Guadeloupe

Lesser Antillian Bullfinch Loxigilla noctis ©Dick Daniels Website
Birding Guadelopue

Guadeloupe is an island group or archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea at Coordinates: 16°15′N 61°35′W, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres (629 sq. mi). It is an overseas department of France. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe is also one of the twenty-six regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic. As part of France, Guadeloupe is part of the European Union; hence, as for most EU countries, its currency is the euro. However, Guadeloupe does not fall under the Schengen Agreement. The capital of Guadeloupe is Basse-Terre.

Guadeloupe comprises five islands: Basse-Terre Island, Grande-Terre (separated from Basse-Terre by a narrow sea channel called Salt River) with the adjacent islands of La Désirade, Les Saintes and Marie-Galante. Basse-Terre has a rough volcanic relief while Grande-Terre features rolling hills and flat plains.Further to the north, Saint-Barthélemy and the French part of Saint Martin once came under the jurisdiction of Guadeloupe but on December 7, 2003, both of these areas voted to become an overseas territorial collectivity, a decision which took effect on February 22, 2007.

Contributors
Number of Species
  • Number of bird species: 278

    (As at September 2018)
Endemics
  • Number of endemics: 1

    Guadeloupe Woodpecker Melanerpes herminieri
Checklist
  • iGoTerra Checklist

    iGoTerra Checklist
    Fatbirder Associate iGoTerra offers the most comprehensive and up to date birds lists on the web
Useful Reading

  • The Birds of the West Indies

    | By Guy M Kirwan, Anthony Levesque, Mark W Oberle & Christopher J Sharpe | Lynx Edicions | 2019 | 400 pages, 1600+ colour illustrations, 650+ colour distribution maps | ISBN: 9788416728176 Buy this book from NHBS.com
Museums & Universities
  • Acopian Center for Ornithology

    Webpage
    The Biology Department at Muhlenberg College is composed of distinguished faculty who are highly engaged in their teaching and research, and students who are equally enthusiastic about studying the diversity of life in a liberal arts environment.
Reserves

Abbreviations Key

  • NNR IBA Petite Terre Islands

    InformationSatellite View
    Bird Life International has identified the reserve as an Important Bird Area (IBA) bird reserve. In the forest habitat of Basse-Terre, the IBA-identified species reported are: Least tern (Sterna antillarum), Purple-throated carib (Eulampis jugularis), Green-throated carib (Eulampis holosericeus), Antillean crested hummingbird (Orthorhyncus cristatus), Caribbean elaenia (Elaenia martinica), Scaly-breasted thrasher (Margarops fuscus), and Pearly-eyed thrasher (Margarops fuscatu)
  • NNR La Désirade

    InformationSatellite View
    The reserve, with an officially designated area of 62 ha (153 acres), is in the eastern part of the island of Desirade which covers an area of 22 square kilometres (8.5 sq mi). It is to the east of Grande-Terre in the Guadeloupe archipelago.
  • NP Guadeloupe

    InformationSatellite View
    Guadeloupe National Park (French: Parc national de la Guadeloupe) is a national park in Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France located in the Leeward Islands of the eastern Caribbean region. The Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin Nature Reserve (French: Réserve Naturelle du Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin) is a marine protected area adjacent to the park and administered in conjunction with it. Together, these protected areas comprise the Guadeloupe Archipelago (French: l'Archipel de la Guadeloupe) biosphere reserve.
Trip Reports
  • 2015 [02 February] - Keith Millar - Lesser Antilles

    PDF Report
    My focus was on seeing the island endemics (15 species) and as many range restricted birds aspossible in the time (and with the money) I had available. Helpfully, several islands I could ignorecompletely, there being no special ornithological imperative to visit - no offence! I flew fromLondon Heathrow to Antigua. From there (using Antigua as my base) I first travelled to theneighbouring islands of Barbuda and Monserrat and then proceeded south down the chain ofislands to Guadeloupe, then Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenada and Barbados.
  • 2016 [04 April] - Jesse Fagan - Lesser Antilles

    Report
    10 islands, 14 days, 14 flights, 8 hotels, 1 visit to the emergency room, drive on the right, drive on the left,...you get the picture. It requires a lot of action and movement to see these birds! And see them we did. It was another successful island-hopping adventure this year, and the logistics worked out fine on this logistically complicated tour. Even island time seemed faster. Mark recovered in fine fashion. And we also got all the potential endemics.
  • 2017 [06 June] - Mark Van Beirs - Lesser Antilles & Trinidad

    PDF Report
    Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Santa Lucia, Saint Vincent, Barbados and Grenada were the ten islands we visited on our recent Lesser Antilles tour. Some are independent countries in their own right, while others are Overseas Territories.
Places to Stay
  • Hotel La Toubana

    Accommodation
    Hilltop bungalows overlooking the Caribbean Sea and leading down to a beach at Sainte Anne…
Other Links
  • Flora & Fauna

    Website
  • Guadeloupe Woodpecker

    Information
    These dark woodpeckers are endemic to the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. They are classified as “near threatened” due to both human and hurricane destruction of suitable habitat...

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