesser Antilles that exhibits significant sexual dimorphism. While the other orioles vary in terms of saturation, their general pattern remains the same. Female Montserrat Orioles, however, are olive-green above and a dirty yellow below.

Montserrat Oriole

While there hasn’t been any eruption on Montserrat in recent times, the Soufrière Hills Volcano is still simmering.

Written by Faraaz Abdool
Faraaz Abdool is a wildlife photographer and writer with a special emphasis on birds - surely due in no small part to his infatuation with dinosaurs as a child. He leads independent small group birding tours to several destinations, from the Caribbean to Central and South America, East Africa, and the South Pacific. His photographs have been widely published in various media, from large format prints for destination marketing to academic journals on poorly documented species. Faraaz is also a bird photography instructor, his online classes run annually each (boreal) winter, and in person workshops are listed on his website.