Renowned as one of the Caribbean’s favorite bird gazing holiday hubs, Turks and Caicos truly packs a punch when it comes to the sheer number of winged inhabitants sheltered within its tropical confines. Regarded as a location where birders can observe the stunning creatures that call this wondrous island home in their natural habitat, there is no finer venue for bird watching in all of the British West Indies than the verdant landscapes of this picturesque island.
Salt Cay is the self-proclaimed bird watching heartland of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and is deemed so due to its meager human population and vast reserves full of salt flats and forests of mangroves. These environmental factors make Salt Cay ideal for bird watching activities and nature excursions as the peace and quiet required for the popular pastime are a given in this idyllic corner of the islands. Visitors can spot migrating birds on their way towards the Bahamas as well as native bird life in the salt flats of the Cay. Highlights include the Yellow Throated Warbler, Mangrove Cuckoos, Bahama Mockingbirds, Bahama Woodstars, Blue Grey Gnatcatchers, and the Belted Kingfisher. Mourning Doves, Great Blue Herons, Smooth Billed Anis and Pink Flamingos are also crowd favorites at the venue in addition to White Cheeked Pintails, American Coots, Black Necked Stilts, Western Sandpipers and American Oystercatchers.
Other bird watching locales in Turks and Caicos include the Northwest Point National Park in Providenciales. Blessed with picture-perfect shores and coastline pelicans, varied seaside bird varieties are also commonly found here while other highlight birds occupying the marshes and mangroves surrounding the park’s two saline ponds include Greater Yellowlegs, Ospreys, Sanderlings, Bank Swallows, Tricolored Herons and Reddish Egrets. Roseate spoonbills, West Indian Whistling Ducks and Yellow Crowned Night Herons are also among the species that call this sanctuary home.
West Harbour Bluff’s covered beaches and hilly terrains on the other hand serve as a lush home to White Tailed Tropic Birds, King Fishers, Brown Pelicans, gulls and Yellow Crowned Night Herons while the Frenchman’s Creek and Pigeon Pond Nature Reserve’s mud flats boast Bananaquits, Great Egrets, Antillean Nighthawks, Green Herons and Thick-billed Vireo as well as American Kestrels, Ruddy Turnstones and terns. The 3-mile-long coastline of Frenchman’s Creek National Park is another treasure trove for birders as the area is infested with Willets, Antillean Nighthawks, Reddish Egrets and Yellow Crowned Night Herons.
Travellers in search of the best health and wellness Retreats in Shambhala should look into the COMO Shambhala as an option for all their accommodation needs. Regarded as a premier wellness retreat for holidaymakers and corporate visitors, this stylish rest pulls out all the stops when it comes to a relaxing vacation.