Black-billed Parrot (Amazona agilis)

The Black-billed Amazon/Parrot (Amazona agilis) is a parrot endemic to Jamaica. Sometimes called the black-billed parrot, this amazon parrot is mostly green with small patches of red on the wing and sometimes flecked on the head. Its bill makes it easy to separate from most other amazons, including the yellow-billed amazon, which also lives in Jamaica. It is the smallest Amazona parrot at 25 cm (10 in).

Since I couldn’t get a decent photo it’s Wikipedia to the rescue!

blkbldprtThey are endemic to Jamaica with a somewhat smaller range than the Yellow-billed Parrot.  We got a glimpse of one near Ocho Rios, you need a really good guide to find them!  Would have been better without the rain!

Ocho Rios2LEARN MORE ABOUT BLACK-BILLED PARROTS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Cockpit Country

VIDEO

This bird was harder to find on video.  Fast forward to 18:50 to catch a good clip of them here.

Our First Ocho Rios Visit From 2008

As I mentioned before, we had been to Ocho Rios on a previous cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas in 2008.  I had found out about the Enchanted Gardens online and we also had to do the touristy things – Dunns River Falls and the market.  We DIY’d the day.  We took a bus to and from the falls.  Then we hired a taxi to Enchanted Gardens and kept the driver for the return trip and had him drop us off at the market.  We walked through the town and visited some small shops as well, then had the traditional jerk chicken in a local non-touristy restaurant, then hit the Margaritaville and back to the ship.  Very few cruisers DIY in this port but being experienced travelers we had no problems at all!

Dunn’s River Falls

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Enchanted Gardens

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The little Olive-throated Conure on the end was the one I named Tiki.  The guide said he didn’t have a name so I gave him one!

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Ocho Rios Market

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Parking $100 per hour!  Glad we walked!

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Local restaurant – great jerk chicken!

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Shopping center near the cruise ship and Margaritaville

100_9446 100_9448 100_9450 100_9452 100_9453 100_9455 100_9458 100_9459 100_9460 100_9461Adding to our collection of parrot t-shirts!  This was a huge ship, at the time it was one of the largest cruise ships in the world but it has since been surpassed.

 

Yellow-billed Parrot aka Jamaican Amazon, (Amazona collaria)

The Yellow-billed Parrot, also called the Jamaican amazon, (Amazona collaria) is a species of parrot in the Psittacidae family. It is a predominantly green parrot with a short tail and pink throat and neck. It is endemic to Jamaica, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical mangrove forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, plantations, and rural gardens. It is threatened by habitat loss and illegal trapping of wild birds for the pet trade.

IMG_6038a IMG_6054They are endemic to the Caribbean Island of Jamaica.  We saw them while on a cruise ship visit to Ocho Rios.  They are wide-spread throughout the island.

Ocho RiosLEARN MORE ABOUT YELLOW-BILLED PARROTS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

Cockpit Country

VIDEO

It doesn’t get much better than this, a whole mini-documentary about birding in Jamaica featuring Yellow-billed Parrots!  They start at 19:20.

If you’re pressed for time, check out this hungry little guy!

 

 

Private Birding Shore Excursion – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

This was our second time visiting Ocho Rios on a cruise ship.  On the first visit (which will be covered on a separate post) we did all the touristy things – Dunns River Falls, the market and finished at the Enchanted Gardens which has a beautiful walk-in aviary.

Princess Cruises has a number of shore excursions but none of them are suitable for birders.  We arranged a private tour with top birding guide Wendy Lee.  She can be contacted by email at wendylee@cwjamaica.com and you can see another review of a land based birding tour with her on Trip Advisor.

We disembarked with trepidation as the weather was already drizzly.  Wendy was right there waiting for us and said she would do her best in spite of the weather.  I was prioritizing the 2 endemic parrot species – Yellow-billed Parrot and Black-billed Parrot.  Wendy took us to a grove of trees and sure enough the parrots were there, albeit very soggy parrots!  I did my best with the photos but I kept having to cover my camera from the rain.

IMG_6010 IMG_6013 IMG_6018 IMG_6038a IMG_6052 IMG_6054 IMG_6069 IMG_6072 IMG_6089 IMG_6098 IMG_6100 IMG_6106 IMG_6110aWendy had planned to take us somewhere else after the parrots but she said the road would be very dodgy because of the rain and the birds would be hiding anyways.  She offered to take us to her wildlife rescue instead to show us some birds rescued from poachers.  We saw a Cattle Egret along the road.

IMG_6118 IMG_6120 IMG_6123 IMG_6124 IMG_6132 IMG_6133The rain had eased off a bit as we headed back to port, getting a glimpse of the ship as we went over a hill.  The final stop was the Enchanted Gardens with the fabulous walk-in aviary.  This seems to be the best-kept secret of Ocho Rios as hardly anyone ever goes there.  The guide showed us around and since we had limited time due to the ship schedule, we only wanted to see the aviary.  We spent some quality time playing with the birds.  They give you food and the birds will climb all over you.  I think it was around $20pp to visit the gardens.

IMG_6135 IMG_6136 IMG_6137 IMG_6138 IMG_6163 IMG_6168 IMG_6169 IMG_6170 IMG_6172 IMG_6174 IMG_6144 IMG_6147 IMG_6156 IMG_6159 IMG_6161 IMG_6177I think this little guy is the same Olive-throated Parakeet I had named “Tiki” back in 2008!

After the tour, Wendy dropped us at the shopping centre near the cruise ship dock so we could visit the Jimmy Buffets and grab some parrot themed t-shirts.  We then walked back to the ship.  It turned out to be a great day in spite of the rainy morning!

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Bad photo of some jerk chicken we shared at Margaritaville.

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Two of these Dr Bird paintings are now gracing the hall between the kitchen and our home aviary!

IMG_6202Somebody else on the ship bought this – wish I had seen it first!

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How I Planned A Birding Cruise

The cruise I will be blogging about in this series took place in 2011 on the beautiful Coral Princess by Princess Cruises.  It remains to this day as the best cruise we have ever taken out of about 6 so far.  It was the perfect itinerary – birding at almost every port and not too many sea days.  Unfortunately Princess no longer does this itinerary, probably due to American passengers being afraid to travel to Acapulco and the cruise was only just over half full.  Good for us, not so good for Princess!

GETTING THERE

This cruise was done during what I call the Golden Age of Miles & Points – when there were lucrative promos and fewer people who had the expertise to exploit them.  I did the US Airways Grand Slam promo on both mine and my husband’s accounts to get over 120k miles in each our accounts.  The whole itinerary was in business class!

SINGAPORE AIRLINES:  BNE-SIN

ASIANA:  SIN-ICN-LAX

US AIRWAYS:  LAX-PHX-MEX

Open jaw for cruise, then drive to Orlando to see friend.  Fly to LAX and drive to see family using separate ticket on AA.

ASIANA:  LAX-ICN-SIN

SINGAPORE AIRLINES:  SIN-BNE

As I stated in the previous post, we arrived in Mexico 3 days prior to the cruise and spent 1 day in Mexico City at the Hampton Inn Centro Historico, saw the pyramids, took a bus to Acapulco and spent 2 nights at the Crowne Plaza on points and were upgraded to a corner suite.  We had a great view and even saw our ship the Coral Princess come in!

THE CRUISE ITINERARY

This map shows the ground transport (red) and cruise (blue).

Cruise & Flights

Here we have the cruise itinerary with timings.  Timings are always important as you see way more birds in the early morning.  We were really good about being downstairs ready to dis-embark the minute they started allowing people off.

Cruise ItineraryOUR SPECIFIC PLANS FOR EACH PORT

Huatulco – Princess actually had a bird-watching shore excursion so we did that.

San Juan del Sur – I couldn’t find anything for birding at the time so we did a Masaya Volcano/Granada shore excursion hoping to see birds incidentally.

Puntarenas – I booked a private day trip to visit Carara National Park and a bird sanctuary

Panama Canal – The ship provided commentary throughout the transit of the canal.  When we reached Colon, they only gave us a few hours to see the shopping centre at the port.

Ocho Rios – I booked a private birding tour.

FUN FACT:  I got to watch the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on the big screen at the swimming pool during the cruise even though I had to get up at 4am to do it!