Troupial

This certainly is the most characteristic bird of our islands. Its full, melodic call is one of the first sounds heard in the early morning. With its bright orange and black feathers it makes a striking appearance on high cacti, in trees and in bushes, but it will also readily visit a well- provisioned feeding station. The juveniles are of a lighter colour, almost yellow and therefore they may be confused with the Yellow Oriole.

The adults possess territories, which they defend fiercely against intruders. The territorial and courtship behaviour is spectacular, especially as both birds call out loudly all the time.

The Troupial eats all kinds of fruits, but also insects and eggs and young ones of other birds. It builds its nest in high cacti but it may also appropriate nests of other birds. It is found on all three islands. On Bonaire it has been introduced by man and it may well become a competitor for the Pearly-eyed Thrasher there.

Description from the book, Our Birds Curacao/Bonaire/Aruba by Dr. Bart A. De Boer, published by Dieren Bescherming Curacao.

These pictures are of some troupials that live in our back yard. The second picture is of the newest addition to our troupial family and the third picture is the proud parent posing with young.

Thanks for the great pictures, Ellen! I have a small paperback "Birds of Bonaire", but it only has pencil drawings - no photos. I have indeed seen the Troupial on the cacti at Washington Park, but confused it with a visisting Oriole (although at the time I thought it too big to be an Oriole). Makes me long for spring.....

Ellen,you've come through again! The colourful bird with the musical name is a small antidote for the endless winter. Though I did see our little dun and gray sparrows in the thaw the last couple of days.Trying to get the rose hips,I guess. Love seeing the world through your eyes. Waiting for the robins/snowbirds,whichever comes first......

I promised the publisher of Our Birds Curacao/Bonaire/Aruba that I would post a picture of the cover of their book in exchange for using their descriptions. So here it is...
A wonderful book for identifying and learning about the bird life of the ABC islands. Dara, this book has color photographs accompanying all of the bird descriptions so it makes it much easier to identify the different birds.

We have used this book for a few years - Wonderful for Bonaire birds! We still have to use another book for IDs of all those little shorebirds but... Because we had this book, we found the Groove-billed Ani and Rufous-collared Sparrow. Ellen - do you have Pearly eyed Thrashers in your yard? Do they bother the other bird nests like the book says? (Very bold birds!)

Peggy, I haven't seen any Pearly Eyed Thrashers in our yard. The troupials will rob the nests of other birds although ours seem to have plenty of other food to eat and I haven't seen them do it lately once a couple of years ago a troupial was getting ready to make a tasty meal out of another bird's eggs in it's nest when my neighbor chased it away with a stick!

Wow! Another great book to buy and cherish. Thanks Ellen! Carole (they are spectacularly beautiful birds, by the way. )

Lots of introduced birds go after the 'young' of other species - and sometimes their neighbor. Since Troupials have become so common, we don't see as many yellow orioles or the flycatchers. Watching the bananaquits around the Pearly eyed thrasher, the b-quits seem to hunker down when the thrasher shows up. They don't do that when the troupial is around. Learned behavior from way back I guess. Facinating to watch the birds when we are in the hammock after lunch.

Holy troupial, Batman! Can't wait to see them in person!

Ellen, we saw the troupial on our way out of Washington Park, past Slagbaai, and also in a cactus. Lucky for us Rene had the book and we were able to identify it that evening. Thanks for the gorgeous shots.

This is the Pearly Eyed Thrasher that Peggy mentioned above. I love the eyes on these birds. They are almost haunting.



Pearly Eyed Thrasher

On the Leeward Islands this bird is only found on Bonaire. It is a principally brown coloured bird with brown stripes on the creamy white underparts. The white iris in the eye is conspicuous as is the relatively long beak. It sneaks through the bushes and is quite difficult to locate in spite of its loud alarm call. It feeds on all kinds ofjuicy fruits, but it also eats insects, small lizards, mice and even Bananaquits. Like the Chuchubi it is a notorious nest robber. Text from the book Our Birds by Dr. Bart A. DeBoer.

Ellen, I just saw your post while waiting for my tax return to print out (we are waiting to buy a new color printer and in the meantime have to rely on a VERY old deskjet that prints about one line a minute). Those piercing eyes make me think of an IRS auditor!!! And it eats other creatures too...

I really appreciate your natural history lessons.

It looks to me like the Troupial and the Thrasher could be "kissin' cousins" from the eye coloration, beak structure and body conformation. Are they indeed closely related?

Dara, the pearly-eyed thrasher is closely related to the tropical mockingbird, both are from the family Mimidae. The troupial comes from the family, Icteridae.