Bahamas

I have had little time for birding so far this year, so I took the opportunity to take some photos during a family vacation on Columbus Isle, a tiny island without a huge variety of bird life. The header image is of a bird from a family that I had never spotted before; they are usually nocturnal, but the Antillean nighthawks were very active where I was during the day, including, on one occasion, a huge flock of 40 to 50 birds hunting for insects for a couple of hours, including this one:

There were a couple of other new species for me, including this White-cheeked Pintail :

A least Grebe :

And a Pearly-eyed Thrasher :

There were many Yellow-crowned Night Herons, that were almost tame :

And I found this American Kestrel to be particularly beautiful

There are a few endemics in these Islands, Wikipedia lists 8, 2 of which are extinct, and none of which I saw. One species which is quite local, but also found on a few other Caribbean Islands, was this Bahama Mockingbird :

There were also many White-crowned Pigeons, which I had only ever before seen at a distance, so I was pleased to be able to get close enough to get some good photos: