Wildlife Tour with Greentours to Jamaica for Birds, Butterflies, Flowers & Snorkelling

Tours that take the strain out of enjoying Europe’s flora and fauna! Tours under this banner will be based in just a couple of good quality hotels, and will have direct flights. And most importantly field trips will be kept to a maximum of six or so hours giving you plenty of time to relax before and after.

In the fabled Blue Mountains Columnea hirsuta’s long red blooms attract the Jamaican Mango and two fantastic Streamertails, Black-billed and Red-billed, both gorgeous hummingbirds, with shimmering green plumage and two tail feathers streaming far beyond the rest of the tail. There are twenty-eight bird species found only on Jamaica, many of them colourful birds such as Jamaican Tody, Jamaican Spindalis and Green-rumped Parrotlet! Garish Gesnerias, varied Begonias, elegant yellow-tube flowered Lisianthius longifolius and Passiflora lancifolia attract butterflies such as Jamaican Harlequin and the Jamaican Kite Swallowtail. At Strawberry Hills we can watch the impressive swallowtail Papilio andraemon a butterfly about the same size as the diminutive Vervain Hummingbird, both visiting the same flowers. Nearby streams fall through broadleaf forests in pretty waterfalls as we admire Greater Antillean Bullfinch and Jamaican Oriole, whilst noisy Olive-throated Parakeets fly overhead. The brilliant green anole lizard Anolis garmani has a lemon yellow dewlap, and of a similar hue is the impressively large and common Malachite butterfly. Terrestrial orchids with sprays of yellow flowers decorate the track edge where we’ll find the Antillean Mapwing and the endemic swallowtail Papilio thersites. Upland forest on the Hardwar Gap is draped with lichens, ferns and bromeliads and here are Jamaican Lizard Cuckoo and the even more impressive Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo. Small harbours throng with Brown Pelicans, Royal Terns and Laughing Gulls, the distinctive silhouettes of Magnificent Frigatebirds ever above us. Zebra Heliconids flutter about the gardens of Goblin Hills whilst offshore is some great snorkelling and you’ll have as much opportunity to get your masks and fins on as you wish. The waters are clear and there’s good coral and a rich assortment of fish here. Nearby is forest where both Yellow-billed and Black-billed Parrots fly back and forth and where we’ll find the neatly coiffured Crested Quail-Dove.

INFORMATION

Focus

Birds, Butterflies and Flowers. Also Tropical Island Landscapes and optional snorkelling.

Leaders

Paul Cardy, Stefano Doglio,

Walking

Relaxed and easy. Up to three or four miles a day and always at a slow pace, perfectly suited to photographers.

Included in the Price

All flights. All transport, meals and accommodation in Jamaica. Services of your leaders. Please note: drinks, tips and items of a personal nature including travel insurance, are not included.

Group Size

The minimum is 5 and the maximum is 15. Only one leader will accompany a group of 8 or less.

Accommodation

We start at the gorgeous Strawberry Hill over 3000 feet up in the Blue Mountains where we’ll have two nights in very comfortable 19th century Georgian-style cottages, each carefully sited in a tropical haven with magnificent mountain panoramas all around. Next are five nights in the Goblin Hills Villas fantastically set overlooking an idyllic tropical bay, the sea a wonderful blue, the land cloaked in lush forest. Clean and bright villa rooms open out onto balconies or wide covered terraces. The first and last nights are at Morgan’s Harbour in Port Royal. In a famous scene in Dr. No, James Bond is attacked by a tarantula in one of the rooms at this hotel. All rooms on this tour have en suite facilities.

Flights

Direct return flights are available from London Heathrow to Kingston. Indirect routes from regional UK Airports* are available.

*These routes may incur a supplement.

Climate

Warm to occasionally hot. Rain can be expected during some of the afternoons.

How to Book

Contact us to check there is availability for the number of places you require. Download a booking form or contact us and we will send one to you. Complete and send to us. You will receive confirmation of your place and then a detailed information pack will be dispatched to you about twelve weeks before departure. This will contain up-to-date health information. Bird and butterfly checklists are available.