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Bermuda's Fauna

Animals, birds, fish, insects, marine life, reefs, endemic and naturalized

By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online

To refer by e-mail to this file use "bermuda-online.org/fauna" as your Subject

Advance information on Bermuda - from our files exclusively.

Animals on land

Of more than 1600 resident terrestrial plants and animal species, only 27% are native.

Bermuda's new Protected Species Act 2003 became law on 1st March 2004. Endemic animals are shown below by name and description. Except for Birds, no prior legislation existed. The new act calls for a proactive approach to the protection of local species threatened with extinction, and their habitats. 

Bermuda does not have alligators, badgers, buffalo, chipmunks, crocodiles, deer, ferrets, giraffes, hedgehogs, lions, moles, mongooses, moose, raccoons, skunks, snakes, squirrels, stoats, tigers, weasels or zebras. A recent attempt to bring in skunks for domestic purposes was defeated.

Animals are mostly imported originally or more recently, but a few are endemic or native. All the following were imported originally, except those shown otherwise

• butterflies
• caterpillars
• cats (domestic and feral) 
• cattle (bulls, cows, calves)
• chickens (including wild chickens galore)
• crabs in beach areas
• dogs (all must be leashed by law but this is often ignored),
• donkeys
• dragonflies
• honeybees - used for domestic honey production 
• horses, the latter mostly for show or recreation or limited agricultural purposes
• ladybugs
• lizards
• rabbits, domestic and wild (once domesticated but let free by persons leaving Bermuda). 
• mules
• pigs, all imported or issue of once-imported stock. No trace left of the original wild pig or hog (see Hog Money), brought from Spain in the mid 1500s and left ashore as a future food resource for later visits by Spanish mariners).
• sheep
• spiders  - Golden Silk (Nephila claripes, native) and other types including those with long legs, plus at least one Black Widow confirmed in November 2001)
• snails, edible and inedible, include Otala lactea ( from Southern Europe via New York) and (Euglandina rosea, naturalized) 
• terrapins - former pet turtles abandoned by their owners.
• toads. Bufo marinus, introduced, sometimes wrongly called Surinam toads or road toads or giant toads, were originally imported from British Guinea (now Guyana) in 1875 to control cockroaches. They were once very common locally, especially around marshy areas and central parishes and after a good rain but are rarely seen now. They do not spit and will not cause warts if touched. Beneficial but feared. So many have been killed they are in danger of extinction. More than 20 percent now are mutants - deformed, emaciated or dying. Something is affecting them.

Nuisance bugs are numerous. Screens used properly in most tourist properties help provide some protection against the nuisance bugs, so long as they are secured at night to help deter thieves. List includes:

• Argentine ants (Irodomyrmex humilus)
• centipedes. Not common. But known to inhabit some eastern parishes. Huge. A bite can be painful and prolonged. Have no qualms about entering homes and guest units. They could cause serious problems. The best-known deterrent is having toads nearby, especially females (ones with dark blotches on their backs).
• cockroaches - easily as large as the Texas variety, that fly and can get into the most impeccably maintained properties 
• fleas
• flies (different types)
• garden pests, such as aphids, mealy bugs on crotons; black spot on roses and hemispheric scale on hibiscus
• grasshoppers
• mice
• mites
• mosquitoes  (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus - including those potentially liable to catch West Nile Virus) and which caused outbreaks of dengue fever in Bermuda in the 1940s. But they are not sprayed for fear of what the spray or fogging could do to harm drinking water and roof catchments. 
• moths (150 species)
• pill bug "roly-poly" (Armadillidium vulgare from Europe)
• rat (Rattus rattus), first arrived in 1614 in a cargo of grain), first reported accidental introduction, many appear in gardens and parks)
• sand flies
• ticks 
• wasps ( three species, including the so-called "red bee"  - polistes sp. fuscatus - which can inflict a painful sting, not once but many times)

Bermuda Ant 

Odontomachus insularis. An indigenous ant long thought extinct until re-discovered living in July 2002 by local college student Alex Lines, a Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo intern. 

Bermuda Land Snail

Poecilozonties circumfirmatus. An indigenous snail long thought extinct until re-discovered living in July 2002 by local college student Alex Lines, a Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo intern. In the 1970s, Harvard paleontology professor Stephen Jay Gould found one and wrote "An Evolutionary Microcosm: Pleistocene and Recent History of the Land Snail Poecilozonites in Bermuda. At one time years ago, they could be picked up by the bucketful to be ground up and burnt for lime and mortar.

Bermuda Rock Lizard (Skink) and similar

Eumeces longirostris. It is Bermuda's only endemic, non-flying, non-swimming terrestrial vertebrate. It was described as endemic  and unique to Bermuda in 1860 by P. H. Pope, the Smithsonian herpetologist. Its fossil bones, dating back 300,000 years or more, have been found in local limestone caves. Now quite rare in most parishes, largely restricted to pockets of coast and isolated islands. An adult can grow up to seven inches long. It is a protected endangered species. It is quite different to those imported from the Caribbean.

The Caribbean species now naturalized and common here are the 

• Antiguan anole, Anolis roquet, introduced about 1940. Sometimes referred to as the Somerset Lizard.
• Barbados anole, Anolis leachii, introduced about 1940, sometimes referred to as the Warwick Lizard, up to 14 inches long and with a yellow-gold eye ring.
• Jamaican Anole (Anolis grahami), introduced in 1905, which changes color rapidly from blackish brown to green and blue.

Bermuda spiders This type is commonly seen and apprehensive to many people.  It has long legs and huge sac, but is harmless.  Other spiders include colorful ones with tiny shell-like backs. They are also harmless.

Bulletin of Marine Science. Bermuda Natural History Museum. The issue prior to July 14, 2000 had an inventory by Dr. Wolfgang Sterrer on the number of species (at least 8,299) of flora and fauna in Bermuda, of which 4,597 are marine and 3,702 are terrestrial.

Butterflies

Several species - Bermuda Buckeye (Junonia coenia bergi, endemic); Cabbage (Pieris rapae); Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae); Gulf fritallary (Agraulis vanillae); Monarch (Danaus plexipus).

Whistling frogs (tree frogs)

Two species, Eleutherodactylus johnstonei and Eleutherodactylus gossei (first is shown in 1979 Bermuda Postage Stamp graphic here) sing loudly at night. They are one of the most characteristic night sounds of Bermuda between April and November. They are not indigenous - both were introduced accidentally sometime prior to 1880, most likely on orchids imported from the Lesser Antilles. They are so small they can sit on a thumbnail. They have tiny suction discs on long, slender toes. They can be heard island-wide when the weather is warm enough but are most common in the Parishes of Devonshire, Paget, Pembroke and Warwick. Their song is the sound of males trying to attract females. The first of the two is more common and smaller. The other has almost disappeared. Both are brownish, nocturnal, living in trees near the ground and by day hiding under stones and leaf litter. Many visitors are not used to the whistling song, a loud bell-like chorus, of these tiny and harmless creatures. Some visitors say it disturbs their sleep but others love it because it adds a unique sound to the atmosphere. Some newly-weds say it keeps them awake and explains their sleepy eyes the next morning. Whistling frogs do not require standing water for breeding but pass through their tadpole stage within the egg itself. Clusters of eggs are laid in damp situations among rotting vegetation or under stones.

Tree frog captured by digital camera. Photo kindly lent by Bertram Forbes

Species now extinct

• The Bermuda cicada (Tibicen bermudiana), a big, black, noisy, buzzing beetle called a singer because of its distinctive buzzing - almost completely disappeared, first after the blight of cedar trees in the 1940s and 1950s and also because the Kiskadee Flycatcher (see below) fancied cicadas as food. The cicada is featured on a 1990 Bermuda collector's coin.
• Flightless crane.
• Flightless duck.
• Hawk.
• Fresh water limpets
• Once, there were 16 species of skink living on different Bermuda islands.
• Several species of rails.
• Endemic land snails.
• Native ground nesting birds.
• Two species of nesting sea turtles. 

Birds

Extract from a Bermuda Post Office "Bermuda Wildlife Definitive Part 1" series of 1978

Afforded a certain amount of protection under Bermuda's Protection of Birds Act 1975, but the legislation does not address issues such as protection of nesting habitat or any program to promote the success of the species.

Overall, only 23 birds breed in Bermuda, but there are over 200 different types of migrant birds that visit every year.

American coot  

Fulica americana, common. 

Bermuda longtail  

Phaethon lepturus catesbyi. Graphic to the left from a 1978 Bermuda Postage Stamp. Yellow billed, white-tailed tropic bird, not indigenous but native. It is a national symbol and many souvenirs and pieces of jewelry are made with its image, some locally in gold and silver. The white-tailed tropic bird - or longtail as Bermudians know it - is Bermuda’s traditional harbinger of spring and one of the most beautiful features of our coastline during the summer months. Nesting from April to October in holes and crevices of the coastal cliffs arid islands - mostly in the Castle Harbour islands -  where it is safer from human disturbance and introduced mammal predators, it is the only native seabird to have survived in numbers comparable to its primeval abundance on Bermuda. Once, up to about 1978, at least 3,000 nesting pairs used to breed along most of the coastline but the numbers have declined steadily due to coastline development, increased disturbance from an expanding population, and predation by illegally-stray stray dogs, cats, crows and oil pollution at sea. Also, they compete compete with pigeons for nests. Other factors include global warming and its higher sea levels that flood lower nest sites. Hurricanes Felix and Adrian in September 2004 destroyed many nests and filled others with rock.

There is a longtail housing crisis. To try to solve the problem of weather, nature and global warming, longtail igloos were invented in 1997 as an emergency measure to provide alternative nesting sites. They are made of SKB roofing material and provide good insulation and shelter from the sun. They are light but strong with a concrete covering that provides camouflage and holds the nest in place. 35 longtail igloos are now in place on Nonsuch Island and seem to be working well.

Longtails have such small feet that they are unable to walk on land and hence do all their nest searching on the wing. It is this constant searching back and forth along the cliffs, combined with their aerial courtship display, which involves touching the tips of the long tail feathers together in paired flight, that makes them so conspicuous on our coastline. The single purplish-red speckled egg is laid in April and hatches in late May. The chick takes approximately 65 days to fledge and departs to sea on its own in late July or early August.

Longtails do all of their feeding far out on the open ocean where they plunge from a height  onto unsuspecting fish and squid like a gannet. During the winter months, the population disperses throughout the Sargasso Sea and remains out of sight of land. Evidently, the birds sleep on the wing or on the water if it is calm.

Cahow (Bermuda Petrel) 

Pterodroma cahow. Graphic to the left from a 1978 Bermuda Postage Stamp. A native, it was once prolific but consumed with gusto by early colonists. It was considered extinct until quite recently. It is rare and protected. It is believed to have been in Bermuda for 300,000 years. Heard only during the winter months, the cahow earned its Christmas bird name from mariners who became involuntary early temporary colonists after their ships going elsewhere were damaged on the reefs. It is said that they were so frightened by the nocturnal cries of this once abundant bird that they referred to Bermuda as the Isles of Devils. When the first settlers arrived in 1609 and 1612, it is believed there were half a million cahows. They were so easy to catch and eat they were hunted to what was thought to be extinction.  In 1951, Dr. Cushman Murphy of the USA finally arrived in Bermuda from a museum in New York City, after having been pestered for years by Samuel Ristich to do so. Ristich had served in Bermuda with the US Army Air Corps and had found a cahow. When Murphy came down, he found five living cahows, believed to have been extinct since 1650. As a direct result of Murphy's visit and unique find, Dr. David Wingate started his breeding program for cahows on Nonsuch Island shortly afterwards. Dr. David Wingate discovered 16 pairs still living on Nonsuch Island in the 1950s. In 2002, more than 65 breeding pairs were identified. They fly over the sea but return to Bermuda to begin courtship activities in late October. They mate for life and produce only one egg each year. The female lays a single white egg in January and in early March a chick covered in dense grey down emerges. Young chicks leave Bermuda in late May or early June and spend their first eight years of life on the open ocean before returning as adults to breed. Like most petrels, cahows are nocturnal and land only to breed. They nest in a soil burrow the bird excavates.  

Catbird

Once common.

Kiskadee Flycatcher 

Pitangus sulphuratus. Noisy, aggressive, yellow breasted and striped headed shown in right graphic, known in American books on birds as the Great Kiskadee. It has contributed to serious declines of the native species chick-of-the-village, Northern cardinal and catbird. It is a very large, big-headed flycatcher, near size of a Belted Kingfisher, somewhat like that bird in actions, even catching small fish. It has rufous wings and tail. The bright yellow under parts and crown patch and strikingly patterned black and white face identify it. The local variety were imported from Trinidad in 1957 as worker-birds in hope they would be beneficial. Their hoped-for function was to control - by consumption - the Anolis lizards which had incurred a bad reputation from their diet of ladybirds. But they did nothing to control the lizards. They are now among the most common birds in Trinidad. They are also natives of southern Texas and Louisiana, south to Argentina and residents of the lower Rio Grande Valley. They very rarely stray north to Arizona from western Mexico. Its bright pattern is unique in North America.

It is omnivorous. It feeds mostly on large insects, such as beetles, wasps, grasshoppers, bees, and moths; but also eats lizards, mice, baby birds, frogs, tadpoles, and small fish, many berries, small fruits and some seeds. It forages in various ways, often going from its perch flies out from its perch to catch flying insects in the air. It will perch on branch low over water and plunge into water for fish, tadpoles, or insects. It often eats berries in trees and shrubs.

Both female and male mates actively defend nesting territory against intruders of their own species and are quick to mob any predators that venture too close. The nesting site is usually among dense branches of a tree or large shrub, 6-50' above the ground, usually 10-20' up. The nest is a large bulky structure, more or less round, with the entrance on the side. Nest is built of grass, weeds, strips of bark, Spanish moss, and other plant fibers, and lined with grass. The female usually lays 4 eggs, sometimes 2-5. They are creamy white, dotted with dark brown and lavender. Both adults help to feed the young in the nest. 

Without knowing it beforehand, with the kiskadees Bermuda allowed in a veritable bird gang of terrorists. Those 200 original yellow-breasted kiskadees have become the prolific and noisy Mafioso of Bermuda's bird lands, trees, shrubs and telephone wires - and a major threat to the lives, feeding and nesting habits of Bermuda's beautiful bluebirds and other birds as well as to soft-skinned local fruit, crabs, fish and other choice edibles. Also, they were the major reason for the extinction of the endemic Cicada (known locally as Singers) by the late 1990s.

Egret

Comes frequently and some of the species are naturalized. 

English house sparrow  

Plain brown, common. Introduced in 1870.

Eastern bluebird  

Sialia sialis. Native. Once very common, it nested in hollows of cedar trees, on coastal cliffs and even under eaves of houses.  As a cavity nester, it became especially vulnerable to nest site competition from the English house sparrow.  With the Bermuda cedar spoilage in the 1950s and its repercussions, the population declined by more than 80%.  An artificial wooden nest book program was introduced which has had limited success.

Flamingos 

Not native, can be seen at the Bermuda Aquarium.

Heron

Yellow crowned night herons (Nyctanassa violacea), once brought in to keep down the land crab population, were re-established from 46 birds imported from Florida in the 1970s. They are now native.

Mourning dove 

Zenaida macroura,  common.

Northern cardinal 

Cardinalis cardinalis. Graphic from a 1978 Bermuda Postage Stamp.  Bermudians know it as Redbird. First introduced to Bermuda from Virginia in about 1700 as a cage bird, but once released became such a farm pest that bounties were offered for its capture.  It became so abundant that during the 19th century many thousands locally were trapped for resale abroad as cage birds. Not all that common today, despite being officially protected.  A favorite for many, it has bright red plumage and a loud cheery song. Likes bird feeders and has a preference for sunflower seeds.

Pied-billed grebe 

Podilymisus podiceyps. Common.

Starling

Introduced in the 1950s. An invasive which feeds on the fruits of the hugely invasive Indian Laurel tree and spreads even more invasive seeds throughout Bermuda.

White-eyed virio 

Vireo griseus bermudianus. Known to Bermudians as Chick of the Village in imitation of its cheery song which is sung throughout the year.  It is an endemic sub-species characterized by shorter wings and duller plumage compared to its American first cousin.  An insect-eating bird of the forest canopy, it was originally associated with Bermuda’s once-large, long-gone cedar and palmetto forest.  The almost total destruction of the  Bermuda cedar tree in the 1940s and 1950s by accidentally introduced insect pests nearly caused its extinction, but it has recovered.

Fish, marine life,  reefs, sea creatures

There are many, all similar to what are found off Florida and in the Caribbean, but none are indigenous to Bermuda.

In the ocean, stinging jellyfish (Portuguese Man of War) are present on the ocean or a beach at certain times of year and should be avoided like the plague. So should the beautiful but potentially deadly and poisonous fish, the lionfish. It found its way to Bermuda from the Pacific in 2001 and was reported in a local newspaper on December 28, 2001 when one was caught off a local beach. It is about 12 inches long and was introduced to the Atlantic. There  have been several sightings on Bermuda beaches. There are lots of different species. If you get one in your swim suit, you will be stung badly.

Also in the ocean, sharks are in the area but usually stay beyond - not inside - the reefs. Unlike in Britain, they are not protected. When caught locally, their liver often becomes shark oil in home-made barometers.

Commercially usable sponges were once common in in the waters of Harrington Sound but have died out completely. Bermuda is a sanctuary for whales - humpback, blue, northern - and dolphins in its 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone under the Fisheries (Protected Species) Order of the Fisheries Act. 

Bermuda Great Land Crab  A rare species. The female can be nearly a foot long in width.  One this size was caught in October 2001. It is quite common along the upper slope of  South Shore beaches, but most are smaller.  It makes holes in the sand. Oddly, it is not usually eaten, unlike crabs overseas.

Bermuda Fireworm  

Odonto syllis enopla, (a glow worm) is scarce, can shine several time a year, including in August, especially at Ferry Reach. It produces a fine light display in shallow sandy waters. It is at its best on the third night after the full moon and 50 to 63 minutes after sunset.

Bermuda sea shells

The largest and most complete collection of Bermuda shells to be found anywhere in the world was donated in October 2001 to the Natural History Museum at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo. They were collected by retired banker Jack Lightbourn and his late colleague and friend Arthur Guest since 1965. There are about 7,700 species in all in the collection, with several endemic. 

Calico clams

Not to be confused with scallops - are now being reared in Harrington Sound lake in central Bermuda, in a Bermuda Government project. French scientist Dr. Samia Sarkis was a leader of the project in April and May 2000 with the Bermuda Biological Station for Research. But the clams have been a protected species since 1978 and are not allowed to be eaten or harvested. They are under the sand.

Calico scallops  

(Zigzag scallops, of the type featured on a recent 45 cent Bermuda stamp) are also being reared in Harrington Sound lake, in a Bermuda Government project. French scientist Dr. Samia Sarkis was a leader of the project in April and May 2000 with the Bermuda Biological Station for Research. They are also a protected species since 1978 but because they are now quite prolific when found on the sand, are allowed to be eaten or harvested, not by anyone but if they are eaten as a delicacy at a particular restaurant at the Elbow Beach Hotel, or - from December 2001 - bought at the Miles grocery store.

Conchs 

Residents and visitors should note that under the Fisheries (Protected Species) Order 1978, the Queen Conch (Strombus Gigas) and the Harbour Conch (Strombus Costatus) are illegal to import, an offence to purchase and possess and illegal to obtain and take from Bermuda waters.

Killifish  

Fundulous bermudae, a precious endemic, found in a special tank at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo - about 2.5 inches long, with a low dorsal fin, light brown to pale greenish yellow, darker on the ventral surface, with dark, indistinct greenish-brown bands on the sides. Still largely unknown to the general public. First described in 1874 by Gunther. Male and female have slightly different coloring. First illustrated in Beebe and Tee-Van's 1933 "Field Book of Shore Fishes of Bermuda. " A favorite place is a fresh to brackish water pond, especially when fringed with mangroves.  A known place is Warwick pond but attempts to catch to place in the recently created pond at Paget Marsh have been unsuccessful to date.

Lobsters

Really crayfish. Not indigenous. Very expensive. Biggest ever caught in Bermuda was in 1932, with a weight of 16 lbs. Second biggest was in 1983 of 15 lbs and with an arm span of five feet eight and a half inches. It is against the law to catch any from April 1 to August 31 each year and at other times only by residents specifically licensed to do so.

Reefs

While coral reefs are common elsewhere, Bermuda is one of the northernmost areas in the Western Hemisphere. (But by no means the northernmost place in the world for coral reefs, as is commonly but mistakenly claimed, as there are cold-water and other coral reefs on the coastlines of Spain and Portugal throughout the northeast Atlantic, stretching north in the Irish sea, then due north, northwest and northeast all the way up to Norway). 

Cold-water corals form a rich habitat for deep-water species hunted by fishing trawlers mostly from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, France and Norway. Coral reefs alone cover an area twice the length of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. 

Only in all the islands of Bermuda, the islands of the Bahamas including Harbour Island and at least five places in Scotland is the sand pink, but not because of the warm water corals. It is untrue to say that Bermuda's beaches have coarser sand. In fact, the sand in Bermuda is exceptionally fine. Bermuda's coral reefs, from where the forams come, are in better condition than many Bahamas reefs. Many Caribbean reefs have the disease known as YBD. By comparison, there has been only one recorded case of YBD in Bermuda recently. Local coral diseases are mostly BBD, less infected, the majority of them brain corals.

Corals are the critical organisms in coral reefs formation because their calcium carbonate (limestone) skeletons create the framework of reefs that build up over thousands of years into a massive structure that supports the living corals and a great variety of other plant and animal life. 

 The coral Skolymia cubensis, not recorded until the 1970s, is now relatively common. 

Corals thrive in areas where strong wave action aerates the water, increasing the supply of food and oxygen. Waves also prevent silt from accumulating and suffocating the coral.

• Cup reefs, or boilers - so -called as large waves boil over them.
• Fringing reefs. They are parallel to the coast in 1-3 metres (3-9 feet) of water.
• Inshore reefs. 
• Lagoonal reefs. Found in lagoons and sounds such as Three Hill Shoals and in Castle Harbour.
• Linear mini atolls and faro reefs form a ring-shaped structure.
• Platform Margin reefs. Found in really deep water surrounding the outer edge of the Bermuda Platform.
• Rim reefs encircle the North Lagoon, in waters quite shallow and clear.

Reef types

• Fringing reefs. Where platforms are continuous with the shore, separated from land by shallow water.
• Barrier reefs. Further offshore, separated from land by wide, deep (more than 10 meters or 30 feet) water.
• Atolls. A ring-shaped reef found far offshore surrounding a lagoon.

Seagrasses

Very important to the marine ecosystem. They link mangrove communities to coral reefs. The four species in Bermuda are Thalassia testudinum (turtle grass);  Syringodium (manatee grass); Halodule wrightii (shoal grass, common) and Halophila decipiens (rare).

Seahorses

Three species have been recorded in Bermuda, Hippocampus reidi; Hippocampus erectus; and Hippocampus zosterae. Not endemic, now endangered or vulnerable, on the World Conservation Red List of Threatened Animals.

Shrimp

In endangered caves, including

• Golden Coral. Stenopus scutellatus. Rare in Bermuda waters but seen by Chris Flook in 2003.
• Antecaridina lauensis. 

Only three of the seven known species in Bermuda have been traced recently.

Starfish  

Copidaster lymani, are now native.