Jamaican Day 4: Royal Palm Reserve

We rose before the sun and were on the road by 5am heading towards Royal Palm Reserve. To my pleasant surprise, Aurora (my non birder friend) accompanied us despite the crazy hour.  We got there at the perfect time and could hear and see many birds as the day got brighter and warmer.

That morning we saw:
Mongoose (3)

Mongoose

West Indian Whistling Ducks

West Indian Whistling Duck

Yellow warbler
Chestnut sided warbler
Tri-coloured heron

Tri-coloured heron

Great egret
Green heron
Cattle egrets

Cattle egret and why they got that name...

White-crowned pigeon
Yellow billed parrots
Eastern kingbirds
American redstarts
Glossy ibis

Glossy Ibis

Spotted sandpiper
Solitary sandpiper
Northern Jacana Juv.

Northern Jacana Juvenile

American kestrel
Common moorhen (9)

Common moorhen in the ditch

White winged doves
Turkey vultures
Ground doves
Jamaican woodpeckers
Northern mockingbirds
 Bananaquit

Bannanaquit

After a breadfruit breakfast we went to the beach and snorkeled for about a hour. There was :

 Crustaceans

Magnificent frigate
Spotted moray

Blue headed wrasse
Southern stingray
Juv french angelfish

Juv french angel fish

Foureyes butterfly fish
Balao
Yellowtail damsel fish
Reef squirrel fish

After dinner Chris and I saw 7 smooth billed ani in the backyard. At first seeing the black birds in the tree got me very excited because there are two endemic birds that I haven't seen  that are black> Jamaican crow and Jamaican blackbirds.