Celebrating Endemic Bird Festival of the Caribbean (CEBF) With us! Our theme for 2025 is “Shared Space: Creating Bird-Friendly Cities and Communities” –Bird-friendly cities and communities can highlight the key role in dealing with the decline in bird populations caused by threats such as habitat loss, predation, and climate change. Learn and enjoy the new endemic birds every day. There are coloring pages, puzzles, activities, and more. Download it for free and enjoy learning and celebrating about nature!
Endemic Birds Today: St. Lucia Oriol
It is known locally CowgeSaint Lucia Oriol It is one of the island’s most impressive endemic birds. name Karwouge It may come from French terminology.Karuji“It is used as the name of the new world Blackbird.
I remember seeing this Oriol for the first time When I was about 5 years oldfeeding me a ripe paw paw near my family’s house. It was a sight to see! My grandmother told me the name: Cowge. What she might not have known, and what I later discovered it as an adult working in the forestry department. This bird lives only in St. Lucia.
With bold shiny black feathers and bright orange belly, shoulders and rump bones, the male Saint Lucia Oriol is unmistakable. Women are similar, but they are dull in colour. The immature flaunts the overall more muted yellow-green colour. The pointy, dark bill with a grey-blue base completes the bird’s distinctive look. There are no other birds on the island.
St. Luciaoriol is primarily found in rainforests, but also in dry forests, coastal scrubs and even near town. There are a variety of diets, including insects, spiders, fruits, nectar and more.
Breeding takes place from April to June. Females weave tidy nests from grass and plant fibers, and often hang from large leaves such as bananas, barichers, coconuts and palms. She lays up to three spotted eggs and raises herself. Like many songbirds, both parents work hard to feed and protect their youth until they run away.
Sadly, St. Lucia Oriol is listed as seriously threatened and at risk by the IUCN. More research is needed, but several factors are suspected to contribute to the decline. One major concern is the brood parasitism due to shiny cowbirds (Molothrus bonariensis), an invasive species that lay eggs in the nests of other birds, tricking them into raising cow chicks. Its impact is expected to grow as Cowbirds thrive in transparent, human-like regions.
Another possible threat arises from the thrush of the naked eye (Turdus nudigenis), and can harass the Orioles, especially during nesting. Orioles, who live near banana farms, are also exposed to pesticides through contaminated food and water, where they often forage. However, due to lack of detailed research, the actual effects of cowbirds, thrush, or pesticides are not well understood.
What is clear is that it is essential to protect forest habitats and maintain healthy forest margins. These buffer zones help limit contact between the oriole and the cowbird by maintaining ecological separation.
With continued habitat conservation and research, we hope that St. Lucia Oriol will remain an important part of the island’s unique natural heritage for future generations. Find out more about this kind of range, photos, phones and more. Great news! If you are in the Caribbean, thanks to Birds Caribbean, you have free access to the birds of the world and you can know moreover in Account of this bird’s complete species!
Thank you to Arnaldo Toledo for illustration Adams Toussaint For text!
St. Lucia Oriol Color
Download the endemic bird coloring page of the West Indies. You can use the photos below as a guide, or look up bird photos online, or if you have a bird field guide, you can look up bird field guides. Post online and tag us with @birdscaribbean #cebffromthenent Share your color page
Listen to St. Lucia Oriol’s song
St. Lucia Oriol’s song is a rapid mess of whispeaks and Squeaks
The day’s puzzle
Click on the image below to do the puzzle. You can make your puzzles as easy or hard as you like. For example, you can make 6, 8, or 12 pieces for young children, and up to 1,024 pieces for those on the challenge!
The day’s activities
For kids:The female Saint Luciaoriol is an expert weaver. She builds a strong, hidden nest by carefully twisting and weaving natural materials such as grass, grape fibers and palm fibers. These nests hang firmly from tree branches, allowing the eggs to be safe and dry. Today, you practice your own weaving skills, like your mother’s oriole!
The best nest! And we complete our St. Lucia Oriol weaving activities.
For this you need:
- One sheet of construction paper or cardboard
- Assortment of ribbons, thread, fabric strips, colored paper, and more.
- Scissors
- Tape or Stapler
- Ruler and pencil (optional)
For kids and adults: Enjoy this video of St. Lucia Oriol in the Wild!
