Maria La Gorda, Cuba

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Nestled on the Guanahacabibes peninsular on the western most tip of mainland Cuba, this primarily diving complex was our base for two days. The area consists of a thin strip of powdery sand backed by mangrove swamps, our time constraints meant that we concentrated our birding near the complex. Heading out of the gates and continuing along the road there are large areas of dense vegetation that with a little work yielded Great Lizard Cuckoo, Ruddy Quail Dove, Stripe Headed tanager, Yellow Headed warbler, both species of Grassquit and a treat in Giant Kingbird. A further 500metres up the road from the complex gates we find a path on the RHS with a couple of small dried pools here we flushed Killdeer. Also present were all the species seen earlier as well as Smooth Billed Ani, Cuban Emerald and possible Grey Headed Quail Dove (Fleeting view only). My attention was drawn to the calls of a hummingbird that differed to that of the Cuban Emerald, after a while I located this bird (I was getting excited about getting to grips with Bee Hummingbird, the smallest bird inn the world). On closer inspection this didnÂ’t have the characteristics of Bee Hummingbird and it took a while to determine that this was in fact Ruby Throated Hummingbird, a good North American migrant to find. With limited time to actually go and explore the whole of the peninsular, we feel that there were many more gems that we missed, one of the disadvantages of our whistle-stop tour. We were happy with the time spent here as we only decided to travel here when all the places we wanted to stay in the Vinales valley had been fully booked, giving us the choice to stay in Pinar del Rio itself or travel to Maria la Gorda.

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