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Migratory Birds

Over 170 species of migratory birds have been recorded in the Cayman Islands. Of these 97 are regular visitors. This means that nearly three quarters of our bird species, have actually traveled a great distance to be here.

The location of the Cayman Islands in the western Caribbean Sea places us at an important crossroads for three main fight paths for migratory birds. These routes, are known as “flyways”: the Mississippi flyway, the Atlantic flyway and the Atlantic seaboard. They are tackled by millions of birds each year.

Flying from their summer breeding grounds in temperate North American, most migrants head south for the winter. Many remain in the Caribbean over the winter months. Others just take a break here; a brief rest-stop, before embarking on a further journey, down to South America.

Over land, flyways tend to follow topographical features: mountain ranges, river valleys and coastlines. However, at some point, most flyways pass over open-water, sometimes for hundreds of kilometers.

Birds ranging in size from large herons and raptors, to tiny warblers (weighing just a quarter of an ounce), tackle this mammoth exodus twice each year. Braving incredible distances, unpredictable weather conditions, and many featureless miles of open sea, it is a miracle of nature that they ever get here- and back again.

REFERENCE:
For more information on the birds of the Cayman Islands, see
Bradley, P. E. 1995. Birds of the Cayman Islands
Bradley, P. E. 2000. The Birds of the Cayman Islands
Raffaele et al. 2003. A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies.

For more information about our migratory species see Cornell Lab of Ornithology “All About Birds”