THE BREEDING BIRDS OF BERMUDA.

Abstract

Summary. The Bermudas are a small group of oceanic islets 600 miles from land in the eastern North Atlantic. This paper is an attempt to define the unusual features of the ornithology based upon personal experience from 1940 to 1944 and a review of the literature. Many lost migrants visit the group, but the resident community is restricted to roughly twenty species, all of which were once abundant. A hawk and several sea‐and water‐birds were exterminated after the islands were colonized in the seventeenth century; the present community includes reduced numbers of aix sea‐, four water‐, and ten land‐birds, of which four at least were introduced by man and others may be recent arrivals. The Barn Owl Tyto alba and the Common Tern Sterna hirundo have colonized the group since 1930. Several other introductions which were temporarily established have died out. The smaller land‐birds are unusually abundant and exploit an unusually wide range of habitats in the absence of competition for food from related species. The numbers of the Bluebird Sialia sialis and possibly other species have fallen since the arrival of the House Sparrow Passer domesticus. Most birds are unusually tame, and show peculiarities of voice and behaviour; they nest unusually high in trees, and build large exposed nests. There are two good endemic races, Vireo griseus bermudianus and Pterodroma hasitata cahovi.