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The Birds of St. Kitts, Lesser Antilles

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The Birds of St. Kitts, Lesser Antilles Caribbean Journal of Science, Vol. 33, No. 1±2, 1±20, 1997 Copyright 1997 College of Arts and Sciences University of Puerto Rico, MayaguÈez The Birds of St. Kitts, Lesser Antilles DAVID W. S TEADMAN,1 ROBERT L. NORTON,2 M. RALPH BROWNING,3 AND WAYNE J. ARENDT4 1Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 email dsteadman@¯mnh.u¯.edu 23408 NW 27th Terrace, Gainesville, Florida 32605 3National Biological Service, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. 20560 4U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Call Box 25000, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico 00928-2500 ABSTRACT.ÐWe document certain or hypothetical records of 116 species of birds from the Lesser Antillean island of St. Kitts. Thirty species are reported from St. Kitts for the ®rst time, most being migratory waterbirds and shorebirds. The resident avifauna features 23 species of landbirds. Two others are extirpated (Athene cunicularia, Loxigilla portoricensis grandis), as are two aquatic species (Dendrocygna arborea, Porphyrio mar- tinica). We provide systematic comments on the resident subspecies of Butorides virescens, Charadrius wil- sonia, Elaenia martinica, and Tyrannus dominicensis. INTRODUCTION Mt. Liamuiga still produces sulfuric gas- The purpose of this paper is to compile vents in its crater. all the records of birds from the West In- Most of the northern shoreline of St. Kitts dian island of St. Kitts. These records are consists of cliffs up to ca. 15 m high. The based on observations and museum speci- drainage pattern of northern St. Kitts is ra- mens, both published and unpublished, dial from the volcanic uplands. The result- covering a span of 110 years. Using mostly ing ravines (which generally are forested) our own ®eld data from the 1970's and are known as ``ghauts'' or ``guts'' and usu- 1980's, we describe the modern status and ally lack perennial streams. The Southeast habitat preference of resident landbirds. Peninsula (SP) is a low, narrow ridge of old- Our historical review of land use patterns er sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. and ornithology on St. Kitts provides a The SP has several long beaches and six sa- foundation for future studies on the avifau- line ponds. The largest pond is Great Salt na of this and nearby islands. Pond, up to 1.6 km in diameter. Other wet- lands and ponds of SP cover 241 ha (Mills, STUDY AREA 1988). The names Canada Pond and St. Kitts has an area of 176 km2, centered Greatheeds Pond are synonyms (see Dan- at 178199Nand628459W in the northern forth, 1934, 1936). In drought years, the Leeward Islands (Fig. 1). Along with St. Eu- smaller ponds dry up completely. Annual statius and Nevis, St. Kitts occupies a rainfall ranges from ca. 100 cm in the low- NW-SE trending submarine platform 80 lands of the SP to 3801 cm in the upper km long 3 16 km wide. This Cenozoic vol- elevations of Mt. Liamuiga. The major ter- canic platform is part of the western arm of restrial habitats identi®ed by Beard (1949) the northern Lesser Antillean arc (Martin- include ®ve forest types: rain forest, dry ev- Kaye, 1969; Malfait and Dinkelman, 1972; ergreen forest, palm brake, el®n woodland, Donnelly, 1989; Maury et al., 1990). The and dry scrub woodland. Evans (1990) and highest peak on St. Kitts is Mt. Liamuiga Wunderle and Waide (1994) provide gen- (formerly Mt. Misery) with an elevation eral descriptions of terrestrial and aquatic 1156 m (3792 ft). This volcano originated in habitats of the Northern Lesser Antilles. the Pleistocene and undoubtedly has been Figures 11.6 and 11.7 of Terborgh (1989) active in the Holocene. Although dormant, show the nearly completely deforested 1 2 D. W. STEADMAN ET AL. FIG. 1. St. Kitts, showing localities mentioned in the text. Shaded areas represent 1,000 ft. elevational contours. coastal plain and partially forested uplands Although sighted and named by Colum- of St. Kitts. bus during his second voyage in 1493, St. Kitts, formally known as St. Christopher, LAND USE AND VERTEBRATE INTRODUCTIONS was not settled by Europeans until the Brit- Humans colonized St. Kitts (and other ish arrived in about 1623. The British con- major islands in the northern Lesser Antil- verted much of the island to agricultural les) by ca. 2000 B.C. and perhaps earlier land, dominated by sugar cane. St. Kitts be- (Keegan and Diamond, 1987; Rouse, 1989; came Britain's most productive Caribbean Pregill et al., 1994). Like other Lesser An- supplier of sugar. By 1838, a ¯uctuating tillean islands, St. Kitts was colonized again sugar market led to economic chaos on the during ca. 500±900 A.D. by successive island, with abandoned lands reverting to groups of Carib and Taino Amerindians, re- second-growth forests. Nevertheless, much lated to the Arawaks from South America, of St. Kitts remained cleared for sugar cane on their way to similar claims in the Great- cultivation through the 19th century. Nicoll er Antilles and Bahamas (Rouse, 1989). Car- (1904:573) noted that the island ``. has ibs occupied the island at European con- been almost entirely cleared for the culti- tact. vation of sugarcane, and this, coupled with BIRDS OF ST. KITTS 3 the introduction of the mongoose, has done and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virgini- much to make birds scarce.'' anus). The Forestry Ordinance of 1904 was en- acted to prevent further deforestation and HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY ON ST.KITTS to encourage reforestation, decreeing that Historical observations and specimens of Crown lands above 300 m elevation be pre- the birds of St. Kitts date to May 1880, served for soil and water conservation. when Frederick A. Ober visited the island Thus the higher elevations on St. Kitts have for the United States National Museum, been spared complete deforestation. Mod- Smithsonian Institution (USNM). Ober col- ern land use includes vast sugar plantations lected the holotypes of Butorides virescens on arable lowlands, local market agricul- christophorenis, Loxigilla portoricensis grandis, ture, tourism development (especially from and Cinclocerthia ru®cauda pavida. George Basseterre to Frigate Bay and the SP), ®sh- Armstrong collected birds on St. Kitts for ing, and light manufacturing. The Wild the Field Museum of Natural History Birds Protection Ordinance of 1913 banned (FMNH) in January 1888. Cyrus S. Winch hunting of 18 species of birds and provided collected on St. Kitts in early 1890, resulting a regulated hunting season for another nine in specimens deposited at FMNH and a species. The total of 27 apparently re¯ected published list of 24 species (Cory, 1891). M. the number of species known on the island J. Nicoll (1904) collected seven species and at that time. The National Conservation and observed two others on St. Kitts on 12±15 Environment Protection Act of 1987 provid- February 1904. Nicoll's specimens reside in ed additional protection for threatened spe- the British Museum (Natural History). G. K. cies and habitats. Noble collected a few specimens for the Non-native vertebrates have inhabited St. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Kitts ever since human arrival. Excavated University (MCZ), in June 1914. J. L. Peters, kitchen middens of the Taino and Carib in- also of the MCZ, collected 102 skins of dicate probable prehistoric introductions birds (21 species, including 17 resident from South America, such as the red-footed landbirds) on St. Kitts from 29 January to 6 tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria), green igua- April 1922. Five of these specimens were na (Iguana iguana), agouti (Dasyprocta lepor- exchanged with the Carnegie Museum of ina), and dog (Canis familiaris) (Wing, 1973; Natural History. The Peters collection was Johnson, 1988; Pregill et al., 1994). not published (other than Elaenia martinica; Post-Columbian introductions of Old Peters 1926). Barbour (1923) reported the World mammals to St. Kitts include eight reptiles collected by Peters on this trip, dur- species transported virtually throughout ing which he also collected birds on St. Eu- the tropics, namely the house mouse, black statius (97 specimens), Anguilla (76 speci- and Norway rats, house cat, pig, goat, cow, mens), and Nevis (26 specimens). and horse. Two other non-native species on Stuart T. Danforth visited St. Kitts in July St. Kitts are the African green monkey or 1922, January 1931, August 1931, July 1933, vervet (Cercopithecus aethiops), brought by and June 1935, collecting birds for USNM. the French as a pet and established as a His list of 63 species is derived from pub- wild population since about the year 1700, lished and unpublished accounts of collec- and the small Indian mongoose (Herpestes tors and residents (Danforth, 1936). James auropunctatus), brought by the British from Bond collected landbirds on St. Kitts for the Jamaica in 1884 to reduce rat damage to Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- sugar cane (Burdon, 1920; Fedigan et al., phia (ANSP) in late December 1928 and 1985; Chapman et al., 1987). The vervet and early 1929 (Bond, 1929, 1936), and subse- especially the mongoose undoubtedly have quently included these records in his reduced populations of native amphibians, Check-List of the Birds of the West Indies reptiles, and birds. New World species in- (1956). Paul Bartsch collected a specimen of troduced in the early 20th century include Loxigilla portoricensis grandis for USNM in the Common Bobwhite (Colinus virgini- 1929 (Olson, 1984). anus), Carib Grackle (Quiscalus lugubris), Albert Schwartz and R. F. Klinikowski 4 D. W. STEADMAN ET AL. collected birds on St. Kitts for the Louisiana provide elevation, weight, and reproductive State University Museum of Zoology condition (OE 5 ovary enlarged, ONE 5 (LSUMZ) in April 1962 (Schwartz and Kli- ovary not enlarged, OSE 5 ovary slightly nikowski, 1963, 1965). George W.
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