Quote:
Originally Posted by clip314
I was told by some one at the tourist office that "La Palomita Turka" is the authentic pigeon of Puerto Rico. Its light brown and cute. It hardly can fly, maybe just a few feet if so. It always appears to go around in circles, not knowing where to go. Does it ring a bell?
On the other hand, "The Chango" although not Puerto Rican in origin, is a shiny black bird that can be seen everywhere. With piercing paranoid yellow eyes that resemble people on New York city Subways, they appear sharp and menacing and quick. Check them out. They're always after free bee's, always scavenging the crumbs that other people leave. Does it also ring a bell?
|
I believe "lapalomita turka" is what we call a ground dove in the Virgin Islands. Their flight is limited but they've adapted over the years to doing it better. Their natural instinct is to lay their eggs in ground nests but when mongooses were introduced here in the early 18th century the critters quickly found a great food supply which didn't require much effort and the ground dove population quickly diminished. As time went by they learned to build their nests higher off the ground and their numbers increased.
Interestingly enough, a virus affecting mongooses severely decimated their population here a few years back and, shortly thereafter, the number of ground doves concomitantly increased. The mongooses are slowly making a comeback and the ground dove population is being cut back a little.
The "Chango" sounds like one of the thrush family. Here they're "Pearly Eyed Thrashers" and are speckled brown but with those very distinctive and rather eerie eyes. They're indeed notorious thieves and scavengers but always amuse me as they have the sweetest voices normally but, when faced with danger, emit the most obnoxious guttural squawks imaginable!
The only real black bird we have here (and I imagine they're in PR too) is the ani. A rather ungainly large bird with a large hooked beak more resembling one of the parrot family, they're quite klutzy and make a lot of noise when bouncing from tree to tree. Maybe not overly smart either, they lay their eggs in big communal nests which results in the bottom layers being smashed into oblivion
They have a very distinctive and rather haunting cry and, like parakeets, hang out in communal groups.
Hope that helps!
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
