St Lucia parrots and wildlife

[crystalpalacebrooke]

Hi all, hope everyone is well. (First time posting, eek!)

 

My husband and I are going on an Eastern Caribbean cruise in January 2024, on which one of the port stops is Castries, St Lucia. We’re very keen to try to see some local wildlife, especially the St Lucia parrot (Jacquot), but to my surprise, I’m struggling to find shore excursions that are focused on wildlife spotting or bird watching. Maybe I’m not looking in the right places! Does anyone have any recommendations for excursions they’ve done from the port at Castries which went wildlife or bird spotting? Any advice greatly appreciated and received! x 

[reedprincess]

13 hours ago, crystalpalacebrooke said:

Hi all, hope everyone is well. (First time posting, eek!)

 

My husband and I are going on an Eastern Caribbean cruise in January 2024, on which one of the port stops is Castries, St Lucia. We’re very keen to try to see some local wildlife, especially the St Lucia parrot (Jacquot), but to my surprise, I’m struggling to find shore excursions that are focused on wildlife spotting or bird watching. Maybe I’m not looking in the right places! Does anyone have any recommendations for excursions they’ve done from the port at Castries which went wildlife or bird spotting? Any advice greatly appreciated and received! x 

The Jaquot loves deep in the rainforest and mainly around the southern interior. Day trios for such from a ship are tough.. heck, between myself and my partner, we've seen the Jaquot exactly twice in the wild - ans were both in our 40s. Go figure. 

You can see the Jaquot in captivity at the Agriculture and Forestry center in Union.

Birding tours are a big thing here - very little interest from visitors - but it begs the question, would there be more interest if there were actual tours? Or is the lack of tours due to lack of interest? Chicken and egg really.

 

What sort of wildlife are you expecting to see? Aside from the typical cows, horses, goats, dogs, cats, sheep, donkey - we don't really have any... No monkeys or anything like that. Snake and lizards, several of which are indigenous to the country, but you won't be seeing those in a cruise stop. 2 are only found at Maria Islands and even then, extremely rare, and the snake ; deep in the rainforest, and given it's poisonous nature, not one you want to encounter!

 

Father Nature Adventure Tours may be a good fit. Worth checking with them for something along the lines of birding... 

Or maybe Adventure St Lucia tours...

Good luck.