The Cockpit Country, which is located in Trelawny, has been in the news in recent weeks. Our Habitat will this week share with you a number of interesting facts about this area of Jamaica that is thought to be most rich in biological diversity.

WITH “a dramatic topography of rounded peaks and steep-sided, bowl-shaped depressions”, the Cockpit Country got its name courtesy of its resemblance to cockfighting pits.

This, according to information from the Nature Conservancy website (ttp://www.nature.org).

The depressions serve to filter rain water through porous bedrock and sinkholes that are connected to a complex, subterranean network of caves.

Fed by groundwater springs and seeps, the area is the source of the Great, Black and Martha Brae rivers, which emerge from limestone as large coastal rivers. This is almost two-thirds of Jamaica’s freshwater supply. These watersheds support tourism that drives the economy of the island’s north coast.

Where is it exactly?

Located in northwestern Jamaica near Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, the Cockpit country is approximately 130 miles or 209 kilometres from Kingston.

Its biodiversity?

It is home to 27 of Jamaica’s 289 endemic bird species and the giant swallowtail butterfly – the largest butterfly in the Americas. Jamaica’s endemics include 828 flowering plants, 505 land snails, 21 amphibians and 34 reptiles, and 20 butterflies. Some of these – including two amphibians and two reptiles and 65 plants – may only be found inside the Cockpit Country.

Up to 95 per cent of the world’s black-billed parrots live in the area, which is also home to the endangered Jamaican Blackbird. This bird forages mostly on bromeliads-epiphytic plants growing on the branches of trees.

(Jamaica Environment Trust)

What else is there?

Several of the region’s 300 caves, such as Windsor Great Cave and Marta Tick Cave, are notable for the size and diversity of their bat caves.

Some caves support colonies of more than 50,000 bats. Three species of bats, including the at-risk Jamaican flower bat, are endemic to Jamaica.

Cockpit Country bats that don’t roost in caves include the hairy-tailed bat, the only bat species in which twins are common, and the Jamaican fig-eating bat, both found only in Jamaica.

(The Nature Conservancy: ttp://www.nature.org/wherewework/caribbean/jamaica/work/art8666.html)

More next week.

We continue this week with our look at two more of the birds that may be found at Yallahs Pond in St Thomas.

The Least Sandpiper (calidris minutilla)

A very small shorebird, the Least Sandpiper is some 4.75 inches in length and has a short, thin, dark bill that is slightly curved. Its legs are yellow and it has a thin white wing stripe. The black line on its rump extends onto the tail.

Its wing span is between 27 and 28 centimetres and it weighs between 19-30 grams or 0.67-1.06 ounces.

It lays up to four eggs, whose length of incubation is between 19 and 23 days. It sustains itself on a diet of aquatic invertebrates, that is, animals without backbones such as worms, snails and insects.

Known as Bécasseau Minuscule (French) and Correlimos Menudo, Minutilla blanca, Playero (Spanish), the Least Sandpiper is the smallest shorebird in the world.

Although it is a relatively numerous shorebird, the Least Sandpiper tends to occur in flocks of dozens or hundreds, rather than thousands like some other sandpipers. It also tends to forage at the upper edge of mudflats or along drier margins of inland ponds than other related small sandpipers.

(www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst and www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Least_Sandpiper.html)

The Black-bellied Plover (pluvialis squatarola)

The Black-bellied Plover is a medium-sized to large shorebird with black upperparts that are vividly marked with a white spot on each feather. Its face, throat and belly are black, as are its armpits.

Its legs are moderately long while its neck and bill are short. While in flight, its armpit, white rump, vent and wing stripe are visible. Its wing span is between 59 and 60 cm or between 23 and 24 inches. It weighs between 160 and 277 grams or between 5.65 and 9.78 ounces.

It is wary and quick to give alarm calls, operating worldwide as a sentinel for mixed groups of shorebirds. These are qualities that have allowed it to resist market hunters, even as it has managed to remain common when populations of other species of similar size were devastated.

Also known as Pluvier Argenté (French), Chorlito Gris (Spanish) and the Grey Plover (British), the Black-bellied Plover is thought to be more sensitive to disturbance than many other birds because it is especially wary, flushing from the nest or feeding and roosing sites when potential predators are still far away. Nevertheless, no evidence exists for desertion of the nest or roost sites because of disturbance.

(identify.whatbird.com and www.birds.cornell.edu/ AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Black-bellied_Plover.html)