Cuba - March 2025
Dates: March 23 - April 3, 2025
Leaders: David Ascanio & Local Leader
E-bird
Total Species: 155 birds
Click Here to view list.
Overall Summary
Our Cuba tour launched with a grand slam of endemic birds. Views of Cuban Palm Crow, Cuban Crow, nesting Cuban Parrots, Cuban Trogon, and Giant Kingbird—that last now one of the island’s most threatened species—were a magical introduction to a great tour packed with culture, superb birds, and lots of fun. We followed this great start with a drive north to the archipelago of Jardines del Rey, adding Royal Tern, Red-breasted Merganser, and a scattering of American Flamingos from the causeway.
Cayo Coco and Jardines del Rey would be our headquarters for the next day and a half. An early start led us to another of Cuba’s most difficult birds here, the Bahama Mockingbird, which we finally located as it sang from an open perch. Then we headed to the Cueva de los Jabalíes, an eBird hotspot named for a subterranean disco (only in Cuba!), where the local ornithologist, our friend Odey, feeds birds in a corner of the forest. What a blast this was! It started with the brief visit of a Worm-eating Warbler while an Ovenbird walked around right in front of us. Soon a bunch of Zenaida Doves and Common Ground Doves appeared, quickly followed by an adult male Painted Bunting and subadult and juvenile Key West Quail-Doves. As if all that weren’t enough, a pair of Cuban Green Woodpeckers were nesting nearby, while a Cape May Warbler probed the agave flowers. The non-stop show continued with Cuban Bullfinch and the Zapata Sparrow, the most recent Cuban endemic to be described to science.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for superb views of a Mangrove Cuckoo and a host of sandpipers, stilts, ducks, coots, and flamingos at a sewage pond. With all of our priority species for the area checked off, we drove out to the coastal wetlands, where White-cheeked Pintail, American Avocet, Brown Pelican, Tricolored Heron, Stilt Sandpiper, Sora, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, and White Ibis all performed nicely against the sonic backdrop of calling American Flamingos. This was truly a day to remember for years to come.
After a final relaxed breakfast in Jardines del Rey, it was time to move on. Thanks to Odey’s skill and persistence, we had very good looks at an initially frustrating Thick-billed Vireo. As we left the archipelago, roadside stops added Semipalmated Sandpiper and Wilson’s Plover to our ever-growing checklist.
After lunch in Morón, we turned south toward the Ancón Peninsula, where we birded our way through brackish wetlands and mangroves to two new locations, Cienfuegos and Trinidad. Cienfuegos produced two more of Cuba’s most difficult species, the endemic Gundlach’s Hawk and a roosting Stygian Owl. While we were enjoying a fine selection of Neotropical migrants, we also found the endemic Cuban Pygmy-Owl.
One of the most moving moments of our tour was the chance to hear the Cienfuegos Choir, the singers’ powerful voices sending chills of excitement up our spines. I felt like I was in the forest, listening to the finest performance of a mixed-species flock.
Next up was a visit to the Zapata Peninsula and the famous Bay of Pigs. Accompanied by Orlando, the ranger who feeds the birds here, we observed one of the most beautiful columbids in the Americas, the Blue-headed Quail-Dove. The forest here also added Bare-legged Owl and Fernandina’s Flicker to our list. And there could be no better way to close out the day than a close encounter with the smallest bird on the planet, the endemic Bee Hummingbird.
Our second morning on the Zapata Peninsula found us in the Santo Tomás section of the Zapata Swamp, the most significant wetland in the Caribbean. Accompanied by Frank Medina, the head of the park, we made the long drive to a wooden platform where a singing Zapata Wren had staked out its territory—another great sighting of another Cuban endemic, this one with a scientific name honoring the entomologist Fermín Cervera. We headed back to Playa Larga for a light lunch, then drove on to Soroa.
Our last two full birding days took us to Viñales, a picturesque town surrounded by amazing mogote hills that are home to yet another endemic, the Cuban Solitaire. The otherworldly song of this turdid was echoing from the walls of the mogotes when we arrived, but it took us some time to find the singer, perched on a bare branch. We also observed Cuban Bullfinch, Cuban Crow, the resident subspecies of Broad-winged Hawk, and the unique Olive-capped Warbler, found only in Cuba and the northern Bahamas.
We followed a successful morning with another amazing Cuban lunch and headed back to Soroa, stopping at wetlands and fish farms along the way to see egrets, herons, Belted Kingfisher, and the local Osprey subspecies.
By the time our last birding day dawned, we had seen all but one of the endemic birds possible on our route—the Cuban Grassquit. Thanks to our great local guide, Idalmys (Mrs. Wilson, LOL), we were granted permission to visit the famous Pig Farm, where we quickly had great scope views of an adult and two juvenile males. After a delicious celebratory lunch, we made the drive to Havana.
Havana was everything we hoped for, its culture and architecture just as captivating as we had expected. The social realities of life in the city, though, leave the visitor with mixed feelings: the unique energy, beautiful music, great sense of humor, and inspiring resilience of the Cuban people were counterbalanced by the sadness of having to constantly deal with the exhausting political battle between giants, a tension that has left a society consisting mostly of the elderly and children. Getting a sense of that reality was as essential a part of this tour as our experiences of Cuba’s natural treasures and wildlife had been.
Day-by-Day Summary
March 23 - Cultural tour downtown Camaguey. Night Camaguey.
March 24 - Sierra de Najasa. Camaguey. Road to Ciego de Avila connecting north to Jardines del Rey. Night Cayo Paredon Grande.
March 25 - Cayo Coco. Wild boar Cave. Playa Las Coloradas. Cayo Guillermo. Night Cayo Paredon Grande.
March 26 - Cayo Guillermo. Cayo Coco. Drive to Moron. Drive to Ancon Peninsula. Night Ancon Peninsula.
March 27 - Cienfuegos Botanical Gardens. Cultural visit to Cienfuegos. Night Ancon Peninsula.
March 28 - Parque El Cubano. Trinidad. Drive to the Zapata Peninsula and rice fields. Zapata Swamp. Drive to Playa Larga. Night Playa Larga.
March 29 - Bermejas. Zapata Swamp. Cueva de los peces. Casa Ana. Soplillar. Night Playa Larga.
March 30 - Santo Tomas, Zapata Swamp. Drive to Havana continuing to Soroa. Night Soroa.
March 31 - Viñales and Cave of the Indian. Mogotes and Tabacco Farm. Organic Farm and fish farm. Night Soroa.
April 1 - Soroa botanical gardens Las Terrazas and Pig Farm. Drive to Havana. Night Havana.
April 2 - Full day Havana. Night Havana.
April 3 - Departure.