Wildlife Photography Hides in St Lucia

Saint Lucia combines one of the Caribbean's greatest bird recovery stories with the most dramatic landscape backdrop available for any wildlife photography in the Lesser Antilles. The St Lucia Parrot (Amazona versicolor, locally known as the Jacquot) was reduced to fewer than 100 wild birds in the early 1970s; an intensive conservation awareness campaign, hunting ban, and habitat protection programme have rebuilt the population to approximately 500–600 wild birds — the most successful island parrot recovery in the eastern Caribbean. Forestry Department guides lead pre-dawn parrot excursions into the Quilesse and Piton Flore forest reserves, where flocks of 10–30 birds assemble at dawn feeding points. The same forest reserves hold four other St Lucia endemic birds: the St Lucia Oriole, St Lucia Warbler, St Lucia Black Finch, and the Endangered White-breasted Thrasher (shared only with Martinique). Leatherback Sea Turtle nesting on Grand Anse beach is monitored by the SLSTMN from March onwards. Whale watching from Soufrière delivers Humpback and Sperm Whale against the backdrop of the Pitons — the twin volcanic spires that are the Caribbean's most iconic landscape. Anse Chastanet's reef, directly below the Pitons UNESCO management area, is one of the Caribbean's finest shore-accessible coral gardens.