Jamaican forests
Among the Caribbean islands, Jamaica ranks third in size – but first in terms of the number of endemic bird species. The majority of them are tied to the original forest growth, which once covered almost the entire island. Today, however, only about 8% of Jamaica is made up of undisturbed forests.
Photo: Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
The largest areas of the original forests have been preserved in Cockpit Country, a hard-to-reach karst area in the heart of Jamaica, which even gave its name to a distinctive karst formation – the so-called cockpit karst. The landscape is densely dotted with rounded hills, around which there are deep sink holes, trenches and ravines created by tropical downpours. Although it often rains here, the water quickly drains through the limestone bedrock, so the plants must be able to make good use of it.
Cockpit Country is an important refuge for species that have lost their habitat elsewhere in Jamaica. There are a number of endemic species, with some of them limited to a single hill! At the same time, it is the most important area for birds in Jamaica; with one exception, it is inhabited by all the local endemic bird species, including both the Yellow-billed and Black-billed Amazons. In fact, 90% of all the Black-billed Amazons in the world live here!
Other interesting bird species in Cockpit Country include the endemic Jamaican Woodpecker, the widespread Red-billed Streamertail – one of the best known endemites and Jamaica’s national bird – or the tiny, insectivorous Jamaican Tody, one of the five representatives of the Todidae family, which can only be found in the Caribbean.
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Among the Caribbean islands, Jamaica ranks third in size – but first in terms of the number of endemic bird species. The majority of them are tied to the original forest growth, which once covered almost the entire island. Today, however, only...
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