The Birds of San Fernando Hill (Trinidad and Tobago)

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. -- Richard Feynman.

The quote by Feynman is in the context of something that his father taught him at a young age - in a book about what he had found out about things. This online work is not so different.

In 1999, when I visited Trinidad to see my father after years abroad, I met a man who had - sometime when I wasn't looking - started feeding the birds on San Fernando Hill. While I sat in my usual spots in the house doing my usual things (reading, writing, rithmetic) it became hard not to observe the birds. A year later, when I returned to assist the old man, he too had developed an interest in the birds and had engineered a feeder that - aside from being able to feed about 10-20 birds at a time - conveniently dropped refuse on passing cars which honked their horns as well as those that would park to block the gates. This was his joke and revenge on those that disturbed his peace, I suppose, and that feeder stayed in that position until after he died - when I moved it to the back of the house where it was less of an issue and where there was more foliage for the birds to hang out.

During the last 10 years of his life, he became more interested in birds - but wasn't interested enough to read up on them. He purchased a copy of Birds of Trinidad and Tobago and pointedly left it where I normally sat - his way of telling me, 'Read this so that I can gain the knowledge'. Over the years, he had accused me of reading too many textbooks and not enough novels (would that he really knew the truth...), and over time this became his way of handling anything that involved formal knowledge. Hand Taran the book, discuss the book with Taran, then tell Taran that he had it all wrong because his observations varied. Sometimes he was right, sometimes he was wrong, but he always had his own observations and stood by them - an enviable thing in a world full of people that only read about the world that they live in.

My job, therefore, was to identify birds and tell him what others had seen - in this case, the writings of Richard ffrench and Roger Neckles. The wildcard in this deck of observations were my own - I was the one doing the yardwork, though not nearly as much as my father seemed to want. I was the one who sat in view of the birds while reading; my father was out most of the time while my writing and programming jobs had me tied inexorably to one geographic spot: here. My observations, over time, did not always coincide with those of the authors of the book. On top of that, I found blind spots in the knowledge which lead me to research my own information, since the diminutive book was not as informative as I needed.

Even so, my own observations varied from much of what I had read. Perhaps my father and I had changed the ways some birds had done some things by feeding them large quantities of bananas and bread. I cannot say, and it would be foolish for me to do anything but stand by what I have observed and compare it to what I have read. This online work is in no way a rub at the authors of books about birds in Trinidad and Tobago - consider it an amateur supplement by someone who has grown to appreciate the birds in a habitat that borders the former majesty of San Fernando Hill - where the concrete jungle has produced an artificial preserve near housing, where iguanas frequent my backyard and manicou are hunted to extinction so that they don't reside in someone's roof.

It is a dieing frontier. I am almost certain that in 10 years the ecosystem will be gone. Pollutants, noise, insecticides, the tailoring of lawns which destroys the seeds many birds eat and the destruction of fruit producing trees will eventually change the way things will be. I can only tell you what I see now - and that is what this amateur supplement is about. I could have contributed much of this to the Wikipedia, but there is a tendency in the Wikipedia to remove opinions not already published - and since my observations do not always jive with published works... so be it. If you do visit some of the Wikipedia articles at the time of this writing, you may note that I made some of my images available. That is presently my extent of collaboration on Wikipedia until I am comfortable with how the administrators do things. Besides - I can publish here.

This online book does serve another purpose - to let people outside of Trinidad know that Port of Spain does not encompass the entire country. We may be so fortunate that people in Port of Spain and its environs may learn from that as well.

Without further ado, in alphabetical order of their common English names, I present my unfinished observations and photographs of the birds of San Fernando Hill, Trinidad - a project not ended, but finally begun.

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