In January 2026, My friend Jan and I went on a self-organized 11-days birding trip to Puerto Rico.
Please find hereunder the relevant information about Puerto Rico that I gathered in preparation of our trip, together with our itinerary/trip report.

General Route
This tour took me and Jan on a great adventure circling the entire island of Puerto Rico, which officially belongs to the territory of the USA. Puerto Rico is an island 1,600 km southeast of Miami, Florida and just east of the Dominican Republic. Its capital city is San Juan.
Many species are specialized in certain regions of Puerto Rico, so it was important we visited all corners and spend enough time there to target them.
We began in San Juan in the northeast section of the island. From here we drove in our rental car  west across the northern coastline visiting Reserva Naturel de Manati and Cambalache State Forest. In a magical place between Cambalache and Rio Abajo, we stayed 2 nights in the wonderful B&B TJ Ranch from where we visited nearby places like Rio Abajo State Forest. TJ Ranch proved to be the nicest and most comfortable place where we stayed during our whole trip.
After a few days we then drove down the western edge to the more relaxed town of La Parguera, visiting places such as Maricao Forest Reserve Refuge, a very exciting place for endemics like Puerto Rico Tanager, PR Bullfinch etc.
We stayed here for three nights in Parador Guánica, 10km east of La Parguera and birded the exciting southern coast line of the island. Next, we drove the southern coastline east visiting places like Guánica State Forest, Jobos Bay Natural Reserve and Aguirre Forest Reserve, into El Yunque National Forest where we end up staying at Casa Cubuy Ecolodge in the middle of the rainforest for the final three nights of the trip. Here, we explored the southeast and eastern reserves of the island including Humacao Nature Preserve and Corredor Ecológico del Noreste. Finally, we drove back to San Juan for the trip’s conclusion and departure home.

Puerto Rico Endemics
The island has 18 endemic bird species (and some subspecies), unique to this island:
Puerto Rican Screech Owl, Puerto Rican Flycatcher, Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo, Puerto Rican Pewee, Puerto Rican Woodpecker, Puerto Rican Spindalis, Puerto Rican Parrot, Puerto Rican Tody (or San Pedrito), Puerto Rican Nightjar, Adelaide’s Warbler, Green Mango, Puerto Rican Emerald, Elfin-woods Warbler, Puerto Rican Vireo, Puerto Rican Oriole, Puerto Rican Bullfinch, Puerto Rican Tanager and Yellow-shouldered Blackbird.
16 of these can be seen in the very South-West corner of the island. We managed to see 12 of them, all by ourselves and without a local guide pointing them out to us!

Flight
Wed 14 Jan 2026: Amsterdam (11:00) – Washington (14:00 / 17:32) - San Juan (22:22) (9h + 4h)
Sat 24 Jan 2026: San Juan (10:15) – Houston (13:25 / 15:55) – Amsterdam: (08:35 +1) (5h + 9.5h)
United: Euro 802 (Economy)

Time to visit
The best months for birding are November thru February when also migratory birds come here. We decided to go in January, the perfect time to visit.

Weather
The coldest month is January. The average daily temperatures in Puerto Rico in January range between 21°C and 26°C . The days were pleasantly warm and the humidity was actually quite good. Only in El Yunque, we faced some heavy rainfall.

Books
Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands – Princeton Field Guide 2021

Accommodation
- Caribbean Stars San Juan Airport, 1 night: Euro 64. GPS: 18.426513, -65.983120
- TJ Ranch (reservation: info@tjranch.com): Between Cambalache and Rio Abajo, 2 nights: USD 173 p.n. incl. breakfast. GPS: 18.335351, -66.639842
- Parador Guánica 1929, 10km east of La Parguera, 3 nights: Euro 300. GPS: 17.971775, -66.927174
- Casa Cubuy Ecolodge, Room nr. 2: 3 nights: USD 588 incl. taxes & breakfast. GPS: 18.260809, -65.796709

Car Rental
ACE Rent a car (at airport): 10 days: Euro 586 (mid-size car)
Pick-up: 14 Jan - 23:00
Drop off: 24 Jan - 09:00

Itinerary (11 days/10 nights)

Day 1    W 14 Jan - Arrival San Juan International Airport; Night at Caribbean Stars San Juan Airport
Day 2    T 15 Jan - Reserva Naturel de Manati + Cambalache; Night at TJ Ranch
Day 3    F 16 Jan - Rio Abajo; Cambalache (afternoon); Night at TJ Ranch
Day 4    S 17 Jan - Rio Abajo; Guánica State Forest (afternoon); Night at Parador Guánica 1929
Day 5    S 18 Jan - Maricao + Boqueron NP; Laguna Cartagena (afternoon) + Parguera area; Night at Parador Guánica 1929
Day 6    M 19 Jan - Maricao + Tamarindo Beach (Guánica); Night at Parador Guánica 1929
Day 7    T 20 Jan - Tamarindo Beach (Guánica) + Aguirre + Humacao; Night at Casa Cubuy Ecolodge
Day 8    W 21 Jan - El Yunque + Corredor Ecológico del Noreste (afternoon) + El Yunque Visitor Center; Night at Casa Cubuy Ecolodge
Day 9    T 22 Jan - Humacao + El Yunque; Night at Casa Cubuy Ecolodge
Day 10  F 23 Jan - El Yunque + San Juan coast + San Juan Botanical Garden; Night at Airbnb San Juan
Day 11  S 24 Jan - San Juan; flight to Amsterdam (10:15)

Birding Hotspots

Reserva Naturel de Manati
35 km west of San Juan. Follow Road PR-616 through a variety of habitats, with at the end Playa Esperanza (GPS: 18.480273, -66.518849). Walk through the small forest area up to the beach and look here for Brown Noddy and Roseate Tern. Such a lovely place!

Cambalache State Forest
Parking: GPS: 18.452466, -66.597164. A beautiful lowland forest loaded with endemic birds. A productive morning can yield up to half of the island endemics and this area is a favorite spot for Puerto Rican Bullfinch, Puerto Rican Woodpecker, Puerto Rican Vireo, Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo, Puerto Rican Spindalis, Adelaide’s Warbler, and Puerto Rican Tody. In addition to the endemics, these trails are normally full of other great species such as Bananaquit, Black-faced Grassquit, Black-whiskered Vireo, Smooth-billed Ani, Red-legged Thrush, Ruddy and Key West Quail-Doves, to name a few.

Rio Abajo State Forest
Rio Abajo State Forest which is absolutely the best site for spotting the critically endangered Puerto Rican Amazon (and we saw a few!). Access to known nesting areas is not always possible due to the strict management of these birds and recent weather conditions such as hurricanes.
Park here: GPS: 18.331035, -66.706410. Park along the side of the road but do not block either entrance. Here you find a closed gate that leads to an abandoned campground. You can walk around here and there are benches where we had our sandwiched from  our lunch packages. The concrete road basically ends here but if you follow the road a bit further on foot, you will find the parrot conservation center after some 2 km. Search here for the critically endangered Puerto Rican Parrot and the Green Mango and Puerto Rican Emerald.
Go to the limestone areas to get some of the more common endemics like: Puerto Rican Vireo, Puerto Rican Bullfinch, Puerto Rican Flycatcher and Adelaide’s Warbler.
Rio Abajo state forest is also a good place for north American migrants like Worm-eating Warblers,  American Redstart, Black-throated Blue Warbler and Northern Parula. We loved this place and visited it twice!

Maricao Forest Reserve
Cloud-forest / montane habitat — excellent for high-elevation species, endemic and near-endemic specialties, and scenic mountain birding. A must for endemics that prefer cooler uplands. This reserve has Scaly-naped Pigeons, Loggerhead Kingbird, Puerto Rican Spindalis, and Antillean Euphonia. Above 3,000 feet you may encounter two endemics restricted to this elevation: the Elfin-woods Warbler and Puerto Rican Tanager. Elfin Woods Warbler was only discovered in 1968 and is restricted to high humidity, high altitude forests with elfin (dwarfed) trees. The trails here are an excellent place to find this fascinating bird as well as Puerto Rican Oriole, Scaly-naped Pigeon, and Puerto Rican Flycatcher. There are basically three interesting birding spots here:
1. There is a trail at the 16.8km road marker (GPS: 18.156708, -66.997682). You park just next to the road in front of a gate. Behind the gate, a trail (head North-West) starts that runs along a narrow ridge and goes gently downhill for about 1 km through intact elfin forest, and is incredibly birdy. This trail is the island's most reliable site for Elfin-woods Warbler (we didn’t see it!) and Puerto Rican Tanager is also very common here. Because of the narrowness of the ridge, most of the bird activity along the trail will be concentrated in a very thin strip of vegetation on either side of the trail, making birds highly visible and easy to spot. You’ll see Puerto Rican Woodpecker, Puerto Rican Tanager, Puerto Rican Spindalis, Puerto Rican Bullfinch, Puerto Rican Tody and Bananaquit. What a lovely place!
2. Approximately 700m east on Rt. 120, at the 16.1 km marker (GPS: 18.145879, -66.980954), is a small park complex for park rangers and outdoor activities. Several trails can be explored in this park complex, which is at a slightly lower elevation than the previous site and is good habitat for many endemic species, as well as other widespread Caribbean birds and overwintering Nearctic warblers including Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warbler, American Redstart and Black-and-white Warbler - care should be taken to avoid confusion of the latter with the endemic Elfin-woods! Adelaide's Warbler is occasionally seen here, though they become more common at low elevations. 3. The third site, 1-2km east from the park complex (depending on which exit is used), is the Torre de Piedra (GPS: 18.144444, -66.979823), a stone tower with views of several nearby peaks. During courtship season in late winter and early spring, the dramatic display flight of male Puerto Rican Sharp-shinned Hawk can occasionally be seen shortly after sunrise. The surrounding forest is filled with Caribbean species and several island endemics.

Cabo Rojo Wildlife Refuge Salt Flats
Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge, should be a great location for seabirds and shorebirds. The mudflats here should be teeming with wintering species such as Wilson’s and Semipalmated Plovers, Black-necked Stilt, Least Sandpiper, and Royal Tern. There is a lighthouse from where you can scan the sea in hopes of spotting a White-tailed Tropicbird or Brown Booby flying close to shore. The trees in the area should be full of other great species like Caribbean Elaenia, Puerto Rican Flycatcher, Grey Kingbird, and the established exotic Venezuelan Troupial. When we arrived here, it was closed for some reason.
There is a Cabo Rojo Nature Center (GPS: 17.980237, -67.167445) where you can walk the trails south-west towards the salt flats. Park here: GPS: 17.937636, -67.194360 and walk down to the Light House (GPS: 17.933695, -67.192572).
You may drive up to El Combate beach in the town of El Combate (park here: GPS: 17.976244, -67.210746) and walk into the stand of mangroves.

Laguna Cartagena Refuge
Park here: GPS: 18.010334, -67.108899. Just North-East of Cabo Rojo and North-West of La Parguera. This area and the nearby rice fields are fantastic for waders (shorebirds) and waterbirds. The site mostly consists of a series of freshwater ponds and is usually teeming with waterbirds, including White-cheeked Pintails, Blue-winged Teals,  Ruddy Ducks, West Indian Whistling Duck, Masked Duck, Caribbean Coot, Moorhens, Sora, Glossy Ibises, Smooth-billed Ani, Black-necked Stilt, Purple Gallinules and Orange-cheeked Waxbill (originally from Africa). The grassy fields may hold Northern Red Bishop and Pin-tailed Whydah. We loved this place! When we walked the path in between the two ponds, we somehow flushed a Yellow-breasted Crake out of the reeds!

La Parguera.
Parguera is famous as the most reliable site for the endangered Yellow-shouldered Blackbird. At night, go out looking for the Puerto Rican Nightjar.
The best place to see the endangered endemic Yellow-shouldered Blackbird is at an incongruous hardware store a short drive/walk from the center of La Parguera town (GPS: 17.974238, -67.056345) where the owner used to feed the birds (and his chickens). We spoke to him, but he told us that he stopped feeding the birds in 2025 because it became too expensive for him.
The area along the waters’ edge is very good for al kinds of waders. We had clear views on Clapper Rails, just walking through the shallow water next to the road.

Guánica State Forest
Parking at GPS: 17.971554, -66.868703. Just 15 km east of La Parguera. From the parking you can walk a trail going east that is a 1.5 km long loop through dry forest terrain. One of the last intact coastal dry forests in the Caribbean with many endemics and dry-forest specialists. Trails are accessible and birding is different from El Yunque’s wet forest. This area is good for Adelaide's Warbler, Puerto Rican Vireo, Puerto Rican Flycatcher, Puerto Rican Tody, Key-West Quail-Dove, Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo, and Mangrove Cuckoo. At night, the endemic Puerto Rican Nightjar can be heard along Puerto Rico 333.
A lovely tour along the coast starts here (GPS: 17.956969, -66.906203) and follows route PR-333 east (at dusk nightjars call constantly from the hills) until the coastal road near Playa Tamarindo which can be interesting for coastal birds: GPS 17.953431, -66.846798. Look for White-tailed Tropicbirds 1km east (GPS: 17.950116, -66.838098).

Tamarindo Beach (Guánica)
We loved Playa Tamarindo; park at the end of the road (GPS: 17.953931, -66.849764) and enter the area by the wooden board walk and follow it until you reach the beach (GPS: 17.952936, -66.848605). Great birds here, like Stilt Sandpiper. If you are at the end of the paved road, pass the gate  and walk left into the scrub (GPS: 17.954132, -66.849222), you enter Adelaide’s Warbler habitat (we saw one!).

Las Mareas Salt Flats
Just west of Aguire NR: GPS: 17.962289, -66.260303. Good place for waders.

Jobos Bay Natural Reserve
Parking at the visitor center: GPS: 17.956428, -66.222832. There are a few trails here that take you into the estuary. Red-crowned Parrots can be found in the Aguirre community, but we didn’t see them.

Aguirre Forest Reserve
This is a coastal mangrove forest. It is possible to see here Antillean Crested Hummingbird and Green-throated Carib plus other nice species including Mangrove Cuckoo, Prairie and Adelaide’s Warblers, and Pearly-eyed Thrasher. Parking area and trailheads are on Road 7710 at KM 2.6 in Guayama (GPS: 17.939900, -66.172046. A hurricane destroyed most of the forest and mangroves but the shores have a lot of waders.

Comerío
To find the Plain Pigeon, the best place is up in the highlands of Comerío, at a baseball field in the village of Sabana (GPS: 18.222324, -66.201914). Scan the trees around the edge of the baseball field for this globally near-threatened pigeon. We never visited this place because it was out of our way.

Humacao Nature Preserve
Parking at: GPS: 18.150620, -65.771973. If you can enter the area from here, try to park the car near the beach (here: GPS: 18.151539, -65.764863) and walk south-west to the area. Just South of El Yunque. Great mix of mangrove, lagoon and coastal habitats — expect mangrove specialists, shorebirds, herons, egrets and seabirds. Look here for both Green-throated Carib and Antillean Crested Hummingbird which are mostly restricted to the eastern areas of the island. Unfortunately, they have become scarcer due to recent hurricanes that have swept through Puerto Rico. In addition to the hummers, be on the lookout for other great species including White-cheeked Pintail, Puerto Rican Flycatcher, and Mangrove Cuckoo.

El Yunque National Forest
The only tropical forest in the US! In the East of the Island. There is a El Yunque National Forest Visitor Center on the north side of the rainforest (GPS: 18.339533, -65.761018) with nearby trails. The area around the new (built in 2021?) visitor center is very good for birds and superb for forest endemics (Puerto Rican Tody, Puerto Rican Woodpecker, Puerto Rican Vireo, Elfin-woods Warbler) and good trails (La Coca, Big Tree/El Portal, Mount Britton). You pay an entrance fee of USD 8 to enter the visitor center and the forest.
There is basically one main road that leads into the forest: PR-191. Halfway it has been blocked by fallen trees etc. and it is no longer possible to drive all the way from north to south (or back). Drive up route PR-191 and stop at each recreational area to look for birds. A nice trail is to Mount Britton (park here: GPS: 18.298790, -65.791114). You will pass “Elfin Forest", an area of stunted trees that is home to the endemic Elfin Woods Warbler.

Corredor Ecológico del Noreste
Entrance: GPS: 18.355611, -65.698238. Corredor Ecologico del Noreste is a protected near-coastal Nature Reserve with a forest, wetlands and beaches. A lovely place worth checking out.

San Juan Botanical Garden
A lovely botanical garden where we found our only White-crowned Pigeons and White-winged parakeets of the trip! They were abundant here!