No discussion of the Dominica Botanic Gardens is complete without mention of the numerous beautiful and interesting birds which make the Gardens their home. There are the various Humming Birds, the cooing Mountain Dove (Zanaida Dove), the ubiquitous Sikiye (Bananaquit), and the elegant but menacing Chicken Hawk (Broad-winged Hawk). In the Gardens, you will also see the national bird, the stunning Sisserou Parrot (Imperial Parrot). But here, these beautiful parrots are caged since this is not their natural habitat. For Bird Watchers, the Gardens is a treasure trove. It is a convenient and easily accessible location to see a wide variety of birds, both endemic and migratory. There, one can spend countless hours carefully following one species or browsing several. In this section, we give photographs and brief descriptions of the birds of the Gardens.
    Our objectives are relatively modest. We want to provide first class bird illustrations so the reader can clearly recognize the birds. At the same time, we want to compliment these illustrations with brief descriptions to help the reader get a deeper appreciation of the birds of the Gardens. The material here, both photos and descriptions, is based partly on the book, Dominica's Birds, by James, Durand and Jno.Baptiste, and partly on Internet research. The book proved to be an invaluable resource and an always intriguing read. James' Sea Birds of Dominica might also be of interest. We also consulted other references, which we note on the various Bird pages. These sources are complemented with our own observations obtained over many years of bird watching in the Gardens..
    Apart from our debt to the authors of Dominica's Birds, we want to acknowledge the contribution of 3-Rivers Eco Lodge in Dominica for the use of their Dominica bird calls.
    Finally, we also acknowledge the assistance of the many people who provided comments and photographs. We do appreciate their generous contribution.