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One
of two females at Red Hook, St. Thomas, 26 March 2003. Photo © by Floyd
Hayes. First confirmed record for St. Thomas. In late February or early
March 2003, Amanda Hall reported seeing a male and a female at Red
Hook, where Floyd Hayes observed a female on 24 March.This species was
considered an endemic of the Lesser Antilles until 1971, when small
populations were discovered in southeastern St. John and on nearby
Norman and Peter Islands (Raffaele, H. A., and D. Roby. 1977. The
Lesser Antillean Bullfinch in the Virgin Islands. Wilson Bulletin 89:338-342). Because the populations were established in rural areas
away from human population centers and a specimen collected was
diagnosed as L. n. ridgwayi,
the subspecies occurring in the northern Lesser Antilles, Raffaele and
Roby (1977) suggested that the birds may have been transported
naturally to the Virgin Islands by Hurricane Donna in 1960 or Hurricane
Faith in 1966. Its range in St, John expanded rapidly, reaching the
west coast by 1978 and the north coast by 1979. Although breeding
has been reported in St. Croix, it has yet to colonize that island (D.
B. McNair, pers. comm.) or St. Thomas (two previous sight records by
Mario Francis, pers. comm.).
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