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Wildlife Safaris in Great Inagua
The southernmost and third-largest island of the Bahamas, a flat, remote outpost of salt flats and brackish lakes near Cuba and Haiti. Its Inagua National Park protects the largest breeding colony of West Indian flamingos in the world, some 70,000 birds, and the island is the country's birdwatching capital.
Why here
Great Inagua holds the largest breeding colony of West Indian flamingos on the planet, around 70,000 birds, and seeing them rise in a pink cloud off the salt flats is one of the great wildlife spectacles of the Caribbean. The American, or West Indian, flamingo is the national bird of the Bahamas, and on Inagua it has come back from the edge of extinction to fill the shallow brine lakes of Inagua National Park, a 287-square-mile reserve of salt pans and mangrove that the Bahamas National Trust has protected since 1965. The birds feed on brine shrimp in lakes such as Lake Rosa, wading in their thousands, while the same wetlands hold roseate spoonbills, herons, egrets, pelicans, the endemic Inagua woodstar hummingbird and a wild population of Bahama parrots. Recognised as an Important Bird Area and a Ramsar wetland of international importance, Inagua is a birder's pilgrimage, reached only by the determined, and guided by the park wardens who have watched over the flamingos for generations.
Best months
Flamingos are present all year, but the spectacle is greatest around the spring breeding season, roughly March to June, when the birds gather in dense colonies. The park is a hot, dry expanse of salt flats and shallow lakes with little shade, so visits are made in the cooler parts of the day, and the interior lakes are reached on rough tracks. Access is arranged through the Bahamas National Trust warden and local guides, who know where the flocks are; independent driving into the park is not the way to see the birds well. Bring sun protection, water and binoculars.
Getting there & around
Great Inagua is one of the hardest Bahamian islands to reach, served by a few flights a week from Nassau to Matthew Town and by the mail boat, with very limited lodging, so trips are planned around flight days and booked well ahead. Inagua National Park lies inland from Matthew Town, and the flamingo lakes are seen with a Bahamas National Trust warden or a local guide who arranges vehicle access and knows the colonies. Come self-sufficient, as services on the island are minimal.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Bahamas National Trust
ClubThe Bahamas National Trust, created by Act of Parliament in 1959, is the non-governmental body that manages the country's national parks, including Inagua National Park, established in 1965 to protect the world's largest breeding colony of West Indian flamingos. On Great Inagua its wardens patrol the salt-flat lakes and arrange guided access to the flamingo colonies, a role the Trust has held since the first flamingo warden was posted here in 1952.