Occurrence and Condition of Migrating Swainson's Thrushes in the British Virgin Islands

摘要

Swainson's Thrushes (Catharus us-tulatus) migrate widely throughout North and Middle America. In the Caribbean, the species is known to occur only in the western-most Greater Antilles, and there only as a rare migrant. We captured and visually detected migrant Swainson's Thrushes beginning in 2000 at a banding station on Guana Island, British Virgin Islands. The majority of thrushes captured were adults (79%) and most had no (71%) or little fat (12%) reserves at time of capture; 61% were classified as being in emaciated or poor condition. The poor physiological conditions may have resulted from longer over water flights rather than island hopping.