Bird Watching in Tobago

Exotic is the term that best defines Tobago bird watching, an exciting and rewarding experience for bird watchers. Tobago is the smaller island of the Trinidad and Tobago nation, the southern most island of the Caribbean, located off the East Coast of Venezuela.

Tobago bird watching focus on the marine environment and coral reefs as an unusual setting for bird watching. This island is home to numerous colonies of nesting Red-billed Tropicbirds, Magnificent Frigate birds, and Red-footed Boobies. Tobago is the place where introduction to birding in South American began.

Tobago has around 150 to 200 bird species of the 467 recorded in both Trinidad and Tobago. However, Tobago is a drier island, further offshore than Trinidad. It offers great birding with species not found anywhere else in Central America, including specialty birds, such as the Caribbean Martin, White-fringed Antwren, and Pale-vented Pigeon.

Birds of Tobago are not usually seen on Trinidad, the reason why it is convenient to take one of the many local tours, or schedule a bird watching activity with your actual tour operator. Another advantage of ecotourism and bird watching at Trinidad and Tobago is migration.

Some bird watching ventures are scheduled around the dates when birds form North America and other Caribbean Islands migrate to Tobago, adding a rewarding experience to bird watching. Tours offer visitors the nonpareil opportunity to watch jacamars, cocricos, hummingbirds, peregrine falcons, white-tailed sabrewings, ruby-topaz, and more.

However, you can simply travel to Tobago pretty much any time of the year for good birding. Once there, planning a bird watching excursion is easy, particularly with the help of islanders who know better than anyone else where the best birding viewpoints are located. In fact, most hotels and resorts strongly suggest not engaging in bird watching without a local guide.

If you are making the decision to head to Tobago for some bird watching, you can pick up an excellent book written by William Murphy - A Birder's Guide to Trinidad and Tobago. Murphy knows his stuff.