Birds
Birds can be year-round residents, winter visitors, spring and summer drop ins. Among the locals are frigates (called man-o-war), pelicans, the brown booby, banana quite (or yellow bird), brilliant parakeets, the mockingbird, ground doves, the mangrove cuckoo, the sparrow hawk. Blue-winged teal ducks spend the winter. So do ospreys, the kingfisher, the spotted sandpiper and warblers. Spring and summer bring laughing gulls, plovers, terns and barn swallow.

Flowers
Flora commonly found in gardens and along the roadsides can include brilliant hibiscus, all shades of bougainvillea, white and pink oleander, waxy frangipani, summer blooming flamboyant, Christmastime poinsettia, fragrant jasmine, wild and cultivated orchids. Plant life varies from lush tropical foliage to arid island cactus and acacia scrub. Periwinkles, bird of paradise, ixora, plumbago, cup of gold and dozens of other flowering plants and bushes lend their colors to the landscape. Sea grapes and palms spread themselves along beaches, mangrove trees edge the lagoon.

Tropical Fruits
Some say the summer mangoes taste like apricots spiked with a pinch of pineapple and banana, two fruits that are always in abundance. Among the other fruits and flavors you may have a chance to try, either seasonal or all year long – the genip, soursop, mammee apple, plantain, guava and passion fruit.

Sea Gardens
Sea gardens thrive in the protected reef waters off our beaches and shores. There are huge brain corals, sea fans, solitary five-pointed sea stars, sea urchins resting lightly on the sandy bottom, forests of antler coral with branched bending in the current. Hundreds of tropical fish live here too. Sometimes in schools, sometimes darting alone, they bear the names like parrot, sergeant major, jewel and angel. They are brilliantly striped or dotted in yellow, blue, scarlet or green – shimmering shafts doing a ballet all their own.

Bushes & Plants
Catch-n-keep is the thorny vine that sticks to everything. The trunk of the tree called monkey-don’t-climb bristles with thorns. Jump-up-and-kiss-me is a beguiling scarlet blossom. The sensitive plant closes its leaves at the slightest touch. Others are the nothing-nut because it is good for nothing; pink-shower, crown-of-thorns, jumbi cutlass, clashie melashie, eye-bright and cock-a-locka.