List of birds of Vieques
These birds are adapted to an aquatic existence with webbed feet, bills which are flattened to a greater or lesser extent, and feathers that are excellent at shedding water due to special oils.
Order: Galliformes Family: Numididae Guineafowls are a group of African seed-eating, ground-nesting birds resembling partridges, but with featherless heads and spangled gray plumage.
Their oddly shaped beaks are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they consume and, uniquely, are used upside-down.
Order: Apodiformes Family: Apodidae Swifts are small birds which spend the majority of their lives flying.
Order: Apodiformes Family: Trochilidae Hummingbirds are small birds capable of hovering in mid-air due to the rapid flapping of their wings.
The most typical family members occupy dense vegetation in damp environments near lakes, swamps or rivers.
Order: Charadriiformes Family: Haematopodidae The oystercatchers are large, obvious and noisy plover-like birds, with strong bills used for smashing or prising open molluscs.
They are small to medium-sized birds with compact bodies, short, thick necks and long, usually pointed, wings.
Different lengths of legs and bills enable multiple species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food.
Terns are a group of generally medium to large seabirds typically with gray or white plumage, often with black markings on the head.
Order: Phaethontiformes Family: Phaethontidae Tropicbirds are slender white birds of tropical oceans, with exceptionally long central tail feathers.
Order: Procellariiformes Family: Procellariidae The Procellariids are the main group of medium-sized "true petrels", characterized by united nostrils with medium septum and a long outer functional primary.
Order: Ciconiiformes Family: Ciconiidae Storks are large, heavy, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long stout bills and wide wingspans.
They lack the powder down that other wading birds such as herons, spoonbills, and ibises use to clean off fish slime.
Having the largest wingspan-to-body-weight ratio of any bird, they are essentially aerial, able to stay aloft for more than a week.
Members of Ardeidae fly with their necks retracted, unlike other long-necked birds such as storks, ibises and spoonbills.
The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is a medium large raptor which is a specialist fish-eater with a worldwide distribution.
Order: Strigiformes Family: Strigidae The typical owls are small to large solitary nocturnal birds of prey.
Order: Coraciiformes Family: Alcedinidae Kingfishers are medium-sized birds with large heads, long, pointed bills, short legs and stubby tails.
Order: Piciformes Family: Picidae Woodpeckers are small to medium-sized birds with chisel-like beaks, short legs, stiff tails and long tongues used for capturing insects.
Order: Psittaciformes Family: Psittacidae Parrots are small to large birds with a characteristic curved beak.
Order: Passeriformes Family: Tyrannidae Tyrant flycatchers are Passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America.
They have a slender streamlined body, long pointed wings and a short bill with a wide gape.
Order: Passeriformes Family: Turdidae The Thrushes are a group of passerine birds that occur mainly but not exclusively in the Old World.
Order: Passeriformes Family: Ploceidae Weavers are a group of small passerine birds related to the finches.
These are seed-eating birds with rounded conical bills, most of which breed in sub-Saharan Africa, with fewer species in tropical Asia.
Order: Passeriformes Family: Estrildidae The estrildid finches are small passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia.
These birds have a bouncing flight with alternating bouts of flapping and gliding on closed wings, and most sing well.
Order: Passeriformes Family: Passerellidae New World sparrows are seed-eating birds with distinctively shaped bills.
